by Brendan King
11 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796. A slightly different version appears in the published edition on p. 34.
12 Harry was also well liked by Aaron and Jo-Jo, whose mispronunciation of his name furnished him with the nickname by which he would be known in the house from then on: ‘Harry the Lion’.
13 Information from interview with Rachel Mohin, 28 March 2014.
14 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796.
15 A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967, p. 124.
16 Ibid.
17 ‘I’m Not Criticising . . . I’m Remembering.’ BL MS 83793.
18 Draft of A Weekend with Claud, deleted in the published edition. BL MS 83796.
19 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796.
20 A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967, p. 57.
21 Letter from Barley Allison, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 29 June 1960. BL MS 83735.
22 It was run by an elderly lady in Lodge Lane called Miss Smith, known in the family as ‘Miff Miff’ after Jo-Jo’s pronunciation of her name. According to Beryl, she died of a heart attack one day while playing the piano, with the children dancing around her.
23 Denis Forman, Personal Granada, André Deutsch, 1997, p. 126.
24 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. September 1961.
25 Letter to Mick Green, c. August 1961.
26 Letter from Austin Davies, 23 August 1960. BL MS 83730A.
27 Brenda Haddon, interview with author, 13 February 2013.
28 Sally Vincent, ‘Beryl Bainbridge: lady with the dangerous typewriter’, Cosmopolitan, March 1979.
29 Letter from Derek Waring, c. 21 October 1960.
30 Voll would become a respected figure in his field when he returned to Germany a few years later.
31 Letter from Gerhard Voll, 30 November 1961.
32 A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967, p. 166.
33 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1961.
34 Letter to Judith Shackleton, February 1974.
35 Name changed to protect family.
36 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1961.
37 A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967, p. 167.
38 A Weekend with Claud, New Authors, 1967, p. 180.
39 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1961.
40 Quoted in letter from Edward L. Lohman, 20 September 1961.
41 Quoted in letter from Edward L. Lohman, 28 September 1961.
42 Letter from Edward L. Lohman, 20 September 1961.
43 Letter from Edward L. Lohman, 2 January 1962.
44 Letter to Mick Green, c. August 1962.
CHAPTER 18
1 Letter to Mick Green, c. September 1961.
2 Letter to Mick Green, c. August 1962.
3 This and subsequent two quotes, letter to Judith Shackleton, September 1962.
4 This and subsequent three quotes, letter to Mick Green, c. August 1962.
5 This and subsequent quote, letter to Judith Shackleton, September 1962.
6 This and subsequent quote, letter to Mick Green, c. August 1962.
7 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796.
8 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796. The same text appears in the published edition with minor changes on p. 43.
9 Letter to Mick Green, c. September 1961.
10 Letter from Edward L. Lohman, 20 September 1961.
11 This and subsequent quotes, letter to Mick Green, c. August 1962.
12 Letter to Mick Green, c. September 1962.
13 This and subsequent three quotes, letter to Mick Green, c. October 1962.
14 Letter to Judith Shackleton, mid-October 1962.
15 Letter from Austin Davies, c. September 1962.
16 Letter to Mick Green, c. September 1962.
17 Letter to Judith Shackleton, mid-December 1962.
18 Ibid.
19 Letter to Mick Green, c. November 1962.
20 Letter to Mick Green, undated, but probably 1962 given the reference to ‘homecoming’.
21 Entry for 19 September 1959. 1955–65 Journal. BL MS 83820.
22 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796. An expanded version of these paragraphs appears in the published version, pp. 63–5.
23 Ibid.
24 Brenda Haddon, interview with author, 6 December 2012.
25 Interview with Terry Waite, Terry Waite Takes a Different View, Thames, 1986.
26 Brenda Haddon, interview with author, 6 December 2012.
27 Interview with Terry Waite, Terry Waite Takes a Different View, Thames, 1986.
28 Beryl’s Last Year, directed by Charlie Russell, BBC, 2005.
CHAPTER 19
1 Draft of unsent letter to Alan Sharp. BL MS 83730A.
2 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 6 May 1963.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ken Doggett, interview with author, 24 June 2013.
