'Tears Before Bedtime' and 'Weep No More'

by Barbara Skelton

  During his various sojourns at the mas, Bernard wrote two books. In 1971, Un Siècle Débordé won the Deux Magots literary award. Ten years later, Solde was inscribed, ‘Pour Barbara avec toute ma tendresse passée, présente et future,’ and the last passage reads:

  La maison proche de Grimaud où ma mère a passé en Mai 1979 ses dernières vacances a été vendue. Je n’ai plus rien à faire ici. Je vous laisse. Quand vous aurez terminé votre lecture, n’oubliez pas à d’éteindre les lumières en partant.†

  The day after his mother’s death, Bernard was packed and ready to leave. ‘Pauvre petite Maman’ were almost his final words. A taxi filled with suitcases awaited him in the drive, when he followed me up the hill, where I had gone to feed the poules. Closing the gate of the cage that had once housed the poor coatis, he turned and said, quietly, ‘Adieu, poules, et merci’, which must have included me. It was the last of him. A year later, I happened to run into him at a dinner given by the artists Claude and François Lalanne, and he made a telling remark,

  ‘I am now the same age you were when I first knew you. Don’t you think you were lucky to have had such a jeune garçon as a lover all those years?’

  And Bernard Frank went on holding forth to a roomful of people while I stumbled in the dark to the car and drove sadly home.

  * Retirement at Forty: Approaching the age of forty I left Paris for a convent near Grimaud, where the Mother Superior was an English woman of great beauty who taught me frugality, the virtues of silence and the pleasure, shared with ferrets and foxes, of chasing after chickens. And inevitably I started writing again; would I have done otherwise?

  † The house near Grimaud where my mother spent her last holiday in May 1979 has been sold. There’s nothing more for me to do here. I leave you. When you have finished reading, before leaving don’t forget to turn out the lights.

  INDEX

  Abdy, Bertie, 1

  Abdy, Diana, 1

  Aberconway, Lady, 1

  Adams, Dr John Bodkin, 1

  Addams, Charles, 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6

  Agnelli, Alanni, 1

  Aldobrandini, Princess Anne-Marie, 1

  Aldrich, Nelson, 1

  Ambler, Eric, 1

  Arlen, Michael, 1

  Ashford High School, 1

  Aspinall, John, 1

  Asquith, Lady, 1

  Astor, Lady, 1

  Attlee, Clement, 1

  Auden, W. H., 1, 2

  Aumont, Jean–Pierre, 1

  Ayer, A J (Freddie), 1, 2, 3

  A Young Girl’s Touch, 1

  Aziz Eloui Bey, 1

  Bacon, Francis, 1, 2

  Baines, Jocelyn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Baker, Dr Grace, 1

  Bakewell, Tom, 1, 2, 3

  Balfour, Patrick (Lord Kinross), 1, 2

  Barber, Samuel, 1

  Basset, Anne, 1, 2

  ‘Bastard’, (the), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Bath, Daphne, 1

  Batter, Ronnie, 1

  Beaton, Cecil, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Becher, Michael, 1

  Bedford, Sybille, 1

  Beerbohm, Max, 1

  Bell, Clive, 1

  Bellingham–Smith, Eleanor, 1

  Berenson, Bernard, 1

  Bergery, Gaston, 1

  Bergery, Jean–François, 1, 2

  Berlin, Sir Isaiah, 1, 2, 3

  Bernier, Georges, 1, 2

  Betjeman, John, 1

  Betjemans, 1

  Bevans, 1

  Biddle, Dorothy, 1

  Blackwood, Caroline, 1, 2, 3

  Boris, Georges, 1, 2

  Bower, Tony, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Bowles, Paul, 1, 2, 3

  Bowles, Jane, 1, 2

  Bowra, Sir Maurice, 1, 2, 3

  Bratby, John, 1

  Brenan, Gerald, 1, 2, 3

  Brenan, Maeve, 1, 2

  Broadwater, Bowden, 1, 2, 3

  Brookes, Jocelyn, 1

  Brown, Ivor, 1

  Brownell, Sonia, later Orwell, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

