by Simon Raven
Llewyllyn, Tullia: always called and known as 'Baby'; Tom and Patricia's daughter, born in 1960 (JB, PWTS, CLS, BFB); on the removal from the scene of her mother, is sent away to school in the autumn of 1973 (TS). Becomes a close friend of Captain Detterling. now Marquess Canteloupe.
Lloyd-James, Mrs Peregrine: widowed mother of Somerset Lloyd-James (BFB).
LLOYD-JAMES, Somerset: a senior schoolboy and friend of Fielding Gray in 1945 (FC); by 1955, Editor of Strix, an independent economic journal (RPL); still editor of Strix In 1959 (FPL) and now seeking a seat in Parliament: still editor of Strix in 1962 (JB). but now also a Member of Parliament and unofficial adviser to Lord Canteloupe q.v., still M.P. and close associate of Canteloupe in 1967 (PWTS), and by 1970 Canteloupe's official understrapper in the House of Commons (CLS), still so employed in 1972 (BFB), with the title of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Commerce; 1972 (BFB).
Lykiadopoulos, Stratis: a Greek gentleman, or not far off it; professional gambler and a man of affairs (FLP) who has a brief liaison with Mark Lewson; friend and partner of Max de Freville q.v. (FLP). with whom he has business interests in Cyprus (JB) and later in Corfu (CLS); comes to Venice In the autumn of 1973 (TS) to run a Baccarat Bank and thus prop up his fortunes in Corfu, which are now rather shaky. Is accompanied by Max de Freville q.v. and a Sicilian boy called Piero q.v.
Maisie: a whore (RPL, FLP, JB) frequented with enthusiasm by Fielding Gray, Lord Cantaloupe and Somerset Lloyd-James: apparently still going strong as late as 1967 (ref. PWTS) and even 1970 (ref. CLS), and 1972 (BFB).
Mayerston: a revolutionary (PWTS).
Mond, Daniel: a mathematician: research student of Lancaster College (SS) sent to Göttingen University in 1952 to follow up his line of research, which unexpectedly turns out to have a military potential; later Fellow of Lancaster and teacher of pure mathematics (PWTS). in Venice in 1973 (TS).
Morrison, Helen: Peter Morrison's wife (RPL, FLP, BFB).
MORRISON, Peter: senior schoolboy with Fielding Gray and Somerset Lloyd-James q.v. in 1945 (FG); an officer cadet at the O.T.S., Bangalore, from late 1945 to summer 1946 (SR) and then commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Wessex Fusiliers, whom he joins at Berhampore: by 1952 has inherited substantial estates in East Anglia and by 1955 is a Member of Parliament (RPL) where he leads 'the Young England Group': but in 1956 applies for Chiltem Hundreds (RPL): tries and fails to return to Parliament in 1959 (FLP); reported by Lord Canteloupe (CLS) as having finally got a seat again after a by-election in 1968 and as having retained it at the General Election in 1970; in 1972 appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Commerce on the demise of Somerset Lloyd-James (BFB); appointed Minister of Commerce on death of Lord Canteloupe q.v. in 1973 (TS): soon after is in Venice to take a hand in industrial intrigues in Mestre.
Morrison, 'Squire': Peter's father (FG), owner of a fancied racehorse (Tiberius), c. 1950.
Mortleman, Alister: an officer cadet at the O.T.S., Bangalore. 1945-6, later commissioned into the Wessex Fusiliers (SR).
Motley, Mick: Lieutenant of the R.A.M.C., attached to the Wessex Fusiliers at Göttingen in 1952 (SS).
Murphy, 'Wanker': an officer cadet at the O.T.S., Bangalore. 1945-6; later commissioned as Captain in the Education Corps, then promoted to be Major and Galloper to the Viceroy of India (SR). 1946 (SR).
Muscateer. Earl of: son of Lord and Lady Canteloupe q.v.: an officer cadet at the O.T.S., Bangalore, 1945-6 (SR). 1946(SR).
Nicos: a Greek boy who picks up Fielding Gray (JB).
Ogden, The Reverend Andrew: Dean of the Chapel of Lancaster College (PWTS).
Ongley, Mrs Harriet: rich American widow; Fielding Gray's mistress and benefactress from 1962 onwards (JB, PWTS, CLS), but has left him by 1972 (BFB).
