by David Evered
‘I will be when I get away – go back to Mum and take care of Jenny while she is in London. She was much closer to Dad than I ever was.’
9
Peter returned to work for the last three days of the week. Jenny had been disinclined to talk during the long drive south and he left her to her own thoughts and memories of her father. As they entered the northern part of the city she said, ‘I’m sorry I’ve been so silent but I feel I’ve reached a tipping point in my life and I’ll be entering a new phase, particularly if I land this job. I’m also sad at what I’m leaving behind. Ann was able to isolate herself from Tyneside but I don’t feel I can ever do that. The bonds are too strong. I also want to visit and support Mum and I hope now Ann has returned and re-established contact that she will see her regularly. This is something we must sort out between us.’
Peter left Jenny free to explore London and prepare for her interview. Her presence in the flat was welcome and provided a distraction after the events of the previous few weeks. They relaxed together the first evening and Peter proposed that they might go out on some of the following evenings. He found her frankness and her preparedness to laugh at almost anything refreshing, despite inevitable episodes of melancholy on her part. A couple of evenings later they went to see a film, “If…”, an allegorical tale depicting a savage insurrection in an English public school, focused on three non-conformist pupils who rebel against sadistic older boys and staff. It finally ends in a bloody gunfight.
‘Could such a thing really happen in a public school?’ asked Jenny as they returned to the flat.
‘I’d like to think it was highly unlikely.’
‘But what are conditions like for younger kids? Can they really be treated so sadistically and exploited in the sorts of ways shown in the film?’
Peter hesitated. ‘There was certainly a fair amount of bullying in my school days nearly twenty years ago, not to mention fagging. There’s no doubt that life could be made pretty miserable for new arrivals at the school. I don’t recall anything as brutal as that shown in some of the scenes and I’m sure things will have changed since I left.’
‘But even so, why would anyone want to send their sons to schools where such things happened?’
‘It was the established pattern for middle- and upper-class families and I suspect that parents scarcely gave it a thought, even if they were aware of what was going on. If challenged, it would have been excused, if not justified, on the basis of tradition. It was assumed to be character-forming! The film is very much part of the challenges to traditional attitudes which we are seeing all around us now – although in an extreme form.’
‘Well, I’m happy that experiences such as that played no part in shaping my character. If I ever have a son I would not want him exposed to such an environment.’
‘No – and I’m not sure that I would either. Life really has changed. When I was a kid, boys were simply deposited at boarding school and parents would only see them at the rare exeats, once or twice a term, when we were allowed out on Sundays between morning and evening chapel. Parents were not expected to interact with the school in those days but that has quite changed. This is a depressing subject; let’s change it. Tell me about yourself and your romantic life. I understood from Ann that you have a serious boyfriend.’
‘No, no longer. Simon was fun and I was fond of him but it was getting very heavy, far too heavy for me. He suggested we should move in together. I didn’t feel sufficiently strongly about him to make such a commitment and it would have tied me down just as I have the opportunity to spread my wings. On a scale of one to ten on the Richter scale of romantic entanglement, it only reached about three or four on my side. I think it was at least double that for him. We have split up with the usual assurances that we’ll remain friends but I suspect contact will fade over the years and it will remain as a pleasant but relatively insignificant memory.’
‘That sounds a little detached.’
‘I guess so but that’s how I feel and it’s realistic.’
‘So what do you hope to do now?’
‘Is that a question about my love life or about my job prospects?’
Peter laughed. ‘I was enquiring about your career aspirations. I wouldn’t dream of delving into your romantic dreams. I’m more than ten years older than you and it might be more than I can take!’
‘Well, I’m glad that we’ve got that straight.’ She smiled. ‘Anyhow, I don’t have a love life at present but if you were to press me to reveal any amorous aspirations I would plead the Fifth Amendment! My interview is for a job as an editorial assistant with a company which publishes fine art books and magazines. I suspect it’s the lowest of the low in the company hierarchy. However, it’s a small outfit and I understand it will involve some interaction with writers. It will give me the chance to decide if publishing is where I want to spend at least the first part of my working life. But there are so many more opportunities out there which I also hope to explore.’
‘So there’s no point in asking you where you might see yourself in ten years’ time?’
‘None whatsoever! The possibilities that life offers are simply too exciting to plan that far ahead. There will be opportunities which I don’t even know about at present and I imagine that in ten or twenty years’ time there will be jobs out there which don’t even exist now.’
‘And developing a social life?’
‘What will be, will be. I’m different from Ann. She always planned for a life in which she would make her way in a glamorous industry and would cement a secure relationship early in her adult life and she’s achieved all of that. She was always held up to me as a role model, but it was never a model which totally appealed to me. That’s not a criticism of Ann but it’s a life that was never for me! But how about you – did you always want to be a solicitor and get married?’
Peter hesitated. ‘I suppose the honest answer is no.’
‘Is this a confession? So, when did you decide and why?’
