Stratford-upon-Avon
By chance, Ross returned from the continent to England in October 1963, and had reached Stratford-upon-Avon on his U.K. travels just in time to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s first performances of John Barton’s three-part adaptation of Shakespeare’s historical plays, now generally known as The Wars of the Roses, featuring, amongst others, Peggy Ashcroft, Roy Dotrice, Ian Holm, Brewster Mason, Donald Sinden, and David Warner.
Although he had studied Shakespeare at school, it was not until he saw Barton's trilogy that he apprehended just how brilliant Shakespeare was; and the overall experience of Barton’s writing and the performances of the RSC had a such an impact upon him, that he decided there and then to become a playwright.
He returned to London and immediately began writing short stories.
In order, he thought, to gain inspiration for his writing career, he went again to Europe followed the pathway of Ernest Hemingway through France, and Spain, spending time in Paris, partaking in the Pamplona bull run, etc.; and, whilst he gained an understanding of Hemingway's literary accounts of his European experiences, he found himself wanting to go back to the U.K., finish his business there, and return to Australia as soon as possible, work for a short while in his family's hotel in Portland, and then, having sufficient funds to do so, move to Melbourne, and earn his living as a journalist.
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