how it's done

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Sat, 02 Oct 1999 08:19:17 +0100 

    I wouldn't do this for anyone but you, Camille.

    Claire Tomalin is the one who, outraged when 
    the first book (which she had discovered) was 
    about to be rejected by the chairman of Hutchinson 
    on the grounds of 'amorality', made her protest & 
    directed me into the arms of Mark Hamilton - 
    then the hottest agent in London.  He placed it 
    within the week & the rest, as they *should* say, 
    will one day be history.

    Ms Tomalin, naturally, has her very own shrine 
    in my heart.  (Brimstone candles.) She is, nowadays,
    a fashionable biographer & it's no surprise her name
    is recognised - even in Australia.

    Nor am I surprised the name Elizabeth Bowen 
    appears to be less known, though, she is, of course, 
    a much more considerable figure.  Look her up 
    in any standard reference book of modern English 
    writers.  She would, I think, be placed with 
    the half dozen top dogs of the English literary 
    scene in the mid 20th C.  Novels, short stories, 
    radio plays - even some crit (which I never read.)
    
    When the second book came out she sent for me,
    told me she had just given the book as a birthday
    present to her 'dearest' (I was too nervous to ask 
    who that might have been) & then beseeched me
    - not actually on her knees, but over two very large
    G & Ts - to give up medicine & go full time writing.
    In turning her down I ensured the final death of my
    soul (which was already in hock, anyway) but the 
    survival of my family.  

    Now.  As to the crits themselves.  Back numbers 
    (1965 - 69) of: The Times, Observer, Guardian, 
    Telegraph, Spectator, New Statesman, Irish Times, 
    Western Mail .....

    But no.  Modesty forbids ...

    Scottie B.