by Mary Wesley
Beecham, Alec: National Liberal MP for West Cornwall (including Boskenna), admirer of Mary
Bernsdorf, Bridget: English friend of the Siepmanns who entertained Mary in the family schloss in Prussia, married to Hugo, Nazi and wartime member of the SA
Bernsdorf, Thora: cousin of Hugo
Bertaux, Pierre: Republican commissioner for the Toulouse region when Eric was posted there in 1944-5
Blessing, Dr. Karl: director of the Reichsbank under the Nazis, later president of the post-war Deutsche Bundesbank
Bolitho, Billy: wealthy Cornish landowner who first recruited Mary for MI5, Toby’s godfather
Bonham Carter, Lady Violet: sister of ‘Puffin’ Asquith and talkative Liberal party eminence grise
Boothby, Robert: Conservative politician, lover of Harold Macmillan’s wife Lady Dorothy, friend of Winston Churchill and Eric
Boscence, Joe: a retired dealer in antiques, living outside Penzance, a misanthrope who was fond of Mary
Bowra, Maurice: Oxford academic and wit, friend of both Mary and Eric
Cassou, Jean: French academic and Resistance officer, friend of Eric
Crossman, Richard: millionaire Socialist cabinet minister, once Eric’s resentful fag at Winchester
Curtis Brown, Spencer: founder of the literary agency and briefly Mary’s agent for her unpublished early work
Dalby, Hyacinthe: Mary’s beloved grandmother, wife of Sir William Dalby, a distinguished surgeon
Eady, Toby: literary agent, second son of Mary, grew up in Boskenna during the war
Farmar, Hugh: Mary’s elder brother, m. Constantia Rumbold, daughter of Sir Horace, pre-war British ambassador in Berlin
Farmar, Mynors: Mary’s father, professional soldier, wounded and decorated veteran of Gallipoli and Passchendaele
Fleming, Ian: managing editor of Sunday Times, later novelist
Gates, Pauline: sister of Robert Newton, introduced Mary to Eric, m. Sylvester, chairman of the British Film Institute, school friend of Eric
Gluck: successful painter living with Edith Shackleton
Gow, Nancy: once Eric’s secretary at BEA, became a close friend and loyal supporter of both Eric and Mary
Grant, Mrs: merry widow of Penzance, close friend of Mary
Green, Wing-Commander ‘Paddy’: ace fighter pilot and wartime lover of Mary
Greene, Felix: pacifist cousin of the novelist Graham, once employed by Charles Siepmann at the BBC
Grenfell, Alice: housemaid at Boskenna who took over the nursery and helped to raise all Mary’s children
Grimond, Jo: youthful leader of the Liberal Party, his wife, Laura, was the daughter of Violet Bonham Carter (q.v.)
Handley, Michael: security service officer in Hong Kong, later director-general of MI5
Hill, Paul: Penzance solicitor, friend of Col. Paynter and second husband of Betty Paynter
Hughes, Maj. Glyn: owner of the Beverley Court Hotel in Chagford where Mary and Eric sought refuge from Phyllis Siepmann
Ingrams, Leonard St Clair: merchant banker, aviator and friend of Eric; father of Richard Ingrams
John, Edwin: painter son of Augustus, living in Mousehole with a collection of his Aunt Gwen’s paintings
Keswick, Sir John: taipan of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, friend of Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai, wartime agent for SOE
Kingsmill, Hugh: writer and humourist, friend of Eric
Kirkpatrick, Sir Ivone: British High Commissioner for Germany, 1950-53, head of the Foreign Office, then chairman of the Independent Television Authority
Knox, Mgr. Ronald: Catholic convert, brother of leading Bletchley codebreaker, friend of the Asquith family, translated the Bible
Lee, Raymond: louche French SOE agent and friend of Mary
Maisky, Mikhailovich: wartime Soviet ambassador in London
Mangan, Father Richard SJ: Jesuit priest based at Farm Street who instructed and received Mary and Eric into the Catholic Church
Masaryk, Jan: exiled Czech politician, close friend of Heinz Ziegler
Melikof, Boris: French communist resister and lover of Mary
Micklem, Nat: theologian, academic, politician and friend of Eric
Mitford, Nancy: novelist and pre-war friend of Eric
Morris, Claud: lover of Betty Paynter, later radical printer and publisher
Muggeridge, Malcolm: journalist, briefly editor of Punch and friend of Eric
Mynors, Sir Roger: godfather to Mary’s son, Roger, twin brother to Sir Humphrey, dep. governor of the Bank of England
