This isn't easy, for Travers is a misanthrope, highly strung and fiercely protective of her books.
One red-faced misanthrope, Edward Leigh, yesterday told Mr Cameron not to come back from Brussels waving a piece of paper like Neville Chamberlain.
Consider both an avid cocktail party hostess with hundreds of acquaintances and a grumpy misanthrope, who may have one or two friends.
Mozart railed against his easy-going employer, Hieronymus Colloredo, the Archbishop of Salzburg, whom he called "a misanthrope", "an arrogant, conceited cleric" and, worse still, a disciple of "that godless, arch-rascal Voltaire".
It's yet another unlikely story of a supposed misanthrope who gathers a rag-tag surrogate family around him, starting with a wide-eyed geek in need of a father figure.This central character has been spotted before.
He says the planet is going to get rid of the other five billion.As a dramatic persona, Mr Lovelock combines two well-known types: Cassandra and the Misanthrope.
One myth is that he was a misanthrope, a grumbling recluse, whose work was as morose as his life.
The 17th-century comedy of Molière sometimes deepens into satire, as with the exposure of religious hypocrisy in Tartuffe or the railing against social hypocrisy by Alceste in The Misanthrope.
Menander's nicety of touch and skill at comedy in a light vein is clearly evident in the Dyscolus in the character of the gruff misanthrope Knemon, while the subtle clash and contrast of character and ethical principle in such plays as Perikeiromenē (interesting for its sympathetic treatment of the conventionally boastful soldier) and Second Adelphoe constitute perhaps his greatest achievement.
He denies being a misanthrope and laughs at the suggestion.
"You only have to look at Keira Knightley," says Bray. "She's done film after film – she's a massive film star – and eventually she's invited back to do The Misanthrope in the West End".
