London Decamerone E-Book

Heinz Landon-Burgher

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 240

Beschreibung

This book is a homage to London, the capital oft he biggest Empire in recent history. This impressive city serves as the bright and colourful stage for 1.000 short stories, narrated from very different and unique individual perspectives. Historical events covering more than a hundred years of history are told in the form of short stories. The focus remains on World War II, with Churchill, Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt as main actors.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

A day in London

I like London (1.1)

Political conversations (1.2)

Côte d’azur (1.3)

London‘s Pubs (1.4)

The 2nd day

The house in East End (2.1)

Munich (2.2)

The Thames terraces (2.3)

Tower (2.4)

A reunion after so many years (2.5)

An extraordinary family (2.6)

Preparing for war (2.7)

German reality (2.8)

The politics of the Secret Intelligence Service (2.9)

First combat actions (2.10)

Drôle de Guerre (2.11)

Blitz (2.12)

French government in exile (2.13)

After the war (2.14)

Separation (2.15)

The 3rd day

A cruise on the River Thames (3.1)

Nancy Astor (3.2)

Westminster Abbey (3.3)

War rooms (3.4)

Card rooms (3.5)

Museum (3.6)

Caricatures (3.7)

Painting (3.8)

Witticisms (3.9)

Life line (3.10)

The importance of women (3.12)

Blow up (3.13)

Minister of finance (3.13)

French House (3.14)

The 4th Day (4)

Art Gallery (4.1)

Lunch (4.2)

British Museum (4.3)

Buckingham Palace (4.4)

Eaton Square (4.5)

La guerra parallela (4.6)

The Fifth Day (5)

City of London (5.2)

Temple Avenue (5.3)

The beginnings of aviation (5.4)

Leak (5.7)

The English press (5.8)

George, 1st Duke of Kent (5.9)

Speculation (5.10)

A day in London

I like London (1.1)

It is a city where history is ever present, unlike any other city.

On the very first day of my stay, I took a walk in Hyde Park. I started off at Lancaster Gate, close to where I had rented an appartement. London parks are a highlight for me. The lush green grass – lush because of the humid climate – is something I had only ever seen in pre-alpine landscapes until then. The park was filled to the brim with joggers and athletic female runners. Almost all of them were running with bare legs even though it was already late fall, however, temperatures were still mild.

Londoners love dogs. They will walk up to six dogs at once, three on each hand. Still, there was no dog dirt to be found – that is how disciplined Englishmen are. Quite the contrary in France, by the way. On the Côte d’azur in Southern France, you will step from one pile into the other even in the most renowned of holiday resorts.

The leaves were still hanging on the trees, many bushes were blooming and wild cyclamens were growing around their edges. I passed the magnificent Italian parks and charmingly arranged lakes to finally end up at Speaker’s Corner. I should have become a photographer, just so I could capture all these beautiful sights and publish them as “Impressions of London.“ Everything I had seen on TV so far didn’t match up to the – actual – magnificence that I beheld there.

Speaker’s Corner

I noticed him right away. He was standing with a small group of people who were watching a man with tattoos all over his body. This man was gradually undressing himself to show off every last tattoo and to explain their meaning while yelling: “I’m a human being” again and again, even though no one was questioning that fact.

Apparently, I had also in turn caught the attention of the spectator I had noticed because he came to me and addressed me directly. He didn’t open with “Where are you from” or “What’s your name,” instead, he wanted to get my opinion on the speaker’s performance. Well, to be honest, I am not a big fan of tattoos. I just don’t understand how someone can disfigure their own body like that. About the performance and statements themselves, I had nothing much to say. The tattoo-enthusiast was talking about the four freedoms humans should have according to US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the same freedoms American soldiers fought for in World War II.

Bohemians of Bigger London

The then still unfamiliar man who had approached me knew more than I did and was able to tell me that the tattoos had been etched into the performer’s skin based on sketches by the American painter Norman Rockwell. He also told me that the tattoed man had been doing this same performance for years and that he knew him personally. Both belonged to a loosely knitted group of “Bohemians of Bigger London,” who sometimes also worked together and organized shows and events in cafes or pubs.

My new acquaintance’s role mostly consisted of telling stories, anecdotes, jokes, and, most of all, weird stories. He was quite the linguist, a polyglot, and able to tell his stories in almost any language. His nickname therefore was “Tusitala – Teller of a thousand stories,” a name the Samoans had once given the author of Treasure Island, who spent his twilight years in Samoa.

Hyde Park

While talking, we wandered along the shores of the serpentine lake and passed Albert Memorial. We went by the wonderful Kensington Palace where Queen Victoria had once resided, a queen who had lent her name to an entire era, and walked past the Princess Diana Memorial. We also took a look at the fanciful Peter Pan statue and finally wound up at my point of origin, the Lancaster Gate. We were so engrossed in our conversation that we kept on walking and in the end, we found ourselves at Speaker’s Corner once again.

