The Sunlight on the Garden [antikvár]

Introduction Nice, Baie des Anges 1963 I knew of Nice by family reputation, of course, so it was no surprise to receive my first serious proposition on one of its municipal benches. Every winter my divorced great-aunt Gwynneth went to Nice to gamble away the winter months. It was non-consummation my mother said sagely: while the man who was briefly my great-uncle and who was called Mr Peek toiled over great-aunt Gwynneth, she did the Times crossword, pausing - her not him - to ring a friend to complain about the tedium of marital obligation. 'Oh my God,' she drawled in popular family renditions, 'it's Barry, he's at it again.' When he eventually ran amok with a carving knife she had him and the marriage set aside. Such problems were unlikely to arise with her companion Sidney Alberga, with whom she went to the Hotel Negresco each November. They travelled as brother and sister: Gwynneth a relic of the 1920s, signing the cheques, and Sidney, his white face, dyed red hair, smudged eyes and fur coat conferring considerable glamour on the two of them. Nice was also the place where my parents had been happy, as undergraduates abroad, after the war. For years I treasured a photograph of them just being happy My father, slim yet strong, with a lock of light brown hair falling in his eyes is controlling a small boat which he is inducing my mother to board. She, still on shore, in a patterned cotton