LOUIS SIMPSON
591
arts" at the Westminster Synagogue. We were shown the rooms that con–
tained the Sacred Scrolls. There were 1,564 Scrolls, each representing a
community in Bohemia or Moravia that had been destroyed by the Ger–
mans. But the Germans had preserved the Scrolls, perhaps with a view to
having a museum ofJewish life.
In 1964 the Scrolls were brought from Czechoslovakia to London.
They were numbered, placed in racks, and repaired so as to be usable.
Hundreds of requests for a Scroll had been received from synagogues all
over the world. A scribe was sitting at a table repairing a damaged Scroll.
He wrote slowly, dipping his pen in ink that had been blessed by a rabbi.
Ron and Fay Weldon lived in the house next door. Fay had written a
novel and was writing another .. . also a script for a television series. She sat
in the kitchen over cups of tea, smoking cigarettes. She would get up to at–
tend to one of the children.
I saw her recently in New York. She was on a tour arranged by her
American publisher to promote her latest novel. We met at a reception being
held
in
her honor at a bar in lower Manhattan. She was about to start on her
journey west and looked as if she were being cast adrift. Miriam was with
me; she told Fay which of her novels she liked best, and Fay looked sur–
prised ... you don't expect to meet someone who has actually read your
books. She wanted us to stay but we couldn't . .. we live far out on the Is–
land, a two hours' drive, and had to be starting back.
Fay reminded me that when I was living next door I gave her a bit of
advice ... a talking-to, in fact. I told her that she had introduced too many
characters at the beginning of her novel. She confused the reader. I told her
that she mustn't do that again.
I can see myself talking and Fay listening, her eyes half-closed, a curl of
smoke going up from the cigarette in her hand. While I am giving her my
advice she is thinking how it would sound in the mouth of a character in a
novel. A critic. Writers can find a use for everything ... even advice.
I did three broadcasts for the BBC. The subject was American poetry,
and they rounded up some American actors to read the poems I used as
examples. There are Americans living permanently in London who work for
radio and television when an American accent is needed.
After each recording we would go out to a pub frequented by BBC
people and have a pint or two or three. I was settling into London, feeling
quite at home, when it was time to leave.