  Budberg, Baroness, 1, 2

  Bulow, Claus, 1

  Burrows, Bernard, 1, 2

  Busby, Lex, 1

  Byron, the Years of Fame, 1

  Caffrey, Jamie, 1

  Callas, Maria, 1

  Callimachi, Princess Anne-Marie, 1

  Campbell, Jean, 1, 2

  Campbell, Mary, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Campbell, Robin, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  Campbell-Gray, Diana, 1

  Canfield, Cass, 1

  Capa, Robert, 1

  Carrington, Lady, 1

  Cassatt, Mary, 1

  Cavendish, Elizabeth, 1

  Chandos, John, 1

  Chazot, Jacques, 1

  ‘Chopin’, 1, 2

  Churchill, Arabella, 1

  Churchill, Clarissa, 1, 2

  Churchill, John, 1

  Churchill, June, 1, 2, 3 (footnote), 1

  Churchill, Randolf, 1 (footnote), 1, 2

  Citkovitz, Caroline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Citkovitz, Israel, 1, 2

  Clert, Iris, 1

  Clore, Charles, 1, 2

  Conan Doyle, Adrian, 1

  Connolly, Cressida, 1, 2, 3

  Connolly, Cyril, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; divorce from author, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  marriage to Dierdre Craig, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  death, 1, 2

  Connolly, Deirdre, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Connolly, Matthew, 1

  Cooper, Lady Diana, 1, 2

  Cooper, Duff, 1

  Costa, 1, 2

  Costelanni’s Famous Dancing School, 1

  Cotterill, Anthony, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Coward, Noël, 1

  Craig, Deirdre, see Connolly, Deirdre

  Creswell, Michael, later Sir Michael, 1, 2

  Croisset, Ethel de, 1

  Crowley, Aleister, 1

  Culme–Seymore, Mark, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Cunard, Nancy, 1

  d’Astier de la Vigerie, Emmanuel, 1

  Dauphin, Claude, 1

  Davenport, John and Marjorie, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Davenport, Olga, 1

  Davis, Annie and Bill, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

  d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, Rosie, Lady, 1

  d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, Sir Harry, 1, 2

  de Polnay, Peter, 1

  Dever, Joseph, 1

  Devonshire, Andrew, 1

  Diana, former girlfriend of Cyril Connolly, 1

  Dimy, Yugoslav friend of author, 1, 2, 3

  Dinesen, Isaak, 1

  Doan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Dobsons, 1

  Douglas, Norman, 1, 2

  Driberg, Tom, 1

  Duchamp, Teeny, 1

  Duchin, Peter, 1

  Dudley, Laura, Lady, 1

  Dufferin, Maureen, 1

  Dundy, Elaine, 1

  Dunn, Sir James, 1 (footnote)

  Dunn, Philip, 1, 2

  Earp, T W (Tommy), 1

  Eden, Clarissa, Lady, later Countess of Avon, 1

  Edinburgh, Philip Mountbatten, HRH Duke of, 1

  Eliot, George, 1

  Enemies of Promise, 1

  English Wits, 1

  Entwistle, Clive, 1

  Enzo, George Weidenfeld’s manservant, 1, 2, 3

  Epstein, Jacob, 1

  Erskine, Hamish, 1

  Farouk, King of Egypt, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

  Faulkner, William, 1

  Fedden, Mr and Mrs Robbin, 1

  Fielding, Daphne, 1

  Fielding, Xan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Fleming, Ann, formerly Rothermere, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Fleming, Ian, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  Fontaine, Joan, 1, 2

  Forbes, Ali, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Foreman, Mary, 1, 2, 3

  Forster, Pippa and Peter, 1, 2

  Frank, Bernard, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

  Freeny, girlfriend of author, 1, 2

  Freud, Caroli
ne, 1, 2

  Freud, Lucian, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Freud, Kitty, 1, 2

  Gage, Lord, 1

  Gaiety Girls, 1, 2

  Gates, Pauline, 1, 2, 3

  Gates, Sylvester, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Gates, Sylvester, Mrs, 1

  Geist, Eileen, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Gerda, model, friend of author, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Gill, Brendan, 1

  Gilmour, Mr and Mrs Ian, 1

  Glenconner, Elizabeth, Lady, 1

  Go magazine, 1

  Golden Horizon, 1, 2

  Gordon Dadds, solicitors, 1, 2

  Graham (‘Toot’), 1, 2, 3

  Green, Henry, see Yorke, Henry

  Greene, Graham, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Grove, Euphemia, 1