Newton, Robert: prominent actor and film star, grew up at Lamorna Cove as a tenant of Col. Paynter
Norman, Montagu: governor of the Bank of England, friend of the Siepmann brothers
Paynter, Betty: daughter of the colonel, heiress of Boskenna, close friend of Mary
Paynter, Col. Camborne: eccentric landowner and generous host
Paynter, Sonya: Betty’s only child, grew up with Roger and Toby at Boskenna
Portal, Sir Francis Bt.: chairman of Portals (manufacturers of banknote paper), school contemporary, later employer, of Eric
Quennell, Peter: critic and author, Oxford contemporary and friend of both Eric and Evelyn Waugh
Rodd, Peter: adventurer and conman, Oxford contemporary and long-time friend of Eric
Schacht, Dr. Hjalmar: German economic genius and war criminal, friend of both Eric and Harry Siepmann
Shackleton, Edith: last lover of both Gluck and WB Yeats, wartime visitor to Boskenna
Siepmann, Bill: Mary’s third son
Siepmann, Charles: second son of Otto; BBC producer, later American businessman
Siepmann, Harry: first son of Otto; economist, director of the Bank of England
Siepmann, Otto: exile from Bismarck’s Germany, master at Clifton College and leading language teacher of his day
Siepmann, Phyllis: née Morris, peppery and vindictive second wife of Eric
Siepmann, Ricardo: cousin of Otto; Hamburg businessman with a finger in every pie
Stopford, Richmond: Bachelor MI6 officer who became a family friend of the Siepmanns
Strauss, Dr. Eric: notable West End psychiatrist who treated both Eric and Phyllis
Sutherland, ‘Geordie’, 5th Duke of: ladies’ man and frequent visitor to Boskenna
Swinfen, Carol, 2nd Baron: Mary’s first husband, kindly and generous father to Roger and Toby
Swinfen Eady, Roger: Mary’s eldest son, grew up at Boskenna, later 3rd Baron Swinfen
Waller, Lady: pompous neighbour at Thornworthy, sister of Mary’s landlady
Waugh, Evelyn: Oxford contemporary and lifelong contemptor (sic) of Eric
White, Antonia: author of Frost in May and pre-war lover of Eric’s, Catholic godmother of both Mary and Eric
Woodruff, Douglas: Catholic polemicist, journalist and author, editor of the Tablet
Ziegler, Heinz: Czech economics professor, later rear-gunner in RAF, killed in action in 1943, natural father of Toby
Ziegler, Paul: brother of Heinz, banker, later Benedictine monk
1. Mary Farmar, aged 24 in 1936, shortly before her engagement to Carol Swinfen.
2. Eric Siepmann, aged 20 in 1923, a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, shortly before abandoning his studies.
3. Mary writes from Boskenna in July 1945. (See corresponding letter here.)
Mary and Eric’s correspondence was in manuscript. Mary invariably wrote her great looping hand in pen and ink.
4. Eric writes from Chagford in September 1958.
Eric usually wrote in pencil, in the neat, exact handwriting in which he wrote all his books, until the inevitable moment arrived and he destroyed them.
Mary kept all their letters in chronological order, in shoeboxes, until the year she died.
5. Twelfth of May 1937: Lord and Lady Swinfen, robed for the Coronation of George VI.
6. Some of the children of the wartime nursery at Boskenna: (l.to r.) Toby, Ann Bailey, Nicky and Roger.
7. Colonel Cambome Paynter JP on the lawn at Boskenna in West Cornwall, with Paul Hill, second husband of his only child Betty. Together the magistrate and the solicitor ran the local black market.
8. Heinz Ziegler, alias ‘Flying Officer Henry Zetland’ of RAF Bomber Command, rear gunner and professor of economics, secretly Toby’s father.
9. Wing-Commander ‘Paddy’ Green DSO, DFC, night-fighter pilot and one of Mary’s wartime lovers.
10. Father Paul Ziegler, Heinz’s younger brother; banker, anti-aircraft gunner during the Blitz and finally a Benedictine monk. The Ziegler parents were deported from Prague to Auschwitz.
11. Going into battle – Eric’s first wife, Phyllis, arriving at the Divorce Court in July 1951. She was a champion skier who drove Eric out of three jobs, punched Mary in front of the children and bit a hotel keeper in the leg.
12. July 1954: Eric at Broughton with Pebble and his son Billy, born in 1953.
13. Toby, Sonya and Mary. Sonya Paynter found refuge from her mother’s rackety life with Mary, who loved her as a daughter.
