Strange Music by Malcolm Macdonald

Author:Malcolm Macdonald [Malcolm Macdonald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Saturday, 13 January 1951

The baby was just beginning to show when Faith capitulated at last and took the name of Findlater, keeping Bullen-ffitch as her professional name. They were married by her brother Michael, who was back on annual leave from Kenya, at a quiet family ceremony (in the circumstances) in Old Sodbury church on Saturday, 13 January, 1951. Jasmine, almost four, was the only bridesmaid. Alex’s brother was his best man.

Alex had bought a new Mark IV Bentley, Tudor Grey, with a 4.2-litre straight-six engine and grey hide seats with red piping. The following day the two of them and Jasmine drove to the Dower House, where the real wedding party was held. Two days later, joined now by Delfine Lardan, a distant cousin of Nicole’s who was to be nanny to Jasmine and the new baby when it arrived, the four of them set off on a leisurely tour down to the south of France – specifically to Arles, capital of the Camargue, where they could leave Jasmine safely with Delfine while they rode the wilderness of grass and marsh on those magnificent greys they breed down there – the Camaguais. They were lucky with the weather.

At first it was hard to relax – to realize that each day was not snatched from the working timetable, crammed between meetings, presentations, committees, interviews, decisions . . . The urge was strong to pick up the phone each evening and call a colleague to ask what had happened over this or that pending decision . . . who had won an ongoing battle in such-and-such a committee . . . had so-and-so defected to the opposition . . . and so on. It was a full ten days – more than halfway through their time down there, before Faith felt able to say, ‘You know what I was telling you about Abnorman Crowley before we came away – how I’m sure he’s going to stage his coup while we’re down here? And d’you know what now? I don’t give a damn!’

He caught her stress and chuckled. ‘Tara is yours and he can’t take that away from you, eh!’

‘It’s more than that. I actually had to get away from Manutius to understand what’s really happening there. I’ve been drumming up so much new business . . . I mean, I thought I was some kind of super-editorial person who could use that skill to sell ideas for books to other publishers. But actually I’m a salesman. Saleswoman. I’ve sold new ideas and new series to so many publishers . . . even Japan now. Maybe.’ She frowned. ‘Did I tell you about that? I met a Japanese publisher at Mondadori in Verona . . .’

He shrugged. ‘Perhaps. I can’t always keep up.’

‘Anyway, it’s too much. I can’t chase editors, designers, production people the way they have to be chased and cope with all this new business. But I couldn’t see that – not in the thick of it. All I was thinking was I’ve got to keep Abnorman out of my hair.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.