Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin

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Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin Page 54

by Bruce Chatwin


  BC intends to write article of Butch Cassidy for

  brief references and n

  BC’s articles: on an Algerian in Marseilles (‘Fatal Journey to Marseilles – North Africans in France’) and n

  on Mrs Gandhi (‘On the Road with Mrs Gandhi’)

  on Shamdev the Wolf Boy (‘The Quest for the Wolf Children’)and n

  Sunny Bank Anglo-American Hospital, Cannes

  Sutherland, Alistairand n

  Sutherland, Grahamand n

  Suzdal

  Svevo, Italoand n

  Swartkrans cave

  Swat

  Swayne, Dinah

  Sweden

  Sweet Briar Farm, Geneseo

  Switzerland

  Sydney

  BC writes from

  Sydney Morning Heraldand n

  Sylvester, David

  Symes, Robinand n

  Tabriz

  Tahiti

  Tahoua

  BC writes from

  Taiwan: Taipai Museum

  Takla-Maklan

  Talbot Rice, Davidand n

  Talbot Rice, Tamaraand n

  Tamworth-in-Arden

  Tangier

  Taoism

  Tarquinia

  Tate, Sharonand n

  Tatlerand n

  Taxila

  Taygetos range

  Taylor, Gloria see El-Fadil el Mahdi (née Taylor), Gloria

  Taylor, Robert

  Teheran

  British School in

  Telstar/Early Birdand n

  Tennant, Emma

  Tennant, Stephenand n

  letters to

  Writings:

  Madame is Resting

  ‘Supreme Vision’and n

  Thatcher, Margaretand n

  Thaw, Eugeneand n

  Theroux, Pauland n

  letters to

  The Old Patagonian Express

  Thesiger, Wilfredand n

  Thomas, Charlesand n

  Thomas, David

  letter to

  Thomas, Hugh: Cubaand n

  Thomas Cook Travel Award

  Thoronet, Le (monastery)and n

  Thubron, Colin

  letters to

  Behind the Walland n

  Tibet

  Tierra del Fuego

  Tilbury

  Time magazine

  Times, The

  Times Literary Supplement (T.L.S.)

  Times of India, The

  Timewell, Richard S.and n

  Tisza, River

  Togo

  Tokyo

  Tomlinson, Brenda, letter to

  Tomlinson, Charlesand n

  letter to

  Torecilla, plateau of

  Torontoand n

  Royal Ontario museum

  Tosi, Maurizioand n

  Tournier, Micheland n

  Gemini (Les Météores)and n

  Toussaint L’Ouverture

  Tower, The, Scethrog

  BC writes from

  Towers, Robert

  Trammel, Captain Billand n

  Transylvania

  Transvaal

  Traquair

  Traugott, Maggie

  Traveller’s Club

  Traveller’s Guide to Health

  Tree, Penelopeand n

  letter to

  Trevor-Roper, Patrick

  Tringham, Ruth

  Trinity Hall, Cambridge

  Trisov

  Trujilla

  Truro murders (Australia)

  Tucci, Giuseppeand n

  Tu Fuand n

  Tunis

  Turbat-Jam

  Turgenev, Ivan

  Turkey

  BC writes from

  Turks

  Turnell, John (BC’s uncle)

