Mexico, through the eyes of Sybille Bedford, is a country of passion and paradox: arid desert and shrieking jungle, harsh sun and deep shadow, violence and sentimentality.
In her frank descriptions of the horrors of travel – through bug-infested jungle, trapped in a broiling stationary train, or in a bus with a dead fish slapping against her face – she gains our trust. She stays in Don Otavio’s crumbling ancestral mansion, living a life of provincial ease and observing with glee the intense life of a Mexican neighbourhood.
Bruised, Shocked, but Elated
I first met Sybille Bedford in London in the early 1980s when an old friend of mine, Patrick Woodcock, who at the time was Sybille’s doctor, invited us both to dinner. As a keen admirer of...
Read moreA Bath with a View
I once met Sybille Bedford. ‘Met’ is perhaps the wrong word; I pounced on her at a crowded Time-Life party and began raving about her novel A Legacy which I had just read. She looked at me...
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