A Beautiful Letter: Evelyn Waugh to Ann Fleming, June 3, 1963

Ann Fleming (1913-1981)

Combe Florey House

TO ANN FLEMING                                                                

3 January, 1963

Dear Ann

        I am verysorry to hear of your sister’s distressing death. [1]  You must pray for her soul.   This is best done by going to a chapel wherethe Blessed Sacrament is reserved.  Themost convenient for you is Westminster Cathedral;  go up the far left aisle under the screen.  Kneel. Dispel from your mind all other considerations.  Say, not out loud but in your mind : “I haveno right to ask you for anything.  Pleasedon’t consider my merits or my sister’s. You made her and me what we are. But you sent Jesus to die for us. Accept his sacrifice.  With luck Ihave a few years left in me to make amends. She hasn’t.  So please acceptanything good I have ever done as a negligible contribution to the immeasurablesacrifice of the incarnation, and let my sister into heaven.’  Easy? Yes, really, particularly for you who have no pride.  Try it anyway.

        I will proudlydedicate my little story to you. Thank you for allowing it.  Would you like your full name on the page orjust ‘A.F.’? [2]

        We are almosttotally cut-off.  Only H.M. mails plodthrough.  I cleverly ordered a regular supplyof tasty little pies from Fortnum and Mason during Meg’s caviar season.  These arrive stale but regularly, so I am nothungry.  The rest of the family live ontinned beans.

        I don’t supposeyou remember this house.  The back partis a glass-roofed courtyard.  This is nowquite dark with accumulated snow.   Localwiseacres say that when the snow falls off the roof the whole glass house willcollapse.  It holds a hogshead ofBurgundy (French not Portuguese) waiting to be bottled.


Disaster is certain . . . .

                                                                                                                          Yoursever affect.

                                                                                                                           Evelyn

Combe Florey House, Taunton, Somerset

[1]  Mary-RoseCharteris (1919-62)  She married in 1940Roderick Thesiger and in 1949 Francis Eggerton Grey.

[2]  Basil Seal Rides Again is prefaced withan explanatory note in the form of a letter to ‘Mrs. Ian Fleming,’ beginning:

Dear Ann

In this senile attempt to recapture the manner of my youth Ihave resurrected characters from earlier stories which, if you ever read them,you will have forgotten.’

Combe Florey River

NOTE:

Ann Fleming.   AnnCharteris, granddaughter of the Earl of Wemyss, married in 1932 Baron O’Neill,who was killed in 1944;  1945-52 ViscountRothermere; and in 1952 Ian Fleming who created James Bond the next year anddied in 1964.  Though a cousin of LauraWaugh’s and an acquaintance as Lady Rothermere the political hostess, shebecame a close friend of Waugh’s at the same time she married Ian Fleming andhe stayed with them in Jamaica.  Stylishand witty, she was not in the least afraid of Waugh and when he used his largeear-trumpet more than necessary she struck it with a spoon.  ‘The noise, Evelyn told me later, was that ofa gun being fired an inch away.’  Evelyn Waugh by Christopher Sykes, p.374.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)