Monday 8 February 2010

Late back again


Drove down to London to father's house. K waiting for us. It was a warm meeting, one of our warmest. Most of the day spent sorting through papers - a mixture of the emotional and the sensible. There is such a lot to do. We have arranged the funeral for Thursday. A small affair, secular, we'll do the lot ourselves. I have to plan it over the next two days, which won't be easy because of time pressure.

In the evening to Westminster to the Migrants' Centre to do a reading and talk with Mimi Khalvati for Nii Parkes and PEN. Arrived a few minutes late. Of course I said nothing about dad to them - I had had to postpone the session once before. Lovely people - from Bosnia, Eritrea, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Belorus, Spain and more. As soon as one begins to talk about poetry it immediately occupies the mind.

And the mind is likely to be very occupied for a while yet. But the biography project will go ahead in occasional bits and pieces.

Pre-publication copies of Fortinbras at the Fishhouses arrived on Saturday.

Now gone midnight.



2 comments:

James O'Fee said...

You have my sympathy, George. My father was born in 1915, so 2 years older than yours. We children decided to put on his funeral as well, so we considered that it would have been inappropriate to give him a Christian departure, since he had lost all church connection.

George S said...

Thank you, James. More coming here.