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8. RETURN TO DEVON |
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To
begin with the family moved to a large house which Henry had bought
in the village of Botesdale on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk.
This was only meant as an interlude for the tensions of the farm
years had done too much damage and it was already arranged that
Henry and Loetitia would divorce as soon as suitable arrangements
could be made. Whilst in Botesdale Henry became very friendly
with the racing driver, St. John Horsfall, who drove Aston Martin
cars. Henry decided he too had to have an Aston Martin and bought
a second-hand one. This car was to cause him endless trouble. |
| Soon after, in the late summer of 1946 Henry returned to Devon
alone: divorce proceedings were instigated and the divorce became
absolute in early 1947. Even during the dark and difficult days
of the war Henry had often escaped to his writing hut at Ox’s
Cross, and after the war was over he had made increasingly longer
visits. He was at this time in love with yet another young lady
in his constant search for the perfect ‘Barleybright’.
Once again he suffered great anguish when this came to naught.
To begin with he stayed with friends in Georgeham village but
after a while he went back to live permanently at the Field. Very
soon he met a young teacher, Christine Duffield, with whom he
fell almost immediately in love. They bought a caravan to live
in at the Field and, after some initial difficulties over her
mother’s disapproval, they were married in April 1949.
The honeymoon was once again the occasion of a visit, although
brief this time, to the First World War battlefields in France,
but the main destination was to visit another writer, Richard Aldington, who lived on the south coast of France and who was
just beginning a biography on T.E. Lawrence (a book which was
to cause great controversy in due course). Henry had also decided
to visit his publishers in Italy and this meant crossing the Alps,
driving his Aston Martin, which was proving to be an extremely
difficult and uncomfortable car. Henry was not mechanically minded
and could not cope with such temperamental cars, being of far
too impatient a nature. The file of correspondence relating to
the cars with the makers and various garages and mechanics reads
like a French farce.
On their return to Devon, to begin with the couple lived a
back to nature life in the Field, gardening, walking, with wood
fires to warm them and water drawn from a well. The following
year their son was born. Henry decided to build a larger Studio
of solid construction in the Field but it was suggested that this
was rather a bohemian life for a young child so eventually a cottage
was also bought in the nearby town of Ilfracombe – 4, Capstone
Place – which gave the family a base and HW was once again
able to use the Field as his escape to the peace and quiet necessary
for him to write. The Field was always a very special place, a
miniature nature reserve, with an extremely evocative atmosphere.
But it was even more than that. For Henry it was almost a holy
place, certainly a place of spiritual renewal and nourishment
– a place where he could retire and enter his inner being,
as a hermit goes on retreat to discover his soul.
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