  Turnell, Margharita see Chatwin (née Turnell), Margharita

  Tuscanysee also Florence; Siena

  Tweedie, Dumand n

  Tyler the Tack, Miss

  Uaua

  Ubeda, BC writes from

  Udaipur

  Uganda

  Ukraine

  Ultra Violetand n

  Una Estate in Siberio

  Ungaretti, Giuseppeand n

  Up-Helly-Aa

  Upper Swabia

  Urumchi

  Utah

  Utz

  BC in process of writing tale about porcelain collector

  BC finishes writing

  Ignatieff makes annotations in copy of

  sent to agents and publishers

  publisher is enthusiastic about

  BC disappointed by blurb for

  BC sends copy to Murray Bail

  publication

  praised by BC’s father

  shortlisted for Booker Prize

  reviewed by Alberto Moravia

  brief references

  Uzbeks

  Uzès

  Vaarzon-Morel, Petronella

  letter to

  Vaizey, Marinaand n

  Valdivia

  Van, Charles

  Vancouver

  Vargas Llosa, Marioand n

  War at the End of the World

  Varig

  Vassar

  Vassiltchikov, Princess Marie (‘Missie’)and n

  Vaughan, Henryand n

  Vaughan Films

  Vaynol Parkand n

  Velasquez, Mariano Riveraand n

  Vence, postcard from

  Venice

  Venturi, Robert, and n

  Verger, Pierreand n

  Veronese, Paoloand n

  Viceroy of Ouidah, The

  idea for

  BC travels to Benin to do research

  BC’s ideas about how to approach the subject

  further researches in Brazil

  process of writing

  delivers manuscript and is paid an advance

  BC works with Jim Silberman on

  pre-publicity for

  publication

  disappointing reception of

  made into film by Herzog

  brief references

  Vichy

  Victoria and Albert Museum, Londonand n

  Victoria Falls

  Vidal, Yves

  Viedma (Carmen Los Patagones)