Pappenheim, Herr: German ex-officer of World War II; in 1952 about to rejoin new West German Army as a senior staff officer (SS).
Percival, Leonard: cloak-and-dagger man; in 1952 nominally a lieutenant of the Wessex Fusiliers at Göttingen (SS), but by 1962 working strictly in plain clothes (JB); friend of Max de Freville, with whom he occasionally exchanges information to their mutual amusement (JB); transferred to a domestic department ('Jermyn Street') of the secret service and rated 'Home enquiries only', because of stomach ulcers in 1972, when he investigates, in association with Detterling, the death of Somerset Lloyd-James (BFB); joins Detterling (now Lord Canteloupe) in Venice in 1973 in order to investigate a 'threat' to Detterling (TS). Becomes Detterling's personal secretary and retires from 'Jermyn Street'.
Percival, Rupert: a small-town lawyer in the west country (FLP), prominent among local Conservatives and a friend of Alistair Dixon q.v.: Leonard Percival's uncle (JB).
Philby, The Lord: proprietor of Strix (RPL, FLP) which he has inherited along with his title from his father, 'old' Philby.
Piero: A Sicilian boy who accompanies Lykiadopoulos q.v. to Venice in 1973 (TS). Becomes friend of Daniel Mond. Not to be confused with Piero Albani q.v.
Pough (pronounced Pew). The Honourable Grantchester Fitz-Margrave: Senior Fellow of Lancaster College, Professor Emeritus of Oriental Geography, at one time celebrated as a mountaineer; a dietary fadist (PWTS).
Pulcher, Detective Sergeant: assistant to Detective Superintendent Stupples, q.v. (BFB).
Restarick, Earle: American cloak-and-dagger man; in 1952 apparently a student at Göttingen University (SS) but in fact taking an unwholesome interest in the mathematical researches of Daniel Mond q.v.: later active in Cyprus (JB) and in Greece (CLS); at Mestre in autumn of 1973 in order to assist with American schemes for the industrialization of the area (TS); present at Daniel Mond's funeral.
Roland, Christopher: a special school friend of Fielding Gray (FG). 1945 (FG).
Salinger, Donald: senior partner of Salinger & Holbrook, a printing firm (RPL); in 1956 marries Vanessa Drew (RPL); is deserted by Jude Holbrook q.v. in the summer of 1956 (RPL) but in 1959 is still printing (FLP). and still married to Vanessa: in 1972 is reported as having broken down mentally and retired to a private Nursing Home in consequence of Vanessa's death by drowning (BFB).
Schottgatt, Doctor Emile: of Montana University, Head of the 'Creative Authentication Committee' of the Oglander-Finckelstein Trust, which visits Corfu in 1970 (CLS) to assess the merits of the Pandarus/Clytemnestra production of The Odyssey.
Schroeder, Alfie: a reporter employed by the Billingsgate Press (RPL, FLP, SS); by 1967 promoted to columnist (PWTS); 'famous' as columnist by 1973, when he attends Daniel Mond's funeral (TS).
Sheath, Aloysius: a scholar on the staff of the American School of Greek Studies in Athens, but also assistant to Earle Restarick q.v. (JB, CLS).
Stern, Gregory: publisher (RPL), later in partnership with Captain Detterling q.v. (FLP); publishes Tom Llewyllyn and Fielding Gray q.v. (RPL, FLP, JB, PWTS, CLS): married to Isobel Turbot (FLP); still publishing in 1973 (TS), by which time Isobel has persuaded him into vulgar and profitable projects.
Strange, Barry: an officer cadet at the O.T.S.. Bangalore, 1945-6. later commissioned into the Wessex Fusiliers, with whom he has strong family connections (SR).
Stupples, Detective Superintendent: policeman initially responsible for enquiries into the death of Somerset Lloyd-James in 1972 (BFB).
Tuck: a tea-planter in India: marries Angela, the daughter of a disgraced officer, and brings her back to England in 1945 (FG): later disappears, but turns up as an official of the Control Commission in Germany in 1952 (SS). 1956 (RPL).
