Under the Sun (53 page)

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 9 July 1985

 

Greece in summer very bad for work. A mistake! The sun and wind destroy the brain cells at an incredible rate. Nonetheless, we do, I take it, still have our date in India. As always B

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 27 July 1985

 

Just got back. Catarrh started in the Pas-de-Calais.

Back at Homer End, but wishing I was still at Chilandari | 29 July 1985

 

Gruelling drive across tourist-torn Europe; soggy fish and chips on the boat; catarrh on the by-pass – the usual tale of English woes! Much love, B

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 6 August 1985

 

I thought of you constantly on Mount Athos – not that you're ever likely to get there! – but because I had in my ruck-sack the little telescopic Tiffany beaker; and whenever, wandering along paths that can hardly have changed since Byzantine times, I would come to a spring (at which there was usually a cross, a shrine and a bench for weary travellers), I would take it out for a drink. Everyone predicted that Derek [Hill] and I would quarrel: there were even bets on it between Barbara Ghika and Elizabeth Glenconner:
⁷⁰⁰
we were happy to report that not a cross word passed between either of our lips. The book is taking for ever, and I am cancelling everything to press ahead. By November, however, I'll be in need of a break. Much love, Bruce

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [early August 1985]

 

Dear Charles Way,

I've been away solidly for five months and have only just caught up with your letter. If you would really want to, I can't see any objection to putting my two old twins on the stage. We'd have to talk about it. There is the possibility about a Channel 4 film.
⁷⁰²
Options have been bought; scripts have been written etc. But I'm afraid I can't take too much interest in it because, on the whole, I loathe films – and particularly films doctored for a so-called television audience. I can't for the life of me see how you'd do it: but that, of course, is your business. I very much like the sound of the Spanish Civil War play
⁷⁰³
– a subject which interests me passionately. Anyway, the point of this scrappy note is to say that we should meet sometime soon, that is, if you're still interested. I'll be coming down to Brecon sometime and will give you a call. As ever, Bruce Chatwin

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [August 1985]

 

Dearest Paddy and Joan,

At least I thought that going to England in August might lessen the shock, climatically. But no! Nothing but rain. Freezing cold. I went wind-surfing on a scummy little reservoir near Oxford, and my hands were white and numb after ten minutes. But what I miss most are the mountains! The country round here is tolerably attractive, immaculately kept: but then you keep running up against the cooling towers of the Didcot power-station; the antennae of Greenham Common; the nuclear installations at Harwell – all of which give me the feelings of claustrophobia.

The usual run of crises with the book, which, I suppose, does plod on slowly. Compression is what's needed. And when talking of compression, how's this for the thud of nomad horsemen into one line (I mentioned it on one of our walks). Juvaini
⁷⁰⁴
in his
History of the World Conqueror
reports this unconscious hexameter from the mouth of a refugee from Bokhara after the sack of Genghis:

‘Amdand u khandand u sokhtund u kushtand u burdan u raftand'

They came, they sapped, they burned, they slew,

They trussed up their loot and were gone

Juvaini, quoted by Yule in his edition of Marco Polo, p233, says that the essence of all his book is contained in this one line.

I'm writing to Rudi Fischer.
⁷⁰⁵
I sent a letter apologising for my inability to show up, and got a splendid two pages in reply. Your ears would burn at all the things he says about you. If I could get clear of all the mess, I'd go on a visit, just for the sake of it.

Otherwise not much news. I seem to see Barbara and Niko [Ghika] constantly: I've gone up to London twice only, and each time to dinner with them. Miranda [Rothschild] very calm, composed, and almost regal in appearance.

Much love and from E.

Bruce

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 14 September 1985

 

Dearest Nin.

Lord how time flies. To think it was a month and a half since you were here. I've been in London three times only: the days go by; work, sleep, work, sleep – and the rain pours down outside. Yes, it was awful: I had to leave my race across Europe too late, and didn't get anything like enough time with you. Besides I was, as always, a little thrown by my first days in England after six months.

God knows when the book'll be finished: but the little bits I've shown around – to agents etc – have all been received quite well. E. and I are off to China: to Yunnan, which is completely new ground for me – around the beginning of November.

The
New York Times
are stumping up the fare: then we're going to rent a house for three months in Kathmandu, where we have a great friend
⁷⁰⁶
who has, it seems, endless Sherpa guides for treks into the mountains. I might just – towards the end of February – have got sufficiently far that I dare get on the plane for Oz.

Salman and Robyn came for the weekend and it was all rather jolly. It was the most sunny day and was something of an experiment in that we had no less than 8 soi-disant writers: a lot of egos sounding off, but we were able to open the windows so all the talk blew out over the sheep . . .

Much love, B

Love to Tisi

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 16 September 1985

 

Dear Paul,

Patagonia Revisited
⁷⁰⁷
isn't at all bad looking, is it? It'd be lovely to see you. I go to China in Nov. Bruce.

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 16 September 1985

 

I should, in early Oct, be staying at the Tower for 2 weeks. Working – but there would be time off to talk.
⁷⁰⁸

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [September 1985]

 

E
. Oh God! – as Joan [Leigh Fermor] would say.

1. Jacob R[othschild] has twisted my arm to attend a meeting – attend only! – on Friday lunch.
⁷⁰⁹

1a. where this puts the weekend, can't say.

2. I shall have to go to Oxford, tomorrow, have lunch . . . sign books, go to the Bodleian – then London.

3. The fireplace man is coming at 9.30 tom.

4. The glass man has been.

5.
The Times
rang up to try and get me to review. NO!

6. Possible to put creases in grey suit?

7. It's too much!

Birr Castle | Co. Offaly | Ireland | as from Homer End | 1 October 1985

 

E. has gone off to India for her tour. Tremendous drama at the airport as she lost her passport and couldn't fly with the tour!
⁷¹⁰
I have sloped off to Ireland on a ‘memory tour' of old friends – Birr, now inhabited by my friend Brendan Rosse,
⁷¹¹
has the most magical arboretum: 4 generations of plant-hunter earls. The leaves are just beginning to turn, and it is quite magical.

