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The most striking aspect of the newly published letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor is that they have been published in the lifetime of their authors.
Collected letters of celebrated writers normally only appear after their death. Would you want your private correspondence with a friend printed for all the world to see while you were still alive?
The editor Charlotte Mosley acknowledges that it is “unusual” but says in this case there was no good reason to wait. There are no skeletons in Chatsworth closets, explosive revelations or disobliging remarks likely to cause offence to the living or the dead — unless you count Debo's description of Jackie Kennedy's physiognomy (“Her face is one of the oddest I ever saw. It is put together in a very wild way”).
So why publish them? A cynic might say money had something to do with it. This volume follows hot on the high heels of the Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, published last year to great acclaim. The Mitfords are as popular as ever and they have become a lucrative cottage industry. However, this latest volume could be construed as a remarkable act of generosity on Debo Devonshire's part. Given that Paddy Leigh Fermor only publishes a book once every 30 years, he must be short of cash.
Whatever the reason for the book's publication — part vanity, part charity —- it represents the consummation of an unconsummated relationship that has endured for 50 years. And it is a friendship largely expressed through the written word rather than face to face.
Debo Devonshire and Paddy Leigh Fermor are 88 and 93 respectively. They are living dinosaurs. And they are using an art form that has become as anachronistic as red telephone boxes. Leigh Fermor courts his pen pal with elaborate metaphors, extravagant salutations (“polar bear hugs from Paddy”) and heartfelt misgivings about her admiration for his rivals. Debo Devonshire admits that she has never read Paddy's books. (“How I HATE books. The marvellous thing about yours is that they never appear, such a good thing”.) However, she always has time to read and write letters.
It is currently though the fashion to have life stories published in a subject's lifetime. This year alone, the Earl of Snowdon and Sir Vidia Naipaul have commissioned authorised biographies of themselves. But it seems unlikely that there will be many more epistolary volumes of this ilk, given that so few people write letters these days. It is the last flowering of an art form which has long been at the heart of our literary culture. If this volume does anything to revive the art of letter writing, we should be grateful to them both. And perhaps write them a letter.
Reader views (1)
A joy to read these letters and about so many interesting people in the 20th cent. Long may they still write to one another with such verve and please may Paddy Leigh Fermor put out his 3rd volume of memoirs.
- Inga Holmes, Mudgee Australia, 05/02/2009 01:27
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