14. Toby, Roger, Mary and Eric, the golden days before the crash.
15. Roger, a regular officer in the 1st Royal Scots, leaves Mary in 1959 to join his unit.
16. Mary, alone and broke in an unheated cottage on Dartmoor, after Eric’s death.
17. Cullaford Cottage, Dartmoor, last home of Eric and Mary. The thatcher said that Mrs Siepmann paid him in cash, and was the only customer who always paid him on the nail.
18. Mary Wesley, on a summer holiday during her years of fame.
19. Mary and Sonya at a publication party in London in the 1990s. They are in the arms of David Salmon, a good friend and Dartmoor neighbour, who Mary could always count on for a Christmas joint.
20. Bogan Cottage, Totnes, where she wrote The Camomile Lawn. The shelves by Mary’s bed in the room in which she died.
Acknowledgements
My thanks are due to the literary executors of Mary Siepmann and Eric Siepmann for making the publication of this correspondence possible. I am particularly grateful to Toby Eady, a steadfast friend and for many years my agent. As a veteran of the wartime nursery at Boskenna, his help in identifying many of the inhabitants, human and otherwise, of the Siepmanns’ circle has been invaluable. I must also thank Xin Ran Hue Eady for her high-spirits and encouragement, and Kate Ganz, a close friend of Mary’s, who gave permission for the use of several of the photographs.
I would also like to thank Veronique Baxter of David Higham Associates. At Random House, I am grateful to Rachel Cugnoni, Beth Coates and Kate Harvey for first recognising the potential of these letters, and to Mikaela Pedlow for seeing the book through the press. My original editor in this project was the late Penelope Hoare. Penny continued to provide invaluable guidance with her habitual enthusiasm and good humour despite suffering a painful illness. She worked on the book with great courage until the week before her sudden death in May 2017.
INDEX
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Allen, Phyllis, 14, 51
Alsace, Robert d’, 88, 88n, 89
Anouilh, Jean, The Lark, 204n
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 45
Aragon, Louis, 6, 6n, 13, 30–31, 82
Armstrong, Bill, 65, 66
Arnold, Father Gabriel, 279, 281–282, 284
Asquith, Anthony ‘Puffin’, xxii, 12
Asquith, Arthur, 187n
Asquith, Herbert Henry, xxii
Asquith, Margot, xxii
Asquith, Susan, 187, 187n
Astor, Bill, 232
Astor, David, 146, 162, 169
Austen, Jane, Emma, 208, 214
Balfour, Patrick, 165 see Kinross, Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron
Bali, Indonesia, 186–187
Bankes-Jones, Edith (née Siepmann), 86, 103, 251, 251n, 286, 288
Bartlett, Vernon, 106, 106n, 108
Basclose Farm, Otterton, 276, 278
Bates, H. E., 125
Batten, Jean, 54
Baumer, Lewis, 125, 125n, 127
Beaumont, Jimmy, 58
Beddington, Jack, 232, 235, 253
Beddington, Rosemary, 232
Beechman, Nevil Alexander (‘Alec’), 6, 6n, 7, 14, 15, 18, 20, 28, 33, 35–36, 52, 57, 74, 76
Beerbohm, Max, Seven Men, 214
Benda, Julien, 24, 24n, 70
Bennison, Geoffrey, 35
Berlin, Germany, 133–135, 141–142
Berlin Airlift, 130, 133, 142
Berners, Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron, 76n
Bernsdorf, Bridget, 176, 177, 184
Bernsdorf, Hugo, 184
Bernsdorf, Thora, 198, 198n, 208, 213, 257
Bernstein, Sydney, 90
Bertaux, Pierre, 24, 69, 69n, 166, 166n
Blackwood, Bill, 73, 73n, 74
Blackwood, Diana, xix, 20, 65, 66, 70, 77
Blackwood, Nicky, xix–xx, 10, 21, 68
Blessing, Dr Karl, 173, 173n, 183, 184, 244
Blitz, London, xv, xix, 38
Blum, Leon, 109
Blunt, Sir Anthony, 171n
