Under the Sun by Bruce Chatwin Page A

at my own pace for the past few months I find the changeover alarming. We were all turned upside down by the Telstar broadcast 62 the other night. Contrary to everyone’s gloomy predictions it was a riotous success.
    Liz 63 and I went to the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday morning for the preview. The flowers are so overbred and look more and more like plastic with each year that passes. There are one or two places from Scotland and Ireland who stick to straight-forward plant species and they are always infinitely preferable. I do hope to see you both again before long, and again many thanks.
    Yours ever, Bruce Chatwin

To Ivry Freyberg
    119a Mount Street | London | 8 June 1965
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    My Dear Ivry,
    Bless you for your cable! The deed is done, and in about three months I’ll no longer be a free man. Secrecy is rather necessary for a bit, partly because we both find the word fiancé(e) difficult to pronounce with the right expression. 64 May we come down and see you sometime during the summer?
    A beaming face waved and shouted from a taxi this afternoon. It was Raulin, 65 looking marvellously well I must say.
    Love to you both, Bruce

To Gertrude Chanler
    119a Mount Street | London | June 22 1965
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    Elizabeth calls you M & B 66 . I think this is irreverent, but I haven’t an idea what to call you. I’ve discussed it for an hour, but she’s offered no constructive suggestion. I’m amazed by the elaborate detail of her letter – Not a word to tell you how happy we both are, and how much we look forward to the end of August (? or September) and seeing you again. Please don’t worry too much about the Chatwin contingent. We will fit in entirely with your plans. I simply can’t make it vis-à-vis Sotheby’s before the 21 st, and I’m sure it would be a horrible rush for you too. So any day from the 21 st on will be perfectly all right.
    Also I don’t really see why it has to be on a weekend. Surely during August people are fairly relaxed in their offices? I have a very few friends in New York who will be able to come, and also Cary and Edith Welch from Boston. I imagine we will be twelve at the most. I’m not intending very light grey 67 , and my mother is not in a flap; that crisis seems to be solved already.
    I do hope you will not worry about my not being a Catholic. 68 I have always been brought up according to the Church of England, as were both my parents. A few relations of my grandfather’s generation were Catholic converts. I am absolutely willing, not to say anxious, that any of my children shall be brought up as Catholics, and I intend to talk to a great friend of mine Peter Levi 69 who is a Jesuit. I know you’ll agree that it would be a great mistake to take steps in this direction just at this moment. All I can say is that at the time I left school I was influenced strongly by Catholicism and have an entirely open mind about the future.
    I’ve got a small flat in Mount Street just opposite the Connaught Hotel. We have decided we would prefer to live there for the time being rather than face a major upheaval just now. It’s a bit like a couple of staterooms on a liner, but its advantages are its economy, cupboard space, living-in housekeeper in the basement, and the fact that it is 2 minutes flat from Sotheby’s.
    My father and I have entered our little boat into the Round-the Island race on Saturday, 70 and Lib 71 will be on the finishing line to greet us (if we make it!) Looking forward to August immensely . If I can help with anything at all do let me know,
    Love Bruce

To Stephen Tennant
    Postcard, Historiska Museum, Stockholm | Sweden | 29 June 1965
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    Would love to come down after July 10 and will drop a line to see which day’s covenient.
    Bruce
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    On 12 July 1965, after Elizabeth had flown to New York, a notice appeared in The Times announcing the engagement ‘between Charles Bruce elder son of Mr and Mrs C. L. Chatwin