He paused again. ‘I’m not quite sure when I decided – or even if I did consciously decide. I was reasonably bright and it was always assumed that I would enter one of the professions or take up some safe job in the city. The law had some interest for me and it seemed like a respectable way of making a reasonable living. It also gave me the opportunity to spend three years at Cambridge and that was perhaps the least worst option. You can see my horizons were neither very broad nor very distant. It all sounds pretty unambitious.’
‘Didn’t you ever dream of other possibilities? Have you never had a passion to do something which would match your wildest ambitions?’
He hesitated again but simply said, ‘Occasionally, but my dreams are never more than passing fantasies and they’re probably not very wild by most people’s standards. Most of us of the pre-war generation are neither very imaginative nor very adventurous. You baby boomers are the imaginative and emancipated generation. Aspirations in the environment in which I was brought up were almost always judged in terms of respectability and wealth acquisition and little else.’
‘That sounds just like Ann.’ Jenny giggled. ‘What a shame! I should like to see you break free from your shackles and fly. Even better, I should like to see Ann do so.’
‘Come on, it’s time you and I were off to our beds. Tomorrow’s Saturday – there’s no rush to get up in the morning.’
‘Ann would tell you that there is absolutely no need for that injunction!’
‘You’re safe. She won’t be back till Sunday. I thought that I might ask my friend Michael Rattray to come and share a takeaway with us tomorrow evening. You might enjoy his company – although your sister is not too enthusiastic about him. Sleep well.’
* * *
They were joined by Michael the following evening. ‘Tell us what you’re doing,’ said Peter.
‘Oh, my life moves on. The work in the centre all too often ta
kes me from one seemingly intractable case to another resulting in outcomes which are neither satisfactory to me nor, more importantly, to the client. These are the perennial battles with the “insolence of office” which characterises the petty bureaucrats of this world.’
‘You’re sounding very dispirited.’
‘It’s been a bad week. It happens at times although I do believe I play a useful role. At the very least those who come to me feel that someone has made an effort to address their wrongs, real or perceived. It’s possible, however, that there could be some major change in my life. I’m seeking adoption as a Labour parliamentary candidate. I’m not sure if I’ll be successful and, even if I am, it’s most likely that I shall be given a first run in an unwinnable seat! An election is, of course, still a little way off.’
‘This is a surprise – I knew you were interested in politics but I was not aware that you had active political ambitions. Where would you like to stand if the choice were yours?’
‘Of course, the choice will not be mine but Merseyside if it were. It was my home.’
‘But do you think that you will be able to change things if you are elected?’ asked Jenny.
‘Quite possibly not, but I should try. Few of us have the right combination of talent, people skills, native wit, low cunning and opportunity to make substantial changes to the world. A few of us manage to change things in our own small corner but the majority settle for simply being part of the poor bloody infantry of life for which I am well qualified! I guess I’m also saddened by what I see in the wider world around us, the use of violence to advance causes. I long to see radical change but assassination, as we saw of Bobby Kennedy, urban terrorism or the imposition by arms of a western sanctioned regime as we are seeing in Vietnam cannot be the way forward. I’m finding it difficult. I applaud political activism and I’ve been on a couple of anti-Vietnam War marches but I deplore the violence which can erupt on some of these occasions. Peter knows I served in Malaya during my National Service. I’d been tempted to seek alternative service as a conscientious objector, but my Dad was emphatic that he wouldn’t have any bloody conchies around the house! But Malaya was a challenge. I was terrified much of the time, jumping whenever there was a noise in the jungle – and jungles are naturally noisy places. It was also difficult in that I had some sympathy with the communist ideology, although not with their methods, nor with their wish to impose their ideology on the local ethnic majority. We had to do many things which made me uncomfortable like forcing the relocation of many local people and defoliating crops to deprive the insurgents of their support systems. I’m sorry, this is a depressing subject for a Saturday evening. Jenny, you’re the youngest amongst us – what do you think?’
‘I don’t think that I should be asked to carry the burden of being the spokesperson for the twenty-somethings. I imagine there is as wide a range of views amongst those of my age as there is amongst those of yours. I sympathise with much of what you say and I suppose watching that film yesterday also highlighted the possibility of people seeking to achieve their ends through violence, extreme though it was.’
‘This is far too gloomy a topic for a Saturday evening. Tell us what your plans are for the future, bonny lass.’
‘I’m not sure I have plans. The world is changing ever more rapidly. I think there may have been a step change in attitudes in the half generation which separates us.’
‘But you must have some ideas for the next year or perhaps just for the next week?’
‘I have an interview in two days’ time. If I’m offered the job and if I like the people, I shall take it. I shall be working in an area which interests me so I’ll see how it goes. I shall certainly enjoy London. If it doesn’t work out – well, I’ll simply look for another job. I shall probably do that anyhow within a year or two even if I do enjoy it. There are so many opportunities, both here and abroad, many of them in fields that I know nothing about at present. The world is changing; I’m a free agent and I find uncertainty about my future exciting and motivating.’ She laughed. ‘My sister would have a fit and certainly disapprove of such an attitude to life!’