  Grove, Ned, 1, 2, 3

  Guevara, Meraud, 1

  Guggenheim, Peggy, 1

  Haldane, Mrs J B S, 1

  Hambleden, Lord, 1

  Hamilton, Alastair, 1, 2, 3

  Hamilton, Hamish, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Hamilton, Yvonne, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Hamnett, Nina, 1

  Harmsworth, Fionn, 1, 2

  Harrison, Rex, 1

  Hayward, John, 1

  Heber-Percy, Robert, 1

  Heintz, Drue, 1

  Henderson, Patrick, 1

  Herbert, David, 1, 2

  Hilda, Aunty, 1, 2

  Hinde, Charles, 1

  Hofmannsthal, Lady Elizabeth von, 1

  Hopkinson, Mr and Mrs Tom, 1, 2

  Hore-Belisha, Lord, 1

  Horizon magazine, 1, 2, 3

  ‘Horse Thief’, (the), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  How, Captain Brien, (‘Cold Veal’), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Howard, Brian, 1, 2

  Howard, Jane, 1

  Hugo, Lauretta, 1

  Hultons, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Hulton, Sir Edward, 1

  Hulton, Elena, 1

  Hulton, Nika, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Hutchinson, Mary, 1, 2

  Hutton, Barbara, 1

  Huxley, Aldous, 1

  Ironside, Robin, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 1

  Jackson, Sir Charles, 1

  Jackson, Derek, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9; marriage to author, 1;

  divorce, 1, 2, 3

  Jebb, Julian, 1

  Jenkinson, Joan, 1

  John, Augustus, 1, 2, 3, 4

  John, Dodo, 1

  John, Poppet (later Pol), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (footnote), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  John, Vivien, 1

  Julian, Philippe, 1

  Kahil, Madame, 1, 2, 3

  Kahil, Monsieur, 1, 2

  Kee, Janetta, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Kee, Robert, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Knickerbocker, Cholly, 1

  Koestler, Arthur, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Kupy, pet coati-mundi, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

  La Grange, Baron Henri de, 1

  Lalanne, Claude and François, 1

  Lalanne, Jack, 1

  Lambert, Hansi, 1, 2

  Lambert, J H (Jack), 1, 2

  Lambton, Tony, 1

  Lancaster, Osbert, 1, 2

  Last Pharaoh, The, 1

  Law, Michael, 1

  Lawrence, D H, 1

  Lea, Mrs, 1, 2

  Ledebur, Eugene, 1

  Leeper, Lady, 1

  Leeper, Sir Rex, 1

  Lehman, John, 1

  Lehmann, Rosamund, 1, 2, 3

  Leigh Fermor, Patrick, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Lenya, Lotte, 1

  Lerman, Leo, 1

  Lessing, Doris, 1

  Let It Come Down, 1

  Levita, Shelagh, 1, 2

  Lezard, Lizzy, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Liedloff, Jean, 1

  Longman, Mark, 1

  Loos, Anita, 1

  Lord, James, 1, 2

  Losch, Tilly, 1, 2, 3

  Lubbock, Lys, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Macaulay, Rose, 1

  Macdonald, Dwight, 1, 2

  Macgrath, Earl, 1, 2, 3

  Maclaren, Anna, 1

  Maclaren, John, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Maclean, Donald, 1, 2, 3

  Maclean, Melinda, 1

  Macmillan, Harold, later Earl of Stockton, 1

  Mailer, Norman, 1, 2, 3

  Malraux, André, 1

  Mankowitz, Wolf, 1

  Mansour Wassaf Simaika (‘Victor’), 1

  Margaret, HRH Princess, 1

  Mariano, Nicky, 1

  Mary, HM Queen, 1

  Mattli, Jo, dress designer, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Maugham, W Somerset, 1, 2, 3

  Mavis, Augustus John’s girlfriend, 1, 2

  Maxwell, Gavin, 1

  Mayer, Sandra Payson, 1

  Mayne, Peter, 1, 2

  McCarthy, Mary, 1, 2, 3

  McIndoe, Sir Archibald, 1

  Melchett, Sonia, 1

  Menotti, Gian Carlo, 1

  Michel, François, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Millar, Gertie, 1

