*LEGAL EXPLANATION (rf The Remedy, page 50.)

The law allows that all documents (and recordings of conversations) that are generated with a view to taking legal action, are privileged, that is, unlike all other relevant documents pertaining to a matter in issue, they can be withheld from the evidence. Case-students who wish to retrace the exact steps taken by the Trial and Appeal Courts should therefore now proceed straight to the next item in the original files. - A. M.

Malcolm: Oh hello Nicola, this is Andrew Malcolm.

Bion: Hello.

Malcolm: Hello. How you?

Bion: Fine thanks. I'm sorry I wasn't... You phoned yesterday I gather.

Malcolm: I did, yes.

Bion: Right. Erm, Alan Ryan still has the typescript.

Malcolm: Oh, so it's Alan reading it again?

Bion: Yes.

Malcolm: Oh good, yes...

Bion: And, erm, he has been on holiday and I think he was going to take it with him.

Malcolm: Ah.

Bion: He said he would do it as soon as possible, but I have not yet heard I'm afraid.

Malcolm: I see. So no news is no news?

Bion: That's right.

Malcolm: Well it is interesting, it is nice in a way... I'm quite happy that it has gone back to Alan Ryan, because he seemed to have grasped quite a bit about it before, and he will appreciate the changes.

Bion: Yes, and he is certainly sympathetic to the idea.

Malcolm: Yes. Is it just one person reading it then?

Bion: Well I am hoping to send it to someone else, but I want to wait to hear from Alan first.

Malcolm: Yes.

Bion: We may not have to, but...

Malcolm: Implying that if there is a good report from Alan, then you will be able to go ahead?

Bion: If he felt that it would be clear sailing from here on, then obviously we would not waste time.

Malcolm: Oh good. Well, just one further thing to say then if you would, if you could pass this on to him.

Bion: Yes.

Malcolm: I mean, I don't quite know where he is in it obviously, any more than you do, but I have been away and I haven't really done anything very much but I did it take with me, I sort of carry it around permanently with me in my head, the final chapter...

Bion: The play.

Malcolm: That could be worked on for ever... And I have had quite a few good ideas and I have done quite a bit more writing, in particular the end of the prologue to the play, the prologue within the play, which I have put into verse, I think fairly successfully. And there are several new things, twists in it, and the climax, in which the first of the lines that the characters speak doesn't quite match the power of the idea at the moment. It is all in the stage directions, but I have beefed up that ending, I think quite successfully as well.

Bion: Is that at a stage where it would be worth your sending it to me?

Malcolm: No, not really.

Bion: I will just let him know that you have reworked it.

Malcolm: Yes, that's right.

Bion: Yup.

Malcolm: I have said on the original thing that I would want another month with this anyway, altogether, so there is no point in actually writing anything until I have got it back and until I have got the go-ahead I think.

Bion: Okay, well let's just hope that it won't be too much longer. I will let you know as soon as I hear.

Malcolm: Okay. You don't know where he has gone on holiday?

Bion: No. Nor for how long. But I imagine he will probably be back this week, by Monday anyway.

Malcolm: I see. Right, okay.

Bion: Okay. Thanks for phoning. Bye.

Malcolm: Okay. Cheers.

Go to the next item, or the previous item or to the next privileged conversation in the Evidence (red) file.

Go to Malcolm's Statement of Claim, to the Case History, to the Affidavits: Ivon Asquith (1), Asquith (2), Henry Hardy, William Shaw (solicitor) (1), Sir Roger Elliott (1), Margaret Goodall, to the Witness Statements: Elliott, Hardy, Richard Charkin, Nicola Bion, Goodall, to the courtroom testimony of the Oxford Six, 14/3/1990: Elliott, Goodall, Bion, Asquith, Charkin, Hardy, to the testimony of Andrew Malcolm 13/3/1990, to the Chancery Court Judgment, the Appeal Court Judgment, the Damages assessment, the Settlement agreement.

Return to the Malcolm vs. Oxford I (1984-92) Index or to the Malcolm vs. Oxford II (2001-02) Index or to the SITE INDEX.