Complain! complain! Of course Tina mustn’t do any lifting and little Luke is only six weeks, and it was terrible to give her this extra work, but I am quite able to crawl about and open tins and wash up for myself now, but she has done endless telephoning for me and been an angel. And if this hadn’t happened I could have come and looked after you a bit, which I’d have been so glad to do.
I was just thinking about Rawle – if only he’d been well enough to stay at Boughton! He was really in charge there, and organising it all so well, and v. interested in the house and its fine pictures and furniture and the flat, though not as nice as Ashe Cottage, was pretty good – but there you are, they really asked too much of him and it couldn’t be managed.
[incomplete]
76 Clifton Hill
Sat: morning [1986]
Dearest Mary,
Thankyou so much for lovely p.c. – yes I’d love to come and see Belinda’s pix, and to lunch in Winchester, though can’t quite make out if the private view is Fri or Sat, but will ring you. Just off for the long trek down to Theale. Longing to see them, but oh that endless bus journey round by Radstock and Midsomer Norton. Still, I’m lucky to have a bus at all. They’re introducing small yellow buses now – Small Badger lines, much like Hoppas.
Another photographer yesterday, very slender and wonderful looking, and called Tara Heinemann – clearly better if she was photographed – lives in a 15th century stone-walled thatched cottage near Banbury with her husband – and that’s the last of them I do hope, for the American publishers who are due to bring out Innocence next spring, though I’m afraid it’s not quite the sort of thing they read in America.
Joan is digging an enormous hole in the garden with a spade larger than herself, to put in peat. What energy – then she’s off to Ireland. – I went to dinner with Susie Svoboda who tells me that she always works till past midnight, as it ensures sleep.
I don’t think it was hard work that made you ill, though, Mary, (though you do work hard, of course), I think it was worry, old worries and unhappiness that came up into the forefront of the mind, as such things will. But they’re all gone now, and I think you’re managing so well, knocking off the prescription slowly and getting really better at your own pace. Glad Mrs R so helpful about the exhibition (I mean the finger food!)
much love Mops
76 Clifton Hill, NW8
30 November [1986]
Dearest Mary – So sorry I couldn’t find you at Waterloo yesterday till the last minute, I was stupidly looking all over what BR call the concourse – no matter, we made it! I enjoyed it very much, the house was so welcoming and full of children of all shapes and sizes – it was a party, as your exhibition was too. – I’m just writing to thank Belinda, and have told her something which isn’t quite true, viz: that you got one box for me, but please don’t think it is for me, it’s just that I didn’t quite see my way to buying anything – that sounds horrid, but isn’t meant to be – clearly the whole exhibition was a great success and many more orders will follow. – Nicolette’s book is a different matter, you’re right, and I must make an effort and get one – you have to go the publishers (Kentish Town) or to the Shepard home in Limerton St., both rather an effort. How lazy I’m getting! – But I did enjoy yesterday, and William’s children are as nice as they could possibly be, William stays so calm amid all the coming and going!
Needless to say, Mary, I didn’t want you, partic. with all these farewell parties, services &c, to bother about my Women Artists, it’s just if you should happen to think of anything – I shall have to do my best, and ‘fudge it, Madam, fudge it’ as I believe Bird’s Nest Hunt used to say – Of course one shouldn’t undertake to write about things one doesn’t know about, but there it is.
Lovely to see you anyway love Mops
Innocence was mentioned in the Spectator’s best books of 1986 – only once! And by one person – still once is better than nothing and Collins are pathetically pleased.
76 Clifton Hill
Thursday
Dearest Mary – just a note, although it ought to be much more, to thank you for the lovely dinner, and then on coming back I found your birthday card, so Theale-like and comforting with all the livestock at peace for once: and your most kind present, which mustn’t be and won’t be spent without thought – but I do really need a new little radio as mine is just worn out, new batteries don’t help – so I think it will go towards that, it’s hard to work without a little music.
Thankyou 10000 times – I’ve got to go down to the Arts Council now for yet another meeting and Julian* has just rung up quite madly from Ireland, I can’t make out what he’s talking about – very ill, as usual, but, I think, really perfectly well.
Much love and many thanks
Mops.
Really it’s a great treat to have a card drawn exclusively for you – and I won’t say you shouldn’t have sent the £££ because I appreciate it so much.–
27 Bishop’s Road, N6
3 August [1995]
Dearest Mary,
I am so sorry that I’m laid low by something, possibly to do with the heat, and so are poor Thomas and Alfie – and on Saturday I am supposed to be going to Provence with Tina and family, so am trying to get better, so as not to be too much of a nuisance! We’ve rented a house at Grasse, just for 2 weeks, as Tina was suddenly taken by a fancy to smell the lavender and roses. I hope they’ll all be out! We’re going to fly to Nice, and hire a car there to drive up to Grasse.
