Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found
Page 28
I am grateful for the trust they all put in me, as for the thousands of kindnesses and pleasures and close moments I’ve shared with them all.
Helena Kallianiotes and Sonali Wijeyaratne harangued me for years to write a book instead of screenplays, as did my first agent at Curtis Brown, Nick Marston. James Navé, my partner in the Writing Salon, gave me the confidence to trust my imagination as a writer, and showed me how to encourage it to come out to play. In addition to my family and to Barbara Leaming, who gave this book her tireless imaginative engagement from inception to finish, David Parker, Joanna Briscoe, Lara Santoro, Rhonda Talbot, Tara Lupo, Elizabeth Burns, Diana LaSalle, Arron Shiver, Annapurna Sydell, Stephen Boucher, Joan Juliet Buck, Kate O’Toole, Robert Mack, and Helena Kallianiotes read various drafts of the book and gave me valuable feedback. Rhonda also recommended Nick Flynn’s wonderful memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which inspired me to try different ways to tell my story and broke an impasse that might well have defeated me.
My editor, Sarah Hochman, and my agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman, put their faith in me with very little to go on. From the start, Sarah understood the kind of book I wanted to write. Her keen editorial eye made the book far better than it would have been without her—but more important, her encouragement, and a judicious hand with the whip, kept me on track during the most difficult times in the writing. David Rosenthal and Victoria Meyer of Simon & Schuster gave the book their powerful support. I’d also like to thank Gail Winston of HarperCollins for her enthusiasm at an early stage, which bolstered me enormously and helped me to refine my ideas.
I am grateful to David, Marquess of Cholmondeley, for storing Mum’s letters, and to Gina Medcalf, Jaqueth Hutchinson, and Lucio Garcia del Solar for sending me letters my mother wrote to them. Lucio, Anjelica, Joan, and Cici also found photographs for me. Beth Filler at People magazine helped me track down a vital image. I’d also like to acknowledge the generosity and help of Gigi and Harry Benson, Magnum Photos for the Philippe Halsman estate, the Norman Parkinson estate, and especially the Richard Avedon Foundation.
This book was largely written at two coffee shops in Taos, New Mexico. Thanks to David Stewart and the staff of Wired?, especially Corinna Jang; and to Mark and Jennifer Campbell and the staff of Mondo Kultur north, especially Mary Esther Winters.
My son, Rafa, kept my nose to the grindstone with remarks like, “You know that book you’re writing, Mama? Have you finished it? No? I thought so!” The happiness he and his father, Cisco Guevara, have brought me made this book possible.
Finally, thanks to Rafa’s friends Teva Leshem and Kendra Gibson—and their mothers, Jenny Lancaster-Leshem and Babs Costello—without whom this book could not have been written at all.
About the Author
Allegra Huston was born in London, and raised in Ireland, Long Island, and Los Angeles. She has worked with Chatto & Windus publishers in London, and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, where she was editorial director from 1990 to 1994. A freelance writer and editor for over ten years, her work has appeared in The Times, the Independent, the Tatler, and Harper’s Bazaar (all in the UK), in French Vogue, and in the United States in People, the Santa Fean, and Mothering. She is co-director of the Writing Salon, a workshop retreat for writers held annually in Taos, New Mexico, and in other places around the world. She lives in Taos with her son, Rafa, and his father, Cisco Guevara.
Photographic Insert
I look worried because I’m afraid of Tony’s hawk. (Photo Richard Avedon)
I’m only a few days old. On her wedding-ring finger, Mum is wearing the gold panther ring that Anjel gave me for my twenty-first birthday.
Nurse with me. In the few photographs I have of her, she is in the shadows.
Mum in the courtyard at St. Cleran’s. This is my favorite photograph of her.
Mum and Dad. (Photo Lillian Ross)
John Julius around the time that he and Mum fell in love.
Me and Anjel. (Photo Norman Parkinson/Condé Nast)
The back of the Little House, taken from the garden. The upstairs window is Mum’s room. She sent this photo to John Julius the first Christmas they were apart.
The Big House. It looked even bigger approached from behind, with the basement story visible.
With Danny and the Lynch girls and one of the hunt hounds. I’m using Danny as my shield.
At the beach in Connemara.
The Bhutan Room, exactly as it looked when it was mine.
The day of Caroline Lynch’s first Communion. Standing behind is Karen Creagh. I was quite envious of Caroline’s dress but thought Daddy would laugh at me if I asked to make my first Communion too. (Photo Mary Lynch)
Daddy in his studio, sketching one of Tony’s hawks.
One of Grampa’s mad Christmas cards.
In lotus position at the Beach Club.
Nana.
Mum and Grampa on the roof of the restaurant.
Philippe Halsman, The Act of Creation. The man holding the paintbrush is the artist Jean Cocteau. (Magnum Photos)
In the drawing room of the house on Maida Avenue. Mum loved to dress us up in antique clothes. (Photo from the author’s collection)
With Cici and Collin on the beach in Malibu.
With Dad at Cici’s house in L.A., on the day of the Winslow Homer Christmas.
My first American passport.
With Aunt Dorothy.
Gloom Castle.
In the back of Anjel’s rental truck in Montana. (Photo Joan Buck)
With Jack and Jennifer (left) during the filming of The Missouri Breaks in 1975. This photo was part of a People magazine cover story. (Photo Harry Benson)
With Anjel and Joan Buck during the expedition to Yellowstone.
With Dad and Danny, one Christmas at Las Caletas. (Photo Joan Blake)
Dad swimming at Las Caletas.
With Marisol. (Photo Joan Blake)
My favorite photo of Dad and me, taken on the set of Escape to Victory. I was fifteen.
L to R: Harry Dean Stanton, Miguele Norwood, Jeremy Railton, Helena, Charles Valentino, me. We’re all wearing roller skates. I’m probably fifteen.
With Helena on Valentine’s Day at the roller rink.
With Helena, when I was about seventeen.
With Artemis, the day Eleanor Allegra Lucy Beevor—my goddaughter Nella—was born.
With Jason in Sri Lanka.
With Rafa, while the boat was being decorated for the christening.
Rafa’s christening: Anjel welcomes the boat to shore.
My favorite photo of Cisco and me. We stayed in the boat while the ceremony took place.
L to R: Tony, Anjel, Steve Harris, Jeremy (looking up at the banner), Tara holding Rafa, Joan Buck, Cisco’s niece Ana. You can see the descanso on the far shore.
The Norwich family in 2004. L to R: Artemis, her son Adam, her husband Antony Beevor, John Julius, me and Rafa, Jason, Mollie, Nella. (Photo Jill Robertson)
The Huston family in 1992, at Anjel’s wedding.
On the back of this photo, my mother wrote “January 1969.” It may be the last photo taken of her before she died.
Table of Contents
Colophon
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Photographic Insert
hive.