  Miller, Lee, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Minton, John, 1

  Mitford, Nancy, 1, 2

  Mitford, Pamela, 1

  Moffat, Ivan, 1, 2, 3

  Morris, Miss, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Mortimer, Raymond, 1, 2, 3

  Mosley, Sir Oswald and Lady, 1, 2

  Mountbatten, Philip, see Edinburgh, Duke of

  Moynihan, Anne, 1, 2

  Moynihan, Rodrigo, 1, 2, 3

  Murray, Alec, 1

  Newhouse, Natalie, 1, 2, 3

  Newton, John, 1

  Newton, Robert, 1, 2

  Nicolson, Ben, 1

  Nicolson, Harold, 1

  Norton, Lady, 1

  Novack, George, 1

  Oblensky, Colonel Serge, 1

  Old Bill, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Oliver, Eric, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Ordoñez, Antonio, bullfighter, 1

  Orwell, Sonia, 1

  Osborne, June, later Churchill, 1, 2, 3

  Osborne, John, 1, 2

  Owen, Frank, 1

  Page, Geraldine, 1

  Paget, Mamaine, 1

  Papandreou, George, Prime Minister of Greece, 1

  Partridge, Frances and Ralph, 1, 2, 3

  Pearsall-Smith, Logan, 1, 2

  Penrose, Roland, 1, 2, 3

  Perdriel, Claude, 1

  Phillips, Rodney, 1

  Phillips, William, 1

  Pitman, Hugo, 1

  Pol, Dutch painter (married Poppet John) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Pope-Hennessy, James, 1, 2, 3

  Potter, Pauline, 1

  Powell, Anthony, 1

  Pritchett, V S, 1, 2, 3

  Proust, Marcel, 1

  Pryce-Jones, Alan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Quennell, Peter, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

  Radziwill, Grace, 1

  Rahv, Philip, 1, 2

  Ratibor, Princess, 1

  Raye, Martha, 1

  Raymond, John, 1, 2

  Rayner, Joan, later Leigh Fermor, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7– 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

  Rayner, John, 1, 2, 3

  Rees, Goronwy, 1, 2

  Reille, Marie-Christine, 1

  Renshaw, Michael, 1

  Rexroth, Kenneth, 1

  Reynolds, Brassy, 1

  Richardson, Mr and Mrs Maurice, 1

  Rickards, Jocelyn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Rickword, Mr and Mrs Edgell, 1

  Rochas, Hélène, 1

  Roethke, Theodore and Beatrice, 1

  Rolo, Charles, 1, 2, 3

  Rosoman, Leonard, 1, 2

  Ross, Alan, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Ross, Jennifer, 1

  Rosslyn, Lord, 1

  Rothermeres, 1

  Rothschild, Philippe de, 1

  Russell, Bertrand, 1

  Russell, Vera, 1

  Russell, John, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Ryder, Hugh, 1

  Sackville-West, Edward, 1
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br />   Sagan, Françoise, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Sauvaigo, Pierre, 1, 2, 3

  Schiaparelli, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Schneider, Sacha, 1

  Schuster, Sir Simon, 1

  Scum of the Earth, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Searle, Alan, 1

  Ségur, Marquis de, 1

  Sevier, Louise, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Sevier, Michael, 1, 2

  Sherborne, Lady, see Jenkinson, Joan

  Sherodski, Ruth, 1

  Shulman, Milton, 1

  Sieff, Jane, 1

  Silvers, Bob, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Simmons, Ronnie, 1

  Simon, André, 1, 2

  Simpson, N.F., 1

  Sitwell, Osbert, 1

  Skelton, Brenda, author’s sister, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Skelton, Dudley, General, author’s uncle, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Skelton, Eric, author’s father, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

  Skelton, Evelyn (Evie), author’s mother, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

  Skelton, Nancie, wife of Dudley Skelton, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Skelton, Richard Brinsley, 1

  Slater, Humphrey, 1, 2, 3

  Slater, Janetta, later Kee, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Smith, Matthew, 1, 2

  Snow, Carmel, 1

  Somerset, David, 1

  Sonia, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Sontag, Susan, 1

  Soraya, wife of former Shah of Iran, 1

  Spears, Michael, 1

  Spender, Stephen, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Sprague, Jane, 1

  Steele, Anthony, 1, 2, 3

  Stein, Jean, 1

  Strachey, John, 1

  Sunday Times, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Sutro, John (‘Chuff’), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20