Meantime I thought I’d send you what news I have. Bryony, William’s eldest, has done very well indeed in her metal-work and sculpture course and won an important prize (£1000) awarded by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for the best exhibits in the art colleges, for a Gryphon in copper or silver (I think), she has real talent and I’m sure will do great things. Ben and Rowan are both in Sri Lanka, staying with William and Jenny [passage obliterated by water stain]
Tina and Terence have moved into the new house. It’s called Marshville, which sounds like a penitentiary, but they’re not going to change the name, because everyone round there knows it. It’s only 10 minutes from the sea, a lovely beach at Crackington Haven, and although of course the move was a terrible business, as moves always are – and Tina even brought her little toolshed with her – and nothing is straight yet, – but it’s wonderful for them to have a proper room each, and 3 living rooms counting the kitchen, which is nice and large so they can have all their meals there – they couldn’t even all sit down together in Milton Abbot – and a huge garden where they won’t have to do a lot of work, except mowing the grass, as it is so close to the sea that only fuchsias and blackthorns and things like that will grow. At first the children were doubtful about going to the bottom of the garden, it was so far away, but then Tina organised a picnic under an apple-tree at the very end and they began to realise what a wonderful place they’d got to play in. There just wasn’t room for them in the cottage – they had to move, and I’m so glad that at last they’ve found someone to buy the cottage, although I shall miss Milton Abbot, it was lovely with its rooks and elm trees and the view of Dartmoor. But it will be much easier for Tina at Marshville, and a shorter drive for her, too, to work at Bude.
They have bought a brand new petrol-mower, which I’m sure was a good idea – it’s no use getting a 2nd hand one, they always go wrong.
My geraniums just love this weather and are flowering away like mad, and the roses too but they seem to die away so soon.
Please don’t think I’ve forgotten about your poor shoulder, I certainly haven’t, and hope it’s not giving you too much trouble –
All our love, dearest Mary – Mops
Helen Knox*
27a Bishop’s Road, N6
23 February [1998]
Dearest Helen,
I did so much appreciate your asking me down yesterday and the ceremony, if that’s not too grand a word for it, was so absolutely right, and so were the words on the memorial st
one – ‘writer, humanist and friend’ – I’d expected to find the beautiful spring sunshine rather saddening but in the end I didn’t – I think none of us did – and the curate (I think she was a curate), without knowing Rawle at all, said exactly the right thing.
Belinda and Robert were so kind, picking me up at Reading, which seemed to me to be miles out of their way, and Ben saw me into my tube at King’s Cross, what a very kind boy he is, refusing to be bored by his elderly relatives.
They’re all doing so well – (it will be a treat to see what Bryony designs for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers –) and Rawle would have been so very proud, even if he only expressed it in a very few words.
And it was lovely to see you all – I’m only sorry that I was in such poor condition, although much restored by the delicious lunch, which made me feel that perhaps I’ll soon be getting better – about time!
with many thanks and much love
Mops
II.
WRITING
Richard Garnett*
25 Almeric Road
London, sw11
18 June [1976]
Dear Mr Garnett,
Thankyou very much for your letter about the Knox brothers’ book – I am getting on, and am relying on the summer vacation to get most of it done, and I haven’t lost heart, although we’re now threatened with another book on Enigma, this time translated from the Polish, I think.
Looking through my file I find the names of numerous people who say they ‘would like to see the draft before there’s any question of anything being printed’, but as they’re mostly eminent professors &c. who are likely to make criticisms from habit, I think it would be best to ignore this, and hope that they’ve forgotten all about it?
I would like to ask you one thing, as a Kingsman – I’ve had it suggested to me several times by now that Frank Birch was the real ‘Third Man’ who was in touch, presumably, with the USSR and got Burgess and Philby away. But Mrs: Birch, his widow, is still alive, so I suppose I’d better not hint at this? (Frank Birch, I should add, was a great friend of Dillwyn Knox and was with him in the Communications dept. in both world wars) –
yours sincerely,
Penelope Fitzgerald
25 Almeric Road
London, sw11
7 August [1976]
Dear Mr: Garnett,
Thankyou very much for your letter of 3 August about the Coward McCann contract. Needless to say I do think it should go ahead, and I am most grateful to you, and rather amazed that the subject should be interesting to Americans, or thought to be interesting, but I’ll do the best I can to make it readable, and, meanwhile, thankyou once again,
yours sincerely,
Penelope Fitzgerald
25 Almeric Road
London, sw11
4 November [1976]
Dear Mr: Garnett,
I’m afraid I have another problem, and once again have to ask you for help.
I enclose about 1000 words from my draft about the 4 brothers: it’s about Lytton Strachey’s mild attempt to seduce my uncle, and I want to keep it in because so much of the book has to be about Xtian doctrine, Bible translation &c, and I hoped this incident would act as light relief.
The problem is this – the quotations are from unpublished letters from Strachey to Duncan Grant: I am sure Duncan Grant wouldn’t object as he has lent (or sold) them to the British Museum, and they are on open deposit, filed as ADD. MS. 58120: but as they are unpublished, I have to get copyright permission from the Strachey Trust.
Unfortunately, the Trust itself can do nothing: all permission has to come from Michael Holroyd (who is always away) and Paul Levy.
