{"id":947,"date":"2004-09-14T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2004-09-14T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=947"},"modified":"2004-09-14T15:22:07","modified_gmt":"2004-09-14T19:22:07","slug":"foiled-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=947","title":{"rendered":"Foiled again"},"content":{"rendered":"

My next Guardian<\/em> profile was to be Sybille Bedford.<\/a> She’s 93, and has just finished what she says will be her last big book. I secured an introduction from Jane Howard, rang her up, and arranged to meet. I explained that I would send her some profiles so she knew what kind of stuff I do. So I sent her Jane Howard,<\/a> Redmond O’H<\/span>anlon<\/a> and Robert Conquest.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

She rang back this afternoon.<\/p>\n\n

“I need not tell you these are very good. But I understand that I can’t do it. They are biographies, and writers should not have biographies written. I have asked that all my papers be burnt when I am dead. There is a sort of story in the books, and that is all.” She then quoted Auden most elegantly explaining her point. Whether she was quoting from memory or reading from the open book beside the phone, I was impressed by the trouble she had taken. “We must part friends”, she said. With old ladies who quote Auden, there is no arguing.<\/p>\n\n\n


\nThe backup plan is even more unlikely: Claude Lévi Strauss.<\/a> No, I didn’t know he was still alive either. But he is only two years older than Sybille Bedford, and active enough to accept a German prize last year. So I shall sit down with a dictionary, and the Amnesty France guide to writing formal letters and try to compose something suitable, c\/o the Academie Francaise.<\/p>\n\n

I shall probably end up complaining about the dreadful human rights abuses perpetuated by the Academy.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My next Guardian profile was to be Sybille Bedford. She’s 93, and has just finished what she says will be her last big book. I secured an introduction from Jane Howard, rang her up, and arranged to meet. I explained … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}