Could you drop on a postcard a piece of seemingly useless information. I need to know what in the way of
fanged
beasts a boy of 3 in 1954 would have seen in the Adelaide zoo. Would there have been a leopard? Or a tiger? Or lion? A dingo is a bit mild for my purpose. If not I shall have to make do with a fictitious Irish wolfhound or Alsatian in a neighbour's house.

Ah well, I'll be in touch with plans as I know them.

Much love, dearest.

Bruce

PS There is a totally weird Australian here, a Mr Bartlett from Perth. Knows Geoff [Dutton], slightly. Literary ambitions to write Australian short stories or an updated Suetonius, in the most haunted medieval town in Ireland.

PPS re the above. If there were such a
beast
i.e leopard I'd like a word about its history, name etc. How much was the age? Feeding time?

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [October 1985]

 

Dearest Nin,

Many many thanks for your note on the feeding of the lions. Exactly what I need: if only for one line of the book.

The blow, of course, is Piers Hill.
⁷¹²
What horrible decision to have to make – especially in view of the garden. My parents faced
exactly
the same thing over our house in Warwickshire – just that much too big. Running into just that more than they could cope with – and I must say that by taking the decision to move to a small house when they did i.e. in their late 50's and by their acquiring their shack in the south of France, they seem to live a happy, varied and very independent life.

But I'm sure
you
must have somewhere in the country. I know it sounds bananas to suggest it. But what if you not exactly demolished but let go half the house? Bankers and the rest always speak of ruining your investment without realising it is you who have to live there. The site at Piers Hill is so perfect, it makes me wish there was no house there at all, but a tiny log cabin. Of course you might find just such another site and build one.

I feel so hopeless so many thousands of miles away: but I wouldn't be
rushed
. My friends in Ireland, the Rosses, who have inherited a vast castle and garden with very little money are amazed by the way in which things are working back in their favour. Life in cities has become so drab and meaningless that there is, in Ireland, at least, a flocking back to land by people who want nothing more than the roof over their heads and food in return for really substantial doses of work in the open air.

We leave for Hong Kong on the 7th Nov. I'll keep you posted with the Nepal address as from Dec 1.

Much love B

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [November 1985]

 

Gearing up for our long promised month in China – we leave on the 7th for Hong Kong. Then (???). I've rented an Englishman's bungalow in the Valley of Kathmandu. Dec-Mar. Be lovely if you could come.
⁷¹³
Much love B

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [November 1985]

 

Dear Charlie,

Here is the book I promised to try and find.
⁷¹⁴
My method, very often, was to check out the ‘truth' of one of these photos – which would then unloose a flow of reminiscences . . . Best of luck, as always, Bruce

Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 5 November 1985

 

Dearest Nin,

A quick line on the eve of departure. Yes, we, apparently, do have the house all through Jan – and would adore you to come. But I do want to know what I'm inviting you to, before inviting you – if you get my clumsy meaning. What it boils down to is this. E leaves me in Hong Kong on Dec 3rd and I follow 10 days later. She is going to inspect the house – then we'll call you. Does that sound hideously complicated?

No. You mustn't move to town.

Much love, Bruce

On 7 November 1985 Chatwin flew with Elizabeth on the first leg of their journey to Kathmandu, where they had taken a three-month lease on an unfurnished house. They stopped off in Hong Kong to make an excursion into China, the
New York Times
magazine having commissioned a profile of Joseph Rock, the Austro-American botanist who lived from 1922-49 in the Lijiang Valley. By late November, they were back in Hong Kong. They went to the races – where Chatwin placed a bet and won: he spent his winnings on some rare tea and a trip to the Taipei Museum in Taiwan. Then, while Chatwin lingered in Hong Kong and visited the bird market, Elizabeth flew on ahead to prepare the house in Kathmandu. On his arrival, he found her sick with bronchitis and the original house let to someone else.

c/o Lisa van Gruisen | Tiger Tops | Kathmandu | Nepal | Christmas Day 1985

 

Dearest Nin,

Well, I finally got here from China and Hong Kong. We had an unbelievably fascinating time in northern Yunnan, on the borders of Burma and Tibet. I have put off going to China for so long, for fear that the China of my imagination, a kind of ideal China composed of such congenial spirits as Li Po
⁷¹⁵
and Tu Fu did not exist. But they are still there! We met a village doctor and herbalist,
⁷¹⁶
a sort of Taoist sage who went gathering herbs in the mountains, painted orchids and bamboos and wrote calligraphies of the great Tang poems.

Hong Kong's a bit of a nightmare, but not without a certain fascination. On the Kowloon side is the area known as Mong Kok the most densely populated square mile in the world, but it really is astonishing how people
can
, if pressed, live in such numbers without friction.

To my bitter disappointment, our house in Kathmandu valley fell through at the last moment. The owner, a British ex-army type let it over our heads for six months instead of our three. Typical! I knew the house, knew it was somewhere I'd work well in, and it was quite a blow. Instead, for the time being we are in a minuscule cottage, built for one of the Ranas as a student right in the middle of town. Dust everywhere! And quite a lot of noise! Plus the fact that Kathmandu is the world's Number One capital of respiratory diseases (that I didn't know). Elizabeth promptly got bronchitis, and has half given it to me. This country is so wonderful the moment you get out of the city that I can't regret coming here. But I think we're a bit unsettled and quite honestly I think the only thing is to put on earplugs and knuckle down to the book for the whole of January and then think again.