  Vienna

  BC writes from

  Schatzkammer

  Volkerkundes Museum; postcard from

  Vietnam War

  Viking Press

  Vikings

  Villa Malcontenta

  Vionnet, Madeleine

  Virago Press

  Vix Crater

  Vlachs

  Vogue

  Volans, Kevinand n

  Songlines string quartet

  Volga, Riverand n

  Volkerkunde Museum, Vienna

  postcard from

  Vraca

  Wade-Gery, Sir Robertand n

  Wadi Halfa

  Wales/Welsh borderssee also names of places

  Wali Jahn

  Wallace, George

  Wallace Collection

  Wanger, Shelley

  Ware, Kallistos

  Warner, Roger

  Warrell, David

  Warsaw

  BC writes from

  Washburn, Gordonand n

  Watson, Iainand n

  Watlington

  Watzdorf, Stephan vonand n

  Watzdorf, Thilo von

  Way, Charles

  letters to

  Webster, Ken

  Weidenfeld, Lord Georgeand n

  Weiss, Theodore (Ted)and n

  Welch, Cary

  BC’s friendship with

  BC confides his frustrations to

  joins the Chatwins during their honeymoon

  and BC’s decision to study archaeology

  and Sassanian dishes

  enthusiasm for the Beatlesand n

  recommends BC to curate exhibition at Asia House Gallery

  buys farm in New Hampshire

  purchase of Maori board from BC

&n
bsp; praises In Patagonia

  and book by Jackie Onassis

  letters to

  brief references

  Welch, Edith

  letter to

  Weldon, Hugh

  Wellington College

  Welty, Eudoraand n

  Weoley Castle

  West Kennet Long Barrow

  Westminster, Loelia, Duchess of Westminster and n

  Westminster, Sally, Duchess of Westminster and n

  Westonbirt

  What Am I Doing Here

  Where the Green Ants Dream (film)and n

  Whinney Murray

  Whitbread Prize

  White, Edmund

  White, Theodore H.: The Making of the President and n

  White Mountains

  Whitman, Walt

  Whitton, Mr

  Wiesenthal, Simon

  Wilkinson, Martin and Stellaand n

  letter to

  Willey, Peterand n

  William, King of Sicily

  William, Prince of Gloucester

  Williams, Lloydand n

  Williams, Shirleyand n

  Wills tobacco company

  Wilson, Peterand n

  letters to

  Wiltshire Gazette & Herald

  Winterbotham, Hiramand n and n

  Wisconsin, University of

  Wollaston, Nicholasand n

  Wollcott-Behnke, Rogerand n

  Wood, Billy

  Wood, Clemand n

  Wood, Jessieand n

  Wood, Mia

  Woodhouse, Tommy

  Woodward, Mr

  Woolmer, J. Howard

  letter to

  World Health Organisation

  Worrell, Christopher

  Worth Maltraversand n

  Wotton-under-Edge see Holwell Farm, Wotton-under-Edge

  Wroth, Lindaand n

  Wu-Ti, Emperor

  Wylie, Andrewand n

  Wylie, Aitken and Stone

  Wyndham, Francis

  letters to

  Wyndham, Violet

  Yaddo

  BC recommended for

  BC at

  Yazilikiya

  Youngstown Ohio Vindicator

  Yountville

  Yucatan

  Yugoslavia

  Yunnan

  Yuste

  Zambezi river

  Zamzama Gun (Kim’s Gun), postcard of

  Zanzibar

  Zavaleta, Jorge Ramon-Torresand n

  letter to

  Zàvist

  Zazzo, Professor R.and n

  Zelenka, Jan

  Zimmer, Dieter

  Zoroastrianism

  Zuluetas, the

  Zulus

  Zurich

  1 The younger and more extrovert of his father’s two spinster aunts.

  2 Out with Romany By Meadow and Stream, Bramwell Evens (1942).

  3 John Kearton, nephew of explorer Cherry Kearton, gave a talk on the African veldt, illustrated with photographs of man-eating lions and rhino.

  4 The Open Road: A Little Book for Wayfarers, anthology, ed. E. V. Lucas (1899). ‘A garland of good and enkindling poetry and prose fitted to urge folk into the open air, and once there, to keep them glad they came.’ With a green buckram binding ‘and a flight of gilded swallows on the cover’, it was Chatwin’s most cherished travel book, along with Osip Mandelstam’s Journey to Armenia (1933) and Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana (1937).

  5 Humphrey Chatwin worked for the Gold Coast Railway. On 8 December 1949 he was murdered by his cook-boy in Takoradi.

  6 Hugh Chatwin: ‘Brig was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier pup whose pleasure was to play boisterously with all our farmyard creatures. Alas, undeterred by useless scolding, he went the way of all hounds that worried neighbouring farmers’ sheep.’

  7 1944 film based on a story by fighter-pilot Richard Hillary about Air-Sea rescue launches that patrolled the Channel picking up downed airmen.

  8 Chatwin’s first proper stage role, in A. P. Herbert’s Fat King Melon and Princess Caraway, performed in December 1949. The reviewer called him ‘a good-looking chap’.

  9 E.C.: ‘He had great skill with his hands. He could paint and sew and mend things, stick handles back on, so that you could never see the join.’

  10 H.C.: ‘Form masters had different means of achieving discipline. Mr Peregrine (Latin) kept a slipper handy; Mr Pye (Maths) preferred to beat with the flat side of a set of wooden board compasses. For more serious misdemeanours, a “chit” would lead to an evening interview with the headmaster. Usually, Boss followed his reprimands with two to four neatly laid cuts of his four-foot bamboo cane. The bruised backsides were there for other boys to comment upon at bath-time. This was Bruce’s only whacking – compared with my four. He did not complain.’

  11 H.C.: ‘After we moved to Brown’s Green Farm, Bruce quickly became proficient in recognising all the woodland birds to be seen there; an aptitude rewarded by great-uncle Philip passing on his four volumes of Thorburn’s British Birds. This gift, with gold-edged coloured plates, was the first antique thing for him to own.’

  12 Performed on 14 December 1950. ‘Perhaps pride of place should go to Bottom the Weaver. A very young member of the cast this one, who had a lot to do and did it with great gusto. Ass’s head or no ass’s head, you did well, “sweet bully Bottom” . . .’

  13 Philip Howard. The ordeal took place in Hall. Boss wrote that Chatwin proved ‘a hard, relentless hitter and gives the impression of immense solidity’.

  14 Charles kept 37 pigs at Brown’s Green Farm, driving the pigswill from Birmingham in the same all-purpose grey Ford van that shuttled Chatwin’s trunk back and forth to Old Hall.

  15 H.C.: ‘As a stamp collector, he went on to specialise in unused “British Colonials”.’

  16 H.C.: ‘Months before, I had accompanied Bruce to Birmingham’s Model Aerodrome shop where he bought this birthday gift. Formally presented on the day, the toy became mine to enjoy – albeit one of several “elder brotherly” things that remained in his custody, lest I should break or lose it.’