6 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 6 May 1963.
7 Letter from Ken Doggett, 5 February 1964.
8 Ken Doggett, interview with author, 24 June 2013. These incidents would be used in A Weekend with Claud, where Ken was portrayed under the name of Edward.
9 Letter from Ken Doggett, 1 October 1963.
10 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. September 1963.
11 Ibid.
12 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. October 1963.
13 ‘William at the Harvest Festival’, BL MS 83798.
14 Ibid.
15 Stephanie Nettell, ‘We’ll all go to Gedde when we go’, Books & Bookmen, April 1965.
16 Haskel Frankel, ‘Something to come home to’, Saturday Review, 8 May 1965.
17 ‘William at the Harvest Festival’, BL MS 83798.
18 This and subsequent quote, Alan Sharp letter to author, 13 February 2012.
19 Letter from Alan Sharp, c. October 1963.
20 Alan Sharp, letter to author, 13 February 2012.
21 Margaret Sharp, interview with author, 16 September 2014.
22 In later life, Beryl would state that she had met Alan’s mother in Dundee in 1952, and that she was the wardrobe mistress there. In this she was mistaken. The wardrobe mistress was Dollie McKenzie and she was not Alan’s mother.
23 Peter Craig Sr. featured in a string of newspaper reports for offences such as wife-beating, hen-stealing, drunkenness and burglary.
24 This and subsequent quote, Tom Shields, ‘Chasing Hemingway on a galloping horse’, Herald, 5 September 1992.
25 Later reprised as a television play in 1970 starring Ray Davies of the Kinks.
26 Haskel Frankel, ‘Something to come home to’, Saturday Review, 8 May 1965.
27 Letter from Ken Doggett, 24 October 1963.
28 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. November 1963.
29 Letter from Ken Doggett, 14 November 1963.
30 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. November 1963.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Letter from Ken Doggett, 17 November 1963.
35 Letter from Ken Doggett, 20 December 1963.
36 Letter from Alan Sharp, c. November 1963.
37 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. January 1964.
38 Journal entry written c. May 1964.
39 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. January 1964.
40 1964 Journal. BL MS 83821.
41 Letter from Alan Sharp to author, 13 February 2012.
42 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1964.
43 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. November 1963.
44 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1964.
45 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. March 1964. Beryl would reuse this incident in Sweet William, but in the novel her mother’s disgust is over Ann’s relationship with Gerald, rather than with William.
46 1964 Journal. BL MS 83821.
47 A few months later Beryl sent a copy of this, or one of her other radio plays, to Stephen Joseph at the Scarborough Theatre Trust. He wrote back declining the play on the gr
ound that it wouldn’t work in the theatre, but he encouraged her to continue, saying she had ‘an extraordinary talent for writing’. Letter from Stephen Joseph, 30 October 1964. BL MS 83735.
48 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. January 1964.
49 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1964.
50 Letter from Nina Froud, 29 April 1964.
51 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1964.
52 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 9 July 1964. Alan’s excuse about Sal may have been another smokescreen. When Cecil and Lili Todes arrived at Arkwright Road to collect the keys, they noticed there was a woman with him. It was only when they finally met Beryl on her return months later that they realized she wasn’t the woman they’d seen, and it dawned on them what Alan had been up to.
53 Letter from Ken Doggett, c. July 1964.
54 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. mid-August 1964.
55 This and subsequent quotes, letter to Judith Shackleton, c. September 1964.
56 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. October 1964.
57 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. November 1964
58 This and subsequent quote, letter to Alan Sharp, c. November 1964. BL MS 83730A.
59 Untitled poem, c. 1964. BL MS 83793.
CHAPTER 20
1 Letter to Alan Sharp, c. mid-January 1965.
2 Letter from Alan Sharp, c. December 1964.
3 Letter to Alan Sharp, c. February 1965.
4 Letter to Alan Sharp, c. December 1964.
5 Ibid.
6 The mix-up was most probably due to Beryl’s imprecision with dates. She also told her doctor she was born in 1934.
7 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 6 March 1965.