TUCK. Mrs Angela: daughter of a Colonel in the Indian Army Pay Corps, with whom she lives in Southern India (JB, FLP) until early 1945, when her father is dismissed the Service for malversation; being then in extremis marries Tuck the tea-planter, and returns with him to England in the summer of 1945 (FG); briefly mistress to the adolescent Somerset Lloyd-James q.v. and to 'Jack' Gray (Fielding's father); despite this a trusted friend of Fielding's mother (FG): by 1955 is long separated from Tuck and now mistress to Ju
de Holbrook (RPL): in 1956 inherits small fortune from the intestate Tuck, from whom she has never been actually divorced pace her bibulous and misleading soliloquies on the subject in the text (RPL); in 1959 living in Menton and occasional companion of Max de Freville q.v. (FLP); later Max's constant companion (JB, CLS). 1970 (CLS).
Turbot, The Right Honourable Sir Edwin. P.C., Kt: politician; in 1946 ex-Minister of wartime coalition accompanying all-party delegation of M.P.s to India (SR); by 1959 long since a Minister once more, and 'Grand Vizier' of the Conservative Party (FLP); father of Patricia, who marries Tom Llewyllyn (FLP), and of Isobel, who marries Gregory Stern (FLP); by 1962 reported as badly deteriorating and as having passed some of his fortune over to his daughters (JB). by 1967 (PWTS), having left more money to his daughters.
Turbot, Isobel: v. Turbot, Sir Edwin, and Stern, Gregory.
Turbot, Patricia: v. Turbot, Sir Edwin, and Llewyllyn, Tom. Also v. Llewyllyn, Tullia. Has brief walk-out with Hugh Balliston q.v. (PWTS) and is disobliging to Tom about money (JB, PWTS, CLS). In 1972 is reported by Jonathan Gamp to be indulging in curious if not criminal sexual preferences (BFB); as a result of these activities is finally overtaken by disaster and put away in an asylum in 1973 (TS), much to the benefit of her husband and daughter.
Weekes, James: bastard son of Somerset Lloyd-James, born in 1946 (BFB).
Weekes, Mrs Meriel: quondam and random associate of Somerset Lloyd-James. and mother of his bastard son (BFB).
Weir, Carton: Member of Parliament and political associate of Peter Morrison (RPL): later official aide to Lord Canteloupe (FLP, JB). P.P.S. to Canteloupe at Ministry of Commerce in 1972 (BFB); becomes P.P.S. to Peter Morrison q.v. when the latter takes over as Minister of Commerce on the death of Lord Canteloupe.
Winstanley, Ivor: a distinguished Latinist, Fellow of Lancaster College (PWTS).
'Young bastard': assistant groundsman at Detterling's old school (BFB).
Zaccharias: an officer cadet at the O.T.S.. Bangalore, 1945-6; commissioned into a dowdy regiment of the line (SR).
q.v. : “for which see elsewhere.”
: died
AUTHOR'S NOTE
For the purposes of this novel, certain characters are supposedly employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Neither the characters themselves nor the 'appointments' which they hold have any connection at all with actual persons or appointments within the Corporation as it is presently constituted or has been constituted at any time during its past. In real life, for example, I understand that the BBC comprehends a Head of Features Group, a Head of Science and Features, and a Head of Arts Features; but none of these has anything whatever to do with my 'Director of Features', whose persona, title and function are totally fictitious. Similarly, 'Miss Enid Jackson' of 'Administration' is a complete invention.
SR
Part I: The Island of Love
Trapped, he thought: there is no way out of this coach and there is certain death waiting inside it. Think. You have thirty seconds {with luck) to think.
But how could he offer resistance to an enemy that was invisible, impalpable? A piece on a chess board can offer no resistance because it is caught in a situation winch has been devised by a mental power totally remote from itself. Except by that power the situation is unalterable; and so was the situation in which he himself was trapped now. It was of mathematical exactness, it could be represented by a classical syllogism; To stay is to die; but it is impossible not to stay; therefore it is impossible not to die.
Don't trifle, man: think. Unlike a piece on a chess board, you have a certain power of motion. You can at least move about within the square on which you are trapped. That square is this train, or rather, this coach. Move about it, dodge the enemy. But move where? Down the corridor. The enemy is waiting there too. Then move back again. Whatever you do, don't stay still. That's what the enemy, the remote intelligence, wants you to do—to stay still, to acquiesce, to accept the chess board convention. The convention ... the rules. The situation only exists within the convention, you're only trapped if you believe in the sanctity of the rules. Disobey the rules and you're free. ,
Because, you see, there's one thing the enemy forgot; and although he's everywhere, it's something he can't possibly change, not now he can't. This isn't just any coach, it's a wagon-lit Get it?
