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Showing posts with the label The painful French prose of Rostopchine

The painful prose of Rostopchine

. You used to read Mme la Comtesse de Segur... . . ...when you were 5 years old and in Paris alone with your mother. . I saw a book in a shop in Golfe Juan by the Comtesse the last time I was there with granny, and thought of buying it for you. Granny and I had a lovely time sipping Pastis and chatting together that holiday - she was only 97, independent, enjoying Pastis with me and laughing. When I told you about the book, you looked at me sharply and said: - "That would have been very painful." And I knew you would say that. I was provoking you. I thought: - "Now you really do need to talk to me about Paris during the war, because time is running out." At least that's what I thought then. And so I phoned Linda Grant as you got worse to ask her if she would help you get your memoirs published and Linda immediately phoned Gillian Slovo , (daughter of your old heroic friends, Ruth and Joe Slovo ) and Linda phoned me ba