Paul Levy (whom I’ve never met) lives in various Oxford farmhouses, one after another, taking with him most of Lytton Strachey’s correspondence. He’s been sorting it out for several years and won’t let one (or me, at any rate) consult it. The Strachey trust ‘hoped’ that all the letters would be deposited in the BM last year, but they hoped in vain.
They describe Mr Levy as ‘not altogether an easy person to deal with’.
Meanwhile I have written to him to ask permission to use the letters to Grant, which as I’ve said are luckily not down at the farm-house but in the MS room of the British Library. I enclose a copy of his reply.
I don’t know why he is going through my Burne-Jones book, (which was checked by the top Burne-Jones expert) but that is perhaps not the point. Nor do I understand what he means by my notes – the notes I’ve taken are from the original mss, there’s nowhere else to get them from. But it’s clear that he has taken against me.
I wondered therefore whether you would write and ask for permission to use these extracts from ADD MS 58120? I know it’s all a great fuss about very little, but all writers are more or less intimidated by all publishers (and I think Paul Levy is a writer, although he doesn’t seem to write anything). I hoped that if you wrote he might simply agree without any more fuss.
I also realise that it’s my business, really, to get the permissions, but in this case I’m daunted. I’ve never had this trouble before –
yours sincerely
Penelope Fitzgerald
25 Almeric Road
London, sw11
14 November [1976]
Dear Mr Garnett,
I enclose the references to the passages from the Lytton Strachey/ Duncan Grant letters and should be more than grateful if you would write to Mr Levy, as I am sure he will give consent at once in that case. I’m afraid my mistake was in asking to see his papers at all – I’ve just been looking through some of his old letters and I see that he told me I could come and see them in June 74, but nothing ever came of this. They were not catalogued then – I don’t know if they are now.
I would also like to apologise for appearing so harassed but it’s the time of year when the university entrance exams come up and teachers get unnaturally agitated. It’s all a very small matter – I do know that –
yours sincerely
Penelope Fitzgerald
P.S. I’m also sorry that I sent you an uncorrected copy, but the one I enclose is corrected. My whole life is spent in apologising to someone or other, I’m afraid.
[postcard]
[1976]
I’m sorry I said quadratic instead of simultaneous equations when trying to explain the routine work on Enigma – I don’t wonder that as a mathematician you shrink away in disgust – my only excuse is that I’d been trying most of the rest of the day to explain the difference between irony and satire to my VI form – I’ll get down to work now and try to send you a readable typescript – PMF
25 Almeric Road
London, sw11
5 February 1977
Dear Richard,
Thankyou for your letter and for the photocopy. Looking blankly at it I notice some mistakes (mine, of course) which I’ve attached to this letter, and would be very grateful if you could correct them. I also attach the acknowledgements which I hope are all right. My persecutor Paul Levy can’t go in there, he’ll have to go in the permissions, which I’m afraid I can’t finish till I hear from the Kipling estate about the R. K. letter I’ve quoted. I’ve written to them, however. (There’s also an unpublished Maynard Keynes letter on p. 172, but it is quite trivial, and I don’t want to ask permission as Lord Kahn is so unpleasant and refuses everything on principle.)
The names and dates are:
EDMUND (Evoe) 1880–1971
DILLWYN 1883–1943
WILFRED 1886–1950
RONALD 1888–1957
I think they could have their ordinary christian names? It’s a puzzle, I admit.
I enclose the best photograph I have of all 4 of them together – it’s dark, I know, but has a period charm, particularly as the Bishop appears to be holding a Bible.
I’ve also done a family tree, which I enclose, though I’m not really sure how to do them – I couldn’t type it, my typing is not up to it, so if it is of any use do you think yo
u could get one of your operatives to type it? The original family tree was lost by Evelyn Waugh, but I daresay it was largely imaginary.
If you’ll allow me to say so, I feel terribly depressed at the idea of the million machines &c. Wouldn’t it sound like Blue Peter, or the old Would you believe it columns? I think the figure, whether yours or the Faculty of Economics, will make a good impression on its own?
On the other hand, I do apologise for suggesting that the order of the Enigma keyboard had nothing to do with the order of the contacts on the rotors, to which it was wired, because it did. If the keyboard is in alphabetical order, A is wired to the first contact, B to the 2nd, &c. and this means that the decipherer can ignore the keyboard altogether when he is working out the displacements – it doesn’t add to the complexity at all. But if the machine has the typewriter keyboard, Q will be wired to the first contact and (assuming that the rotor starts at setting A) this will be a displacement of 10, and W E R T &c. will all produce unknown displacements. This I AM SURE YOU WILL AGREE makes a simple simultaneous equation impossible. (Dilly’s solution of the keyboard really was important – all my informants were certain about this – and I thought I was lucky to have found one complete solution which could be explained, because I’m sure most of his work would be quite unintelligible.)
I’m afraid I do need a bibliography, I can’t get everything into the acknowledgements, but I’ll make it as short as I can and send it in a day or so. Will that be all right? – best wishes Penelope
P.S. I still think the BBC TV programme on Wed: night may explain everything much better than I can. I’ll try and watch it anyway.
So I Have Thought of You Page 28