‘What about a personal life?’
‘Are you referring to sex? I am not concerned at present. I’m single, relaxed and unfettered. I’ll see who might come into sight over the horizon. I don’t want to get into a long-term relationship for many years yet. But what about you, Michael? You’re ten years or so older than me and you’re single.’
‘I’m in much the same position as you. The right person has not yet come into view or at least not come within touching distance. The time will probably come but I am not into predictions. I don’t know when it might happen and indeed it might not happen at all.’
‘He’s an interesting man,’ said Jenny after he had gone. ‘Is he always so serious?’
‘No, but he does take his life and work seriously. He has come a long way from Liverpool and his upbringing. He has got where he has partly through hard work but principally through pure intelligence. He can be very entertaining when in his lighter moods. You and Ann have also come a long way from your origins. You have a lightness which seems to pervade everything you do and a tendency to laugh at life’s absurdities and to lighten some of its darker moments in the same way.’
She laughed. ‘I guess you’re right. But our childhood wasn’t always too serious. It was a tightly knit family and a very supportive one. Ann and I were always encouraged to learn and to go to uni. I think it was very selfless of them to encourage us to do so away from Newcastle. It was a typically close Tyneside family unit.’
* * *
Ann returned the following day. ‘That was exhausting, particularly following the days in Newcastle,’ she said.
‘So what was it all about? What is this Lunar Society? I’ve never heard of it.’
‘Some of it is a mystery. It was an informal gathering of major figures in the Midlands at the end of the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth century. They were all people who contributed to the development of Birmingham industrially or to the sciences and the arts. They included Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestly, James Watt, William Withering, Erasmus Darwin and others and they also drew some from a little further afield like Wright of Derby and Joseph Banks. They’re a mystery in that it seems the society never had a constitution or kept minutes nor were there any membership lists.’
‘So what’s the focus of the series of programmes?’
‘It’s really about the lives of a remarkably inventive group of men. We spent some time looking at archives which contained correspondence amongst the group and then started to construct bio-dramas of their lives, visiting locations where they had worked and lived. This will provide the framework for the series. It will now go to the researchers to furnish further detail and then to the scriptwriters before we can go back and start filming. It was exhausting travelling around the area visiting relevant sites. It seems they went quite far afield for their meetings. It was just Francis and his production assistant and me.’
‘Sounds interesting – but why Lunar?’
‘They apparently met on evenings when the moon was full so that they had more light when travelling home. They sometimes referred to themselves as “lunarticks”! But enough of work. What have you and Jenny been up to?’
‘She’s been entertaining herself while I’ve been at work. We went to see a film one evening and Michael R came round yesterday.’
‘I hope he hasn’t been filling her head with his radical views.’
‘It was a quiet evening – we talked about world events and various other things. He’s hoping to be adopted as a candidate for a seat at the next general election, whenever that might be.’
‘Has Jenny been preparing for her interview?’
‘I assume so but I’ve not been here much of the time. She’s a grown-up, she has to take responsibility for herself.�
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‘I’m not always sure that she is so grown up. She needs to face the realities of getting a job and supporting herself in the real world.’
‘I’m sure she’ll do that but her perception of the real world is very different from yours and mine. She’s a free spirit.’
‘Being a free spirit doesn’t necessarily equate with responsibility and it doesn’t earn you a living.’
‘No – but she’ll have to make her own way and make her own mistakes.’
‘I guess so. I’ve been thinking about Mum. I think I shall have to go up to Newcastle again in the next few weeks, particularly if Jenny is going to start a job in London. I thought we might encourage her to come down and stay sometime in the autumn or possibly over Christmas.’
‘Good idea. We could show her the sights while she’s here.’
‘Thank you. Yes, that is a good idea.’
‘It would also be good for her to meet my parents.’
‘Yes – I know. I feel guilty about the way that I maintained so little contact with my parents during all those years away. In many ways Jenny has been a much better daughter than I have. She spent most of her vacations at home when she was at uni and then chose to go home for her postgraduate years.’
10
‘It seems a long time ago now,’ intoned Michael.
‘For God’s sake, look out!’ shouted Peter gripping the edge of his seat.
He had been on his own at the flat and, overcome with an unwelcome sense of solitude, he had called Michael and arranged to meet him for a meal in a small Italian restaurant in Barnes. Ann had left for a long weekend in Newcastle to be followed by a further two days exploring possibilities and preparing briefs for the researchers for the planned series on the Lunar Society. Jenny had been successful in her interviews and was in Newcastle preparing for her move to London. The job would start ten days later in the second week of December. ‘Just in time for the office Christmas parties,’ she had said cheerfully. She would live in the flat with Peter and Ann until she had found her own accommodation. She planned to look for a flat-share somewhere not too far from the firm’s offices in Bloomsbury.
