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Sad way to start

Published March 2, 2006 arts , Poetry 1 Comment

I was sorry to hear the sad news of Sybille Bedford passing earlier this week. I have no better way of expressing her affect on my reading than Peter Vansittart, guardian.co.uk:

She could readily create set-pieces – Prussian officers in mess, Berlin drawing-room currents, an elaborate picnic – but often saw the real drama flickering in hidden arbours and shadows.
Sybille Bedford, Journalist and Novelist, 1911 – 2006

1 Response to “Sad way to start”

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  1. 1 poetbloggs March 3, 2006 at 3:31 pm

    Previous comments for this post:

    Are you a fan of her novel “A Legacy?” What do you suppose happened to some of her characters after the novel’s close? Do you think the Merz family would have left Germany in time? Just curious. Thank you. Lee Levine
    H. Lee Levine | 02.26.06 – 3:05 am | #

    Gravatar In another novel, the biographical ‘Jigsaw’, Bedford allows a second, deeper glimpse into the lives of some of the characters from ‘A Legacy’ – Francesca is especially adapted, as Bedford admits that their lives are inextricably similar, and that Julius, modeled on her own father.

    As to whether or not the families survived – a look at Bedford’s own life, and travels might answer that. If her assertions in Jigsaw are to be believed – that these are her own respective families – then I believe some of the characters did survive and moved across Europe to England and Italy, as Bedford herself did.
    pb. | Homepage | 02.26.06 – 10:29 am | #

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