Political conversations (1.2)

Freedom from fear

Our conversation centered around the four freedoms. Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and the fourth one, freedom from fear. This fourth freedom was a promise the American president made, promising all of humanity that he would create a world without fear as soon as peace was restored after World War II. He promised the world this Pax Americana at a time when the USA had not even entered the war yet. It was a promise to never have another war, to have eternal peace instead as soon as Hitler was taken care of – world peace under American leadership. In order to achieve this, however, the USA first had to enter the war.

Entering the war

Churchill could hardly wait for that moment to come because England had no chance of continuing the war without American support after its defeat at Dunkirk and France’s surrender. The American public however had no wish to be drawn into yet another World War, the same as with World War I. Still, Churchill knew that England wouldn’t be able to win a European war, only a World War, side by side with the United States. Roosevelt had already promised him in 1932, we’re going to destroy Germany and do it right this time.

Norman Rockwell

The American painter has created an enigmatic picture to visualize this fourth freedom. The tattooguy was carrying it on his chest, the most prominent place so to speak. A small boy and his sister are lying next to each other in their sickbed. Father and mother are standing close to them and are worried about their sleeping children.

Interpretation

The worried parents are the world powers Uncle Sam and Britannia. But just as the two children can put all their trust in them, so can the world. The global community does not have to fear these two world powers. They will protect all peoples and foster them. To do this, however, they will first have to take their weapons so they can’t wage war against one another. A world without weapons is a world where no one can start a war, a world where well-being and prosperity are guaranteed by the US and the UK, and them alone. This disarmament would hit Germany first. „Never again will a German hold a weapon in their hands“. After this, Japan would also have to surrender unconditionally and forego any kind of weaponization.

Step by step, all other countries would have to be demilitarized as well.

UN – Charta

This thought was also expressed in the UN – Charta that was devised by Churchill and Roosevelt in 1941. They met in absolute secrecy on the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales in Placenta Bay in front of Newfoundland from the 9th-12th of August 1941. Shortly before that, Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union and both politicians assumed that Hitler would win. They thought they could then easily destroy the weakened German army, especially since the most enormous weaponry a country had ever built, and that Roosevelt had started to have built in 1932, would be ready for combat in 1942, following the “10-year rule.” Article 8 states: We are convinced that it is necessary for all peoples of this world to renounce the use of any armed force for practical and moral reasons. Peace cannot be maintained permanently as long as assault weapons can be used to attack others. That is why we find that in order to create a permanent system of general security, it is necessary that all nations be demilitarized. With this, we support any measures aimed at relieving peace-loving peoples of the pressure to get armed.

Unpolitical

All I could do was listen to my new friend, Houston. He told me so many new things. I myself had been brought up apolitically as was my whole generation. I only knew there would never be another war after Hitler had been defeated. I was convinced of that. It was absolutely inconceivable that there could be another maniac like that out there that would be able to pull the world into such an extermination war as Hitler had done. Hitler was the only one of his kind, that was clear to everybody. All of my classmates thought so and my teachers said the same thing.

The fact that the Americans were willing to protect us selflessly and take all of the weight of armament on themselves – I thought that was very altruistic of them. I shared my opinions with my new friend, who didn’t quite agree with me. Today, I don’t agree either anymore. “No more wars” was an empty promise made by the victors. The only thing they did with this was conceal their claims to world domination.

Dreams meet reality

Furthermore, the war did not at all turn out as Churchill and Roosevelt had imagined. Bolshevism wasn’t destroyed; instead, Stalin came out of the war stronger than ever, you could even say he won it. His army was the one to invade Berlin, not the US or British army. He occupied the capital’s city center and voluntarily gave the other victors only a few sectors in the Western part of the city.

In the Pacific, Chiang Kai-shek didn’t defeat the Japanese, the US had to personally intervene in order to beat Japan. The generalissimo even lost mainland China, which Mao Tse Tung, Stalin’s new ally, conquered in a “Long March.” Hence, Bolshevism was also established in the East. The only thing left to nationalist China was the small island of Taiwan, the former Formosa.

Two new world powers were created by the war. The US and the UK had to share world domination with them. They had to grant the same UN veto rights to both of them. It was no longer two countries that had last say, now it was four. That means that the struggle for domination was still ongoing – eternal peace, yeah, right.

The only thing the war resulted in was the total destruction of Germany and Japan.

Operation Unthinkable

Churchill realized: „We killed the wrong pig.” He wanted to continue the war one day after the peace agreement in May of 1945. He had the weapons of the more than 5 million imprisoned German soldiers collected. They were supposed to be given back to them so that they could continue the war against the Russians side by side with American and British soldiers. However, the US generals just didn‘t cooperate. The landing in Normandy and battles in the West had been more difficult and cost more lives than expected, in spite of their enormous material superiority. They weren’t able to continue the war like that without a break. The only possible war was the Cold War – unlike the situation in the East.

