The Bolter (46 page)

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES

Georgia Sitwell, personal diary

Euan Wallace, personal diaries, 1917–41

David Wallace, personal diary, 1934

Arthur Wolseley-Lewis, “Empire to Dust,” unpublished personal reminiscences

Letters from the Wallace and Erroll families

“Reminiscences of Kildonan House, Barrhill,”
Ayrshire Notes 25
, Autumn 2003

Acknowledgments

I am far from alone in having long been fascinated by Idina. Luckily so, for this book could not have been written without the enthusiasm and memories of many others. First and foremost among these is my inspirational fellow writer Errol Trzebinski, whose compelling biography of Joss Erroll led me to her. Errol opened both her door and her copious research to me, displaying an outstanding generosity of both time and spirit. Most important, she shared her belief that not only was there a book in Idina, but it was one that ought to be written. She found me a Kenyan guide, the unflappable Tina Behrens, and places to stay. She took me to meet those who remembered Idina. And she went back to some of the sources she had spoken to, and asked them for more information. She set a great example of how experienced writers can help those just starting on their career. I shall be not only eternally grateful but bound, years hence, if I am ever able, to do the same for the next generation.

Other Kenyans who helped me along the way out there were Robin Long (Boy and Genesta Long’s son), and his friend Cynthia Ravenscroft, for her memories of Idina in the Gilgil club; Nan Barratt, Fergus and Rachel Robley, who had me to stay on their Kenyan farms; Juliet Barnes and Solomon, for guiding me up the dirt tracks of the Wanjohi Valley; Peter Nuthu Mughiri and his family for showing me around Clouds, which is now their home; the Earl and Countess of Enniskillen for allowing me to wander around the heavenly Mundui and imagine Idina and Kiki Preston whiling away afternoons on the veranda on the shores of Lake Naivasha; and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wolseley-Lewis and Maureen Delap for their reminiscences of Idina. More Kenya hands were to be found back here in England, providing ebullient conversation packed with abundant information. Among them were Patsy Chilton, Lord and Lady Delamere, Mary Fox, Sarah Graham, Joan Hecktermann, Molly and Arthur Hoare, Paul Spicer, and Anne Wadley.

I scooted up to Scotland, lolled on Kildonan’s lawns, and was shown around by Colin the caretaker, who was a mine of information about my family’s history in the house. Elizabeth Hughes of Blair Farm tracked down a local history from Duncan Barr. The centenarian Mr. Young of Duisk Lodge racked his razor-sharp recollections, as did Andy Kennedy of Wallace Terrace, who for many years worked at Kildonan. Mr. and Mrs. Hall of the old Kildonan stable block offered me delicious coffee and further pages of information.

Elsewhere I found many helping hands: some writers, some observers, some sources of vital facts. There are too many to list in full, but: Norah Angelbeck, Mabel Derry, Tom and Su de Trafford, Ann Douglas, Marybelle Drummond, James Fox (who took me to Idina in the first place with
White Mischief)
, Odile Fraigneau of Lanvin, Annabel Freyberg, Justine Hardy, Lucy Heathcoat-Amory, Alexandra Ignatieff, Ffion Jenkins, Jeremy Langlands, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Chris Lockwood and Venetia Butterfield, Louise Miller Frost, Christine Nicholls, Viscount Norwich, Andrew Roberts, Jane Robertson, Xan Smiley, Pat Thane, Veronica Wadley, Justin Warshaw, Sara Wheeler, and Patricia O’Neill, who wrote from South Africa, were all kind and informative. Here also I should thank Liza Filby, who helped me with some of the research. Her dexterity with databases proved invaluable. And thank you, too, to all those at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Army Museum, the Household Cavalry Museum, the Vintage Motorcycle Club Limited, and Coys of South Kensington.

Then there is the family: Idina’s children, nieces, and nephews, and their descendants. They have been, as is clear, a huge resource in this resurrection of Idina. I started this book with only the remains of the Wallaces: my grandmother Pru; my mother, Davina; and her sister, Laura; and their five children and (now) ten grandchildren. In particular, my sister, Kate Bain, and my cousin Sophy Skeet have dug up both photographs and keen memories of what Barbie and her sisters told them about who said what to whom when. I have had immense fun getting to know the rest, and some uncanny moments realizing how similar some of us look—Idina’s blood runs thick. Dinan’s children—Merlin Erroll, Peregrine Moncreiffe, Alexandra Connell, and Jocelyn Carnegie—have all been a font of pictures and information, as have Buck’s daughter, Lady Kitty Giles, and her husband, Frank. The Earl and Countess De La Warr and the Dowager Countess De La Warr have shared their traces of Idina and the Sackvilles with enthusiasm. Rowena Fielding has shown the way to all things Brassey. My father’s sister, Jane Townsend, who is no relation to Idina but a long-standing fan of the legend, has helped me find out more. And thank you to Ali Hope, an old friend and, coincidentally, a step-great-something of Idina, who brought some of the family back together. Finally, a warm and grateful welcome to Ann McKay (née Soltau), Idina’s beloved stepdaughter.

But research is only a part of the creation of a book. And, were it not for the unflinching faith of my outstanding agent, Gill Coleridge, helped by her assistant, Cara Jones, Idina would have dissolved back into the dust from which I have sought to resurrect her. Gill has been a heaven-sent guiding hand for an author in that well-known state of Struggling with the Second Book, nursing Idina through various metamorphoses and choosing just the right moment to steer me on to my wonderful new British editor, Lennie Goodings, and her team at Virago. Lennie’s faint pencil marks shifted the scales from my eyes. It has been a joy to work with her and with my wise American editor, Vicky Wilson, at Knopf, who teased yet more of Idina’s story from me, and taught me much. A huge debt of thanks is owed to her assistant, Carmen Johnson, who, among many other tasks, painstakingly put together the dozens of photographs in this book. I should also like to thank the copy editor, Kate Norris. And, of course, my fantastic American agent, Melanie Jackson, who put
The Bolter
into Vicky’s hands. Already, the next book is under way.…

Finally, I have my close family to thank: my mother, for being there for me and the children at all those crucial moments of both industry and inquiry; Luke and Liberty themselves, for patiently waiting for me to finish the book; Suzie, for keeping the children and fridge full of food when I was absorbed in writing; George, for putting up with me then, now, and all those years past and yet to come.

London, October
2008

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2008 by Frances Osborne
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto
.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc
.

Originally published in slightly different form in Great Britain,
by Virago Press, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, in 2008
.

A portion of this work originally appeared in
Vogue.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osborne, Frances
.
The bolter / by Frances Osborne.—1st ed
.
p. cm
.
Originally published: London: Virago, 2008
.
“This is a Borzoi Book”—T.p. verso
.
eISBN: 978-0-307-27232-4
1. Sackville, Idina.   2. Women—England—Biography.   3. Women—Sexual
behavior—England—History—20th century.   4. Colonists—Kenya —
Biography.   5. Women colonists—Kenya—Biography.   I. Title
.
CT788.S118O83 2009
942.082092—dc22
[B]     2009003090

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