8 ‘Perils of Beryl’, The Sunday Times, 5 January 1986.
9 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 1 April 1965.
10 Ibid.
11 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 24 April 1965.
12 Draft of A Weekend with Claud. BL MS 83796.
13 The Guardian even jokily compared Beryl to Nathalie Sarraute, an exponent of the nouveau roman, describing the book as ‘an impressive first novel that made one think this was how Mme Sarraute might sound if she had the benefit of a Liverpool mind’. Guardian, 18 August 1967.
14 Letter from Graham Nicol, 4 August 1965. BL MS 83735. J. G. Farrell was one of the readers and later claimed to have ‘discovered’ Beryl. See Ralph Crane’s ‘A Man from Elsewhere: The Liminal Presence of Liverpool in the fiction of J. G. Farrell’, in Writing Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2007.
15 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1965.
16 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 September 1965.
17 These and the negative comments that follow are excerpts from four reader’s reports, compiled by Graham Nicol and sent to Beryl in 1965. BL MS 83735.
18 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 September 1965.
19 Details of the New Authors contract given by Alex Hamilton, Writing Talk, Matador, 2012, p. xiv.
20 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 September 1965.
21 Letter from Charles White, c. 1 July 1963.
22 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 October 1965.
23 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 September 1965.
24 Ibid.
25 The Spectator, 15 April 1965.
26 Letter from Alan Sharp, c. September 1965.
27 Nether her agent nor publisher mentioned Frankfurt at the time, and when in the 1990s Beryl did actually go to the Book Fair she made no mention of having attended before.
28 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 20 October 1965.
29 Ibid.
30 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 30 October 1965.
31 Ibid.
32 1964 Journal. BL MS 83821.
33 1964 Journal. BL MS 83821.
34 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. February 1965.
35 Letter from Charles Rycroft to Dr Marcus, 11 November 1965.
36 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. February 1966.
37 Letter from Alan Sharp, c. April 1966.
38 Letter from Alan Sharp, undated.
39 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1966. See also letter from Christy & Moore, 8 August 1966. This was probably a version of ‘I’m Not Criticising . . . I’m Remembering’.
40 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. September 1966.
41 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. November 1966.
42 Letter from John Smith, Christy & Moore, c. April 1967. BL MS 83735.
43 Letter from John Smith, Christy & Moore, 5 January 1967. BL MS 83735.
44 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 5 April 1967.
45 Ibid.
CHAPTER 21
1 Letter to Harold Retler, October 1967.
2 Penny Jones, interview with author, 15 July 2013.
3 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1967.
4 Letter from John Smith, 2 June 1967.
5 Profile by Arthur Pottersman, Sun, 4 May 1967.
6 Quoted in letter from John Smith, 19 May 1967. BL MS 83735.
7 Observer, 18 June 1967.
8 Sunday Telegraph, 18 June 1967.
9 Hampstead and Highgate Express, 30 June 1967.
10 Books & Bookmen, July 1967.
11 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. June 1967.
12 Letter from Leah Davis, 15 June 1967. BL MS 83730A.
13 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. July 1967.
14 Letter to Judith Shackleton c. July 1967 and information from Harold Retler, May 2012.
15 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1967.
16 Letter to Harold Retler, c. August 1967.
17 Letter from Harold Retler, 19 August 1967.
18 Letter to Harold Retler, 1 September 1967.
19 Ibid.
20 Letter to Harold Retler, 26 September 1967.
21 Julian Symons, review of A Weekend with Claud, The Sunday Times, 9 July 1967.
22 Letter from Jilly Cooper, 10 July 1967. BL MS 83735.
23 Chloë Buck, email to author, 29 April 2013.
24 ‘You Could Talk to Someone,’ Intro, September 1967. The version Beryl later published in Mum & Mr Armitage, ‘Perhaps You Should Talk to Someone’, is not the original unedited version, nor is it the version that appeared in Intro. Rather it is a version rewritten in 1984 especially for the collection. One of the most significant changes is in the passage quoted. The line about Moona’s attempts to cover up her emotional fragility with laughter is cut altogether, and instead of Moona admitting she has fallen in love she says: ‘I can’t fathom him at all. First he says he loves me, then he says he doesn’t’, p. 65.
