Synopsis: It was the middle of the Second World War, and Trekkie, a painter and book illustrator, was married to the publisher Ian Parsons, who later became Leonard's colleague. Leonard was 61, Trekkie 39. He wanted her to get a divorce and marry him, but instead she persuaded him to move in next door to her in London and spent the weekends with him at Monk's House in Rodmell. When Ian came back from the war, life became more complex. Trekkie was a feisty, principled feminist - she had never wanted a husband and now, it seemed, she had two at once. She spent the weekends with Ian and the week with Leonard: she took holidays with them separately, acted as hostess for them both, and talked to no one about the way they lived. The arrangement worked smoothly for the next twenty-five years - an inventive and honest solution for a woman who loved two men in different ways at the same time. When Trekkie and Leonard were not together they talked through the post - a letter scribbled while she cooked dinner could reach him before breakfast the next morning. Trekkie sealed up their correspondance, and it was only opened after her death. Linked by excerpts from her diary, the letters shine with details of daily life: of gardens and glow-worms, books and plays; of Leonard's publishing and politics; of Trekkie's struggle to balance her professional and personal life. But above all they are a romance in two voices - his besotted, hers tender and sensible. This remarkable exchange of letters tells the story of two contrasting personalities, their love for one another and their unusual and creative domestic arrangement. Review: I really enjoyed reading these letters, I didn't know anything about Leonards relationship with Trekkie, I've only ever connected him with Virginia. They met through Trekkie's sister Alice, who had had books published by the Hogarth Press. Alice became terminally ill and Trekkie looked after her during the last few weeks of her life. Leonard had very generously lent Alice some money 'on the poor security of an unfinished book' (Alice's words) and Trekkie was able to return it to him saying that she had been able to cover Alice's expenses without using it but that it had given Alice the greatest of comforts to feel that she wasn't being a financial burden on her sister. It had only been a few months since Virginia had committed suicide and at first the correspondence between the pair is sporadic and fairly tame but soon Leonard is visiting Trekkie (who herself was an artist and illustrator) and leaving her little presents of strawberries and flowers and their letters start to reflect how much they are enjoying one anothers company.
The relationship was complicated, there was a twenty two year age gap for a start plus Trekkie was already married. It's hard to say what her husband thought about it, nothing is really known, they kept it all private with a capital P but if he did have towering rages about it nobody ever recorded it. His own romantic life was entangled too so maybe it was a case of 'what's sauce for the goose' etc but in any case there didn't seem to be any rancour between them and indeed they all ended up living in the same house (on separate floors) and working together. The editor here thinks, despite Trekkie's assertions to the contrary, that her relationship with Leonard was sexual, though since reading these letters I've read a biography about Leonard which takes the opposite view. Either way it doesn't matter, he clearly adored her and she him .. she was his 'Dearest Tiger' and he her 'Dearest Lion'.
Extract from one of Leonards letters (showing him to be a hopeless romantic with too much time on his hands)
'I don't mind what you write your letters with or on, even a lithographic stone, if they're like the one I got this morning at breakfast. It was an amazing morning here yesterday & still more lovely this morning. It's no good your saying that you may create a wraith out of yourself which will haunt the garden, because that's just exactly what you have done. I never go into the garden now, I think, without it. It walks by my side, feeds the goldfish with me every morning, notices the new flowers as they come out. Sometimes I see it painting in the orchard or eating a mutton pie under the fig tree. I even hear it laugh or say "No, Leonard, I do not agree with you'. And the other night when the moon was up & I went out on the terrace before bed, it walked by my side in a long golden dress & was so beautiful that I realized that the penny novelette writer is quite true to life when he works up to the grand crisis with 'Her beauty was such that he caught his breath, a lump came into his throat, & for a moment his heart stopped beating." It even follows me up the village street when I go to post a letter in the new box on the main road for the other day the wraith of a bus appeared & your wraith let me hold it's hand & got into it saying: "Well, Goodbye Leonard". And don't you know that this evening & last evening after tea your wraith came out with me into the orchard & gathered the apples with me & I wasn't at all nice to the wraith, being depressed because it was not you but the ghost of you - for that is one of the things you've never done here & ever since you began to come I've looked forward to the September evening - sunny, absolutely still, with the first chill of autumn in the air & the mist beginning to creep up out of the water meadows - when I should see you in the orchard gathering the apples - for I think it's really the most beautiful moment of the year here. Don't you know all this dearest tiger? If not, I think it's rather disgraceful. For if you create a wraith of yourself, you oughtn't really let it wander ab- (this is Peats interference - I flung him off, whereupon he has leapt on the table and upset a large bowl of flowers & the floor is swimming with water) about with me here out of your control.'
I've always thought of Leonard as a bit of a serious creature, but these letters show a different side. His in particular are very affectionate, sometimes too much so and Trekkie often had to try and bring him back into line .. 'I want you to love me ... but not as an epidemic disease.' I think he was ripe for falling in love, certainly he seems to be the more enthusiastic of the two especially to begin with and Trekkie was just the sort of woman to attract him, creative and artistic but less highly strung than Virginia. The letters are often funny, they both have a great sense of humour and were fond of writing spoof letters to each other. They had lots of shared interests .. they adored plants and gardening and they had an absolute mania for animals .. their houses were awash with cats and dogs. The relationship survived and prospered until Leonards death in 1969. Very, very enjoyable.
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