2008

SATURDAY 17th MAY

Phantoms from the past

9.02pm. I was up before 7am & began clearing & repairing Clarice’s Charles Dickens’ History of England book. There I found the Latimer quotation which I had been unable to find in any of my books or computer encyclopaedia! (It was almost certainly in one or more of the books I donated to John Wesley’s Chapel [The New Room, Bristol] earlier this year.)

            At 8.11a.m. – we had prayed & were about to begin breakfast – the ‘phone rang, a Sgt .O’Neill from Northallerton Police. Did I know a “Christine Collins”? She had gone missing from the hospital two days ago, but they had found my name in her diary. How extraordinary! It was not the first time we had been called in by the police concerning Christine. The last time, about 40 years ago, her mother phoned from Catterick to say that Christine was on her way to Birmingham (it was to marry me) & we had to escape to 25 Meadow Grove, only returning late at night when we considered it safe to do so. Digbeth police were on our doorstep before daylight, waking us by shining a light into our bedroom window. They took us to Digbeth Police Station where Christine was being looked after in a cell, & later we took her to New Street Station to see her onto a train.

            By some strange coincidence, having washed up after breakfast, I was looking for something in my desk & there retrieved photocopies of a letter to Brian & Elizabeth Bosomworth from Sheila Battersby, a diatribe against me for my abuse of their daughter Susan whom we had taken on holiday, together with Janet. She had a “crush” on me (she was no more than 16) & wanted to stay out late after we had gone to bed. What would John & Sheila have said if she had returned home pregnant? It was very painful being falsely accused, as much so as ever this morning. I could not bring myself properly to read Sheila’s letter. It is all very strange, all part of the Divine drama, but these two incidents left me feeling vaguely distressed – two bad experiences which have still to be resolved, unfinished business.

            Not knowing exactly what to do this morning, we walked to Street, enjoyed coffee & cake & a look round. Freda got bread & teacakes & took various items to the PDSA, & finally we went to the Library where I looked up “Temiskaming Chateau” on the web. The place is now for sale at C$1.3m (about £664,000) & there were many photographs of the interior & exterior & a film lasting 6½ minutes. It revived happy memories of our stay there with Peter & Mary in 1988. They drove us to the lake from Toronto. John & Joyce were already there, I think, & we were joined by Merridy & at the weekend by Don. It was a happy time.

            After a late lunch we both slept, I on the hearthrug. Freda then worked in the garden while I watched the last few minutes of the F.A. Cup Final from Wembley, in which Portsmouth beat Cardiff City 1-nil. While we were having tea we watched a very funny Dr. Who. The weather was rather cold today with barely a hint of sunshine. I twice heard a cuckoo last week & Freda also today. There are reed beds not far away.

SATURDAY 19th JULY 2008

Karl Jenkins

10.07pm. We have enjoyed a feast of music today, over breakfast Exultate Jubilate the beautiful CD sent me by Christine Collins (what has happened to her?) with Carolyn Sampson, followed by Karl Jenkins’ Requiem while I was washing up. I was profoundly moved, staggered by the Dies Irae following the Introit, structured similarly to the 3rd Movement of my The Apocalypse with marching feet & then pandemonium – which Freda readily admitted I had described in detail to her. It is as though I was already familiar with Jenkins’ Requiem. The idea that I can “hear”, as though already composed, an entire oratorio is absurd in the extreme. The reason it is “there” is because the Word informs every area of my life, Therefore, in the tumultuous 3rd Movement (as I hear it) the marching steps get louder & louder & then there is a lull. This is the sign Jesus gave His disciples. The enemy is at the gates of Jerusalem & His people flee for their lives, warned – if they are on the housetop – not even to go indoors again.

            We both felt like a walk to Street. We enjoyed coffee & cake at the Mad Hatter, took cake tins & a pair of socks to the Heart Foundation charity shop, & after a pleasant mooch around we went to the Library. Within a minute I had accessed “Karl Jenkins” & learned that his Stabat Mater was premiered at Liverpool Cathedral (RC) on 15th March (exactly 18 weeks ago) & is already available on EMI CD 500 2832, £14.99. This I must get! I thought that Karl might be in his 70s. In fact he is 64, being born on Thursday 17th February 1944 at Penclawdd.

            We arrived home at 1.30pm.

SUNDAY 20th JULY

Gerald Finzi

10.13pm. We listened to the Promenade Concert last evening, on Radio 4, played through the Panasonic TV. Nigel Kennedy played Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B minor. Earlier, while I was washing up, we heard Bax’s The Garden of Faud followed by Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality & then a discussion about the friendship between Gerald Finzi & Howard Ferguson, very interesting. Over breakfast we listened to Karl Jenkins’ Requiem.

            As usual I read in bed until midnight or later. I am half-way through the Agatha Christie book [Janet Morgan’s definitive biography of her].

            We have both been extremely busy today, Freda in the kitchen washing, washing up, cooking & baking, & also working in the garden. .Except for finishing the washing up after lunch, I worked almost all day on the Diary. Over lunch & then while I was washing up we watched the German Grand Prix from Hockenheimring. . It was won dramatically by Lewis Hamilton who had his 18 seconds lead wiped out by the safety car, [and then] fell back to fourth after refuelling, a performance of great skill, audacity & courage.

MONDAY 21st JULY

AD70

10.50pm. We have just watched “The Unseen Alistair Cooke” on BBC4; before that we had 40 minutes or so of the Prom, Myung-Whun Chung conducting L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in a performance of Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3, an absorbing & satisfying end to a less than relaxed day. Niek phoned at 7.30am while we were still having breakfast. Later I went to collect the Tanberg tape-recorder he is lending me, in filthy condition, unused for many years obviously & requiring attention. It was inside the front door for me to pick up. Atop it was a birthday card & cheque for £100. I wrote to Keith Parker, Clarice, Niek, but not before I had played the piano & sung a sad lament, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me but for your children” as they would be caught up in the apocalyptic end of the age, climaxing in AD 70.

            I washed up after lunch, posted the card I had written through Niek’s letterbox, went to Barclays to pay in the cheque, posted the other two letters, came up to bed (where I am writing this) & fell instantly asleep. Freda brought me a cup of tea & I was able to work on the Diary until 6.0pm. Meanwhile Chris was here helping Freda in the garden – he came at Freda’s request after phoning him, to remove the sacks of compost we had bought earlier from Oaklands after collecting the machine from Niek, & we also filled up with petrol at Morrison’s, ready for our journey tomorrow to Ann & Geoff at Bidford.