25 Letter to Harold Retler, c. September 1967.
26 This and subsequent references: ‘A Walk in the Park’. BL MS 83793.
27 Letter to Harold Retler, 1 September 1967.
28 Letter from Jean Bowden, Woman’s Own, 21 November 1967.
29 Letter from Camilla Shaw, Woman, 13 December 1967. Curiously, when Beryl came to publish a collection of her short stories she chose not to include ‘A Walk in the Park’. The decision seems not to have been a literary one and was perhaps motivated by a feeling that it was too personal.
30 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. October 1967.
31 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. August 1967.
32 Letter to Harold Retler, 1 December 1967.
33 Letter from Harold Retler, 13 November 1967.
34 Letter to Harold Retler, 1 December 1967.
35 Letter to Harold Retler, 3 January 1968.
CHAPTER 22
1 Letter to Harold Retler, 3 January 1968.
2 Letter to Harold Retler, 25 January 1968.
3 Ibid.
4 Quoted in Fiction and the Fiction Industry by J. A. Sutherland, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013, p. 10.
5 Mick Farren, Give the Anarchist a Cigarette, Jonathan Cape, 2001, p. 352.
6 Letter from Michael Dempsey, 31 January 1968.
7 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. February 1968.
&nb
sp; 8 Letter from John Smith, 27 March 1968. BL MS 83735.
9 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. February 1968.
10 See letter from John Smith, 10 April 1968.
11 Letter from Maureen Woodhead, Anglia Television, 11 March 1968. BL MS 83735.
12 Letter to Harold Retler, 14 March 1968.
13 Ibid.
14 Letter to Harold Retler, 21 April 1968.
15 Letter to Harold Retler, 28 April 1968.
16 Telegram to Harold Retler, 17 May 1968.
17 Letter to Harold Retler, 24 May 1968.
18 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. July 1967.
19 Eaves Farm Journal, 1969.
20 Email from Don McKinlay to author, 28 January 2013.
21 Letter from Harold Retler to author, 14 March 2015.
22 This and subsequent quotes taken from the American journal, May–June 1968, unless otherwise specified. Information provided by Larry Levine, letter to author 30 June 2014.
23 Letter from Psiche Hughes, 11 June 1968.
24 Letter from Don McKinlay, 5 June 1968.
25 Telegram from Don McKinlay, 5 June 1968.
26 Postcard to Brenda and Stanley Haddon, 7 June 1968.
27 Letter to Austin Davies and Winnie Bainbridge, c. 10 June 1968.
28 Ibid.
29 This and subsequent quote, letter from Don McKinlay, 18 June 1968.
30 Letter to Aaron, Jo and Rudi Davies, 8 June 1968.
CHAPTER 23
1 Eaves Farm journal, 1969.
2 Sheenagh McKinlay, email to author, 13 May 2013.
3 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. July 1968.
4 This and subsequent quotes, Sheenagh McKinlay, email to author, 15 May 2013.
5 Draft letter to Alan Sharp, c. 1968. BL MS 83749.
6 Postcard from Harold Retler, 5 July 1968.
7 Letter to Harold Retler, 10 July 1968.
8 Letter to Judith Shackleton, c. July 1968.
9 Quoted in letter to Judith Shackleton, c. 1974.
10 Letter to Harold Retler, c. November 1968.
11 Letter to Harold Retler, 3 January 1968.
12 Letter to Harold Retler, c. November 1968.
13 The Times Literary Supplement, 14 November 1968.
14 Letter from John Smith, Christy & Moore, 29 October 1968. BL MS 83735.
15 Letter to Harold Retler, c. March 1969.
16 Postcard from Alison, 3 April 1969.
17 American Journal, 1968.
18 In the end the American journal wasn’t included in the batch sold to the British Library as she was still using it to write her novel.
19 Alfred Green, ‘Eyes left for Capt. Dalhousie’, Liverpool Echo, 30 September 1972.