Thanks to the English department at Glendon College, York University, the Villa Serbelloni, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library.
I would like to thank the following for their generous help: Elisabeth Dennys, who let me read her letters written from Egypt during the war; Sister Margaret at the Villa San Girolamo; Michael Williamson at the National Library of Canada, Ottawa; Anna Jardine; Rodney Dennys; Linda Spalding; Ellen Levine. And Lally Marwah, Douglas LePan, David Young and Donya Peroff.
Finally a special thanks to Ellen Seligman, Liz Calder and Sonny Mehta.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to
the following for permission to reprint
previously published material:
Famous Music Corporation: Excerpt from ‘When I Take My Sugar to Tea’ by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman. Copyright 1931 by Famous Music Corporation. Copyright renewed 1958 by Famous Music Corporation. Reprinted by permission.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: Excerpt from ‘Arrival at the Waldorf by Wallace Stevens from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens. Reprinted by permission.
Macmillan Publishing Company: Excerpts from Unexploded Bomb: A History of Bomb Disposal by Major A. B. Hartley. Copyright © 1958 by Major A. B. Hartley. Copyright renewed. Published in 1958 by Cassell & Co., London, and in 1959 by W. W. Norton & Co., New York. Reprinted by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company.
Edward B. Marks Music Company: Excerpt from ‘Manhattan’ by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Copyright 1925 by Edward B. Marks Music Company. Copyright renewed. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Penguin USA: Excerpts from ‘Buckingham Palace’ from When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne. Copyright 1924 by E. P. Dutton. Copyright renewed 1952 by A. A. Milne. Reprinted by permission of Dutton Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
The Royal Geographical Society: Excerpt from article by John Ball, Director of Desert Surveys in Egypt (1927), from The Geographical Journal, Vol. LXX, pp. 21–38, 105–129. Copyright by the Royal Geographical Society. Reprinted by permission.
Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.: Excerpt from ‘I Can’t Get Started’ by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin. Copyright 1935 by Chappell & Co. (Copyright renewed). All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Williamson Music Co.: Excerpt from ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal. Copyright 1938 by Williamson Music Co. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved.
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
MICHAEL ONDAATJE is the author of five novels, a memoir, a non-fiction book on film and several books of poetry. His novel The English Patient won the Booker Prize; another of his novels, Anil’s Ghost, won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize and the Prix Medicis. His most recent novel, Divisadero, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was the winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction 2007. Born in Sri Lanka, he now lives in Toronto.
THE HISTORY OF BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING
Bloomsbury Publishing was founded in 1986 to publish books of excellence and originality. Its authors include Margaret Atwood, John Berger, William Boyd, David Guterson, Khaled Hosseini, John Irving, Anne Michaels, Michael Ondaatje, J.K. Rowling, Donna Tartt and Barbara Trapido. Its logo is Diana, the Roman Goddess of Hunting.
In 1994 Bloomsbury floated on the London Stock Exchange and added both a paperback and a children’s list. Bloomsbury is based in Soho Square in London and expanded to New York in 1998 and Berlin in 2003. In 2000 Bloomsbury acquired A&C Black and now publishes Who’s Who, Whitaker’s Almanack, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. Many books, bestsellers and literary awards later, Bloomsbury is one of the world’s leading independent publishing houses.
The Bloomsbury Set continues the original aim of publishing books of the highest quality, combining stunning designs with beautiful production values. Each book in the series is a special edition, making them the perfect gift for all book lovers.
For a full list of books available in The Bloomsbury Set series, please visit www.bloomsbury.com/thebloomsburyset
For more information on all Bloomsbury authors and for all the latest news please visit www.bloomsbury.com
First published in Great Britain 1992
Copyright © 1992 by Michael Ondaatje
This electronic edition published 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The right of Michael Ondaatje to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4088 2038 4
www.bloomsbury.com/michaelondaatje
Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books.
You will find extracts, authors interviews, author events and you can sign up for newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.
The English Patient Page 25