Bolitho, Billy, 48
Bolitho, John, 48n
Bonham Carter, Violet, 247, 247n
Boothby, Evelyn Basil, 187, 187n
Boothby, Robert, 81, 81n, 168, 168n, 169
Boris, George, 17, 17n
Boscence, Joe, 76–77, 76n, 79
Boskenna, Cornwall, xvii, xix, xx, 207, 207n
Bowra, Maurice, xxii, 45, 45n, 58, 125, 202 Bracken, Brendan, 81, 81n
Bradley, Dennis, 8, 8n, 12, 13, 27
Bridie, James, It Depends What You Mean, 8, 8n, 11–12
Brinckman, Mary, Lady (née Linton), 39n
Brinckman, Rosemary (née Hope-Vere), 28, 28n, 38–39, 48, 53, 57, 76, 78, 107
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 31, 271, 272, 273
British Council, 33
British European Airways, 113, 117
Buckfast Abbey, 276, 285
Burgess, Guy, 171n
Burma, 187
Carnock, Frederick, 2nd Baron (‘Lord Puff-Puff’), 9
Cartland, Barbara, 37n
Cary, Joyce, Prisoner of Grace, 185, 185n
Cassou, Jean, 108, 108n, 158, 162n, 163
Cattier, Michel, 214, 215, 217, 219, 223, 224, 226, 229, 231, 236, 241, 245–246
Charles, Nicky, 199, 234, 237, 239
Churchill, Winston, xxiii, 121
Clark, Norman, 142
Clifton College, Bristol, 286
Cobb, Carolyn, 123, 127, 129, 209, 212
Cobbold, Cameron, 155, 155n
Cockburn, Claud, 108, 108n, 225n
Cockburn, Patricia, 108, 108n
Cohen, Harriet, 120
Coleman, Emily Holmes, 260, 260n, 282n
Colman, Ronald, xxiii
Compton-Burnett, Ivy, 121, 284
Cooper, Duff, 17, 17n
Cooper, Lady Diana, xxii
Coward, Noël, 98
Cox, Geoffrey, 274
Crossman, R. H. S., xxiv
Curtis Brown, Spencer, 41, 63, 88, 115, 115n, 117
Dalby, Hyacinthe, Lady (née Wellesley), xvii
Dalby, Sir William, xviii
Dalton, Hugh, 115, 115n
Davenport, John, 225, 225n, 227–228, 230, 231
David, Gwenda, 225, 225n, 227, 230, 231, 231n
Dawnay, George, 78
Devos, Mrs, 85, 85n, 89
Dibelius, Martin, 198, 198n
Dieppe, France, 30
Djilas, Milovan, 163, 163n
Döhnoff, Marion Grafin von, 176–178, 176n, 180, 185
Donegall, Arthur Chichester, 6th Marquis of, 33, 33n
Donne, John, 127
Downing, Tony, 100
Dunlop, Sir John, 173, 177, 178, 180, 181
Eady, Toby: banking career, 254, 25
7n, 259, 265; at Boskenna, xix; childhood, 7, 10, 14, 34, 35, 68, 76, 92, 96, 98, 101, 104, 138, 159; education, 128, 130, 267n; paternity, xvii, 4n, 124, 259n, 267–270, 278; reading, 272, 273; and religion, 261; at Thornworthy, 252, 253, 262
Eliot, T. S., 16
Elizabeth, Queen (the Queen Mother), 255
Elliott, Denholm, 147n
Emanuel, Ronnie, 57, 58, 70, 116, 142, 160
Emanuel, Vera, 48, 48n, 50–51
Farmar, Captain George, xvii
Farmar, Colonel Mynors, xvii–xviii
Farmar, Constantia (née Rumbold), 13, 13n, 59, 65, 66, 101
Farmar, Hugh, xviii, 10, 13, 13n, 55n, 59, 65, 66, 77, 237n
Farmar, Major General William, xvii
Farmar, Susan, xviii, 14
Farmar, Violet (née Dalby), xvii
Fedden, Robin, 90, 90n, 93
Fiertag, Gisele, 215, 217, 219, 226, 228, 229, 241, 245, 250
Fleming, Ian, 130, 131, 145, 146, 163, 163n, 169
Fleming, Peter, 246
Fry, Christopher: The Lark (translation), 204, 204n; Venus Observed, 147, 147n, 148
Gabbitas Thring (employment agency), 202, 202n
Gargoyle Club, 86
Gascoyne, David, 92
Gates, Pauline, xxi, 4, 4n, 6–7, 11–12, 28, 52, 63, 67–68, 74, 75, 85, 173, 227n
Gates, Sylvester, xxi, 4n, 13, 52, 63, 67
Gaulle, General de, 36, 107
George, Prince of Hanover, 232, 233, 242, 247
Germany, division of, 143, 143n
Gielgud, John, xxiii, 41
Gillie, Darcie, 36, 106, 108
Glass, Ann, 171, 171n
Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein), 61–62, 61n, 66, 67, 70, 98
Gollancz (publisher), 193, 194
Gordon, George, 161, 161n
Gordon Dadds (solicitors), 28, 64, 159, 164, 165
Gow, Nancy, 116, 116n, 117, 159, 160, 205, 208, 220, 272