Author Archives: My World of Interiors

Chapter 52: I Need Somebody to Lean On 

Mrs Montgomery is with Topper when he picks me up from Idlewild. She embraces me, calls me “darling daughter,” and is far more polite than she has ever been. I send Topper a questioning look; he just shakes his head and moves to guide his mother into the front seat, only for her to chirpContinue reading “Chapter 52: I Need Somebody to Lean On “

The Human Condition According to Dante

By Bergotte No work of literature begins more universally than the Divine Comedy. Not with a king or a war or a cosmogony, but with a man — any man, every man — who has lost his way in the middle of his life. Dante Alighieri wrote the greatest poem of the Middle Ages andContinue reading “The Human Condition According to Dante”

Chapter 51: Today, Tomorrow and Forever

Mabel and I are at The Peabody, making sure everything is in order for her upcoming nuptials. Mabel is disappointed that Topper isn’t coming. “How rude of him,” she exclaims. I shrug. “You have to bring someone,” she insists. “I’ve put you two down.” I sigh. “But I told you it would just be meContinue reading “Chapter 51: Today, Tomorrow and Forever”

Frank Bowling

Essay · Art & Lives The Painter Who Crossed Every Ocean Frank Bowling arrived in London from British Guiana in 1953 with no art education and a desire to be a poet, and became, across the following seven decades, one of the most significant painters working in the English language — a phrase that wouldContinue reading “Frank Bowling”

Sam Neill, Actor of Watchful Intelligence Who Roamed From Dinosaurs to Deep Drama, Dies at 78

By Bergotte Sam Neill, the New Zealand-born actor whose long, restless career carried him from the art houses of the Australian New Wave to the teeth of a Tyrannosaurus rex in “Jurassic Park,” and who brought a dry, watchful intelligence to nearly every part he played, died on Monday in Sydney, Australia. He was 78.Continue reading “Sam Neill, Actor of Watchful Intelligence Who Roamed From Dinosaurs to Deep Drama, Dies at 78”

Chapter 50: Poison Ivy League

The boy is nervous about going on, the venue is only half full in Philadelphia. The Northeast hasn’t been won over by him, and it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the country. I feel almost embarrassed on behalf of Pennsylvania and all these places where I spent so many of my formativeContinue reading “Chapter 50: Poison Ivy League”

The World According To Garp

Essay · Literature & Ideas A Novel About Everything That Can Go Wrong, Written With Love The World According to Garp is a novel about a novelist, which gives John Irving permission to make it about everything else: about mothers and sons, about feminism and its discontents, about the randomness of violent death, about theContinue reading “The World According To Garp”

Chapter 49: Love and Marriage 

Topper and I return to the house from dinner in Palm Springs. Mr S and Ms Bacall have walked ahead of us and are already inside, deep in conversation. When Mr S finds me alone by the pool, he hands me a drink and settles beside me. “You know, baby, Cary was right,” he says.Continue reading “Chapter 49: Love and Marriage “