One war after the other

The war in the Pacific region had started in Korea, where in 1936, the USA had provided Chiang Kaishek with money and arms for his fight against Japan. And that is where the war continued right away. When the USA wanted to occupy these rich colonies after the Japanese had been banished, the Koreans resisted. The Korean people paid a high price for the American military maneuvers. 3 million people lost their lives, all of them were Korean. To this day, North Korea has not been conquered. The only thing they have there is a truce that could be broken at any time. The situation is especially precarious at the moment.

After this came the Vietnam War. Vietnam didn’t want to allow the French colonial power to reinstate its dominance. The USA wanted to use this so they could assert their dominance over Vietnam. But even though the USA were using extremely cruel measures such as throwing napalm bombs, they didn’t manage to win this war.

The intervention in Iran, the war on Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Serbia, the war on Gaddafi in Libya, giving weapons to oppositionists in Syria so a civil war would ensue and more than 1,200 military interventions – the USA are involved in all of that. So that’s the result of their promise of a world without fear, this is their realization of peace eternal.

One could quote Brecht and say, “The dream of peace is no longer a dream, it has become a harsh reality.”

Côte d’azur (1.3)

Memories

These conversations brought us very close together in a remarkably short time. I also learned much about his family, his childhood and adolescence. I learned that he went against his parents’ wishes early on and chose a path that went against the family tradition. He didn’t study at Oxford and climb the career ladder afterwards; instead, he first lived as a vagabond, a globetrotter and after that, as a freelance writer. As an adolescent, he liked to camp on the French Mediterranean coast with his friends. That brought up memories for both of us. We remembered that we had actually met once before, on the beach in front of the Negresco in Nice just a few years after the Second World War.

Back then, the beach was still covered in pebbles. It was only later that sand was heaped onto it. Today, all hotels and restaurants belong to rich oil sheiks. He was with his friends, the beautiful Cynthia, Douglas and Charles. His first name was Houston. Back then, I went by Henry and was added to this four-leaf clover. I was 16, 2 years younger than my new friends, and I was seriously considering breaking out of my bourgeois home to roam across the world with those four Londoners.

Educated middle-class

My parents, always eager to learn, visited the house of famous impressionist Auguste Renoir and the Grimaldi Palace in Antibes. This is where Picasso had painted his famous picture “La Joie de vivre.” They also went to other places where renowned painters had worked and would not miss a single famous museum or studio of the great painters. The South of France was an artist’s paradise, especially after 1945, but even long before that, van Gogh and Gauguin were living in Arles in the Provence.

Street artists

My four friends weren’t interested in the works of others, they were artists themselves. Charles created wonderful street pictures on the sidewalk. Usually they were caricatures of living great politicians. General de Gaulle with a huge nose or Churchill, the Little Fat Man with a cigar. In appreciation, the people strolling along the shore promenade would throw coins into the cap lying next to the pictures.

Cynthia was able to draw astonishingly good portraits with just a few strokes. She would set up her small, wobbly easel and hardly any passersby were able to resist buying the sketch. Everybody would think that she got their portrait just right.

Douglas had a beautiful voice and played the guitar really well. He would sit on the quay wall and sing the latest pop songs. He could also perform hits by Edith Piaf, e.g. Allez-venez-Milord. He would also sing English shanties:

My bonny is over the ocean.

She drank gin. He drank rum.

I’ll tell you they had lots of fun.

His cap also never stayed empty.

Houston was so linguistically talented, he would tell the newest jokes in Italian, French, English, and even German, depending on who had gathered around him. The laughter surrounding him was always the loudest. I don’t know how he managed to get tipped. I think he pretended to be a political refugee but presented it in such a funny way that no one believed him.

Casual vacation

My four London friends had set up their tent somewhere in the garden of a currently uninhabited holiday villa of a millionaire. They spent the whole day on the beach. Whenever they got hungry they counted their francs and decided whether they had enough to buy a bottle of vin du postillon, a baguette, tomatoes, grapes, and maybe even some ham. If not, they would take up their “activities” at the Promenade des Anglais.

It never took the four artists more than 20 minutes to get enough money for a meal. Well, to be honest, they were highly talented. I so would have loved to travel around the world with them as a globetrotter. My participation in their life style was hindered by me not being able to keep up with them. I got good grades in school, but that was pretty much it.

Origin

Soon, I also got a look into their families. They all came from influential families; Cynthia’s family was actually aristocratic. Her mother was a court lady of the English royal family. By way of the Mitfords, she was related to Churchill’s wife Clementine Hozier, another aristocratic lady.

Douglas was related to the great statesman Hamilton, who owned a large estate with its own airfield at Dungavel Castle in Scotland. Incidentally, this is where Rudolf Heß would land in 1941.

Charles was related to Lord Halifax, the English foreign minister, who was invited to the gaudy Carinhall for a hunt and was given the name Halalifax by Goering.

Houston was actually