  17 Raymond Ghalib (b.1939).

  18 Tommy Garnett (1915 – 2006) had been appointed Master of Marlborough in 1952.

  19 Christopher Massey (b.1939).

  20 E.C.: ‘Bruce never learned to play an instrument.’

  21 A renowned English designer of cruising yachts.

  22 The pine houses were painted blood red with iron oxide from the copper mine. One day, Chatwin would paint his house near Oxford with the same Swedish oxide. E.C.: ‘He was always in love with Sweden. It’s where his colour sense gelled. The moment you go to Stockholm, there are his colours. Grey green, grey blue and contrasted with amazing ochres.’

  23 Percevald Bratt – ‘A delightful old gentleman always dressed in a white smock and sun hat . . . he lived in a log cabin lit by crystal chandeliers,’ Anatomy of Restlessness. Peter Bratt (Thomas’s brother): ‘Shortly before his death, Bruce came to Stockholm because he wanted to revisit us. He mostly talked about the conversations he had had with my great-uncle [Percevald], who was erudite and knew classic literature very well, and Bruce said this was what incited him to start writing.’

  24 E.C.: ‘Sailing wasn’t his great passion, as it was with Charles and Hugh.’

  25 Grängesberg.

  26 In The Songlines, Chatwin meets a young ébéniste (cabinet-maker) on the road from Atar. ‘Although he had no passport, he had in his bag a book on French eighteenth-century furniture.’

  27 John Wilson Carmichael (1800 – 68).

  28 The original schooner.

  29 Philip Boughton Chatwin (1873-1964), architect and amateur archaeologist dedicated to the restoration of old buildings. E.C.: ‘I met him once, a beautiful old man, very civilised, tall, thin, with white hair.’

  30 Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), Irish Catholic priest and notary of the Vatican who saved up to 4,000 Allied soldiers and Jews during the Second World War.

  31 E.C.: �
�For him to complain about the heat means it’s desperately hot. Most of the time he didn’t notice.’

  32 A huge cost, when you could take only £50 out of the country.

  33 Roasted Englishman.

  34 John Peregrine: ‘This refers to my mother arguing what they were going to do with both pictures and feeling Sotheby’s were out to swindle her.’

  35 Carmen Gronau was organising the sale. Some friction may have been caused by the amount of restoration required. The restorer Herbert Lank had sent a bill of £231. 10. 9d. On 22 July 1960 Gronau wrote to E.F.P.: ‘As you know it was a terrible business getting the blue over-paint away from the gold which had to be done immensely carefully by hand and penknife and could not be done by solvent.’

  36 Rawlinson & Hunter, accountants representing an American client interested in the second panel of St Anthony Abbot.

  37 Charles Chatwin had served in the Mediterranean on the light cruiser Euryalus. ‘Bruce was very cross because we bombarded the grain stores on Rhodes. “You bombarded beautiful windmills.” It was a show of force.’

  38 Royal Cruising Club to which Charles belonged.

  39 At Easter 1960, Charles had launched the Rakia, a 26-foot family cruising boat, to be shared with his partners at Wragge & Co. Hugh Chatwin: ‘Father had me ask Bruce’s classics master at Marlborough the ancient Greek word for rags. Hugh Weldon gave us: ro, alpha, kai, iota, alpha – hence the name RAKIA.’

  40 Ivry had married Paul Freyberg, second Baron Freyberg, in July 1960.

  41 Avril Curzon had lived with Ivry at 34 Boscobel Place.

  42 I.F.: ‘He was going to paint my bedroom and then had a cold.’

  43 E.C.: ‘He later took me. It was like stepping into a rainbow.’

  44 They met by accident in the Via Veneto in Rome in August, Chatwin on his way back from Greece; Hugh from Africa, on the last leg of a 10,000-mile hitchhike from Cape Town.

  45 New York dealer and collector. On 15 April 1964 Chatwin sent Peregrine a cheque for £6,000. It can be assumed that he took a commission.

  46 This is the first suggestion that Peter Wilson had lured Chatwin with the temptation of becoming a Sotheby’s director, only to renege on the offer.

 

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