It could never work.
ifs your only chance, man. You've had your thirty seconds of thinking. Another thirty seconds and you're done for. Your last chance. MOVE.
1: Envoi
'I have only one eye,' said Fielding Gray, 'and a face like a broiled lobster. If I appeared on your television programme, old women and children would have fits all over the kingdom.'
'No one is suggesting you should appear,' said Tom Llewyllyn. 'Have you the first idea what this programme is going to be about?'
'No. I don't follow television affairs. There is, thank God, no set at Buttock's Hotel.'
'I'm surprised you're still living there. Now that things are beginning to go your way.'
Tessie Buttock's been very kind to me.' said Fielding Gray, 'and anyhow I detest change. There's never any change at Buttock's. Even the amount of dirt remains constant : never more, never less.'
Tom Llewyllyn passed a hand through long wavy hair. It was, Fielding noticed, atrociously scurfy. Why didn't Tom's wife Patrica keep him up to scratch? His shoes were filthy, his shirt collar curled up like a piece of damp melba toast, his finger-nails were positively ghoulish. One could only conclude that Patricia liked dirt.
'But fond as you are of Buttock's,' Tom was saying, 'you wouldn't mind a nice little expedition? A temporary change of scene?'
One of the three telephones on his desk rang viciously.
'Llewyllyn,' Tom said into it: Today is History.'
While Tom listened patiently to a yakking monologue from the other end, Fielding left his chair and walked to the window, from which he had a bird's eye view of the White City Stadium. How appropriate, he reflected, that the Dog Track should lie almost adjacent to the Television Centre. Both institutions recognisably belonged to the same world— a world, he now told himself, in which he had no business. He was a serious novelist, whereas Television—what was that revolting phrase?—was a popular medium. Being rather vague about his friend's position in the BBC (Tom had hardly been there a week), Fielding had imagined, when invited to call, that they were to discuss the possible dramatisation of one of his novels; but now it appeared that Tom's new appointment in this palace of nightmares was as Producer of something called Today is History', and whatever that phrase might imply it could scarcely comprehend fiction. Well, if Tom wanted his help in broadcasting half-truths to the half-witted, he must look elsewhere.
'I've got him here now,' Tom was saying into the telephone; 'I'll tell him.' He put down the receiver. 'That,' he said to Fielding. 'was the Director of Features. He is an admirer of your work, and he hopes, like me, that you can do something for Today is History.'
'Such as re-writing the nasty bits to reassure your imbecile listeners?'
'Viewers, we call them. Why are you so acid. Fielding?'
This building, this office, these telephones. This Isn't my style, Tom, and I shouldn't have thought it was yours.'
Then listen. They have given me carte blanche to prepare, without censorship or interference, six programmes, each of one hour, about any aspects of contemporary history which I care to choose. Don't say that isn't handsome.'
'You're a writer, even a scholar. Not some kind of cultural whizz-kid.'
'This is 1962, Fielding. This kind of thing is here to stay. It's a challenge which we must face.'
'Don't talk clichés to me, Tom. Save them for your programme.'
Tom's mouth drooped slightly and his eyelids blinked. Why is Fielding so foul to me? he thought. The arrogance of success? But he's not all that successful. Does his face hurt him. his poor ruined face? With an effort Tom said:
'There aren't going to be any clichés in my
programme. I've got a large budget and I can afford the best writers. Such as you.' Praise, he thought: writers—a few of them— may be able to resist money, but even the most honest will sell their souls for praise. 'Your last novel,' Tom went on, 'put you in a new class. The first two were merely competent; but Love's Jest Book ... as a study in betrayal... Is really memorable.'
'So it ought to be. It all happened, and I was the betrayer.'
'Yes, yes. I know about that,' said Tom soothingly; 'but it doesn't alter the fact that the novel, as it stands, is a very fine piece of work.'
'I don't see how it qualifies me to contribute to your programme.'
'It proves finally and beyond doubt that you can write. Besides,' said Tom, 'I was thinking of another true story of which you have special knowledge.'
'What can you mean?'
'Cyprus. You were there while you were still in the Army.'
'Is that what you meant by a change of scene? I never want to see the filthy place again, Tom. The Cypriots, the Greek ones at any rate—they're the scum of the earth.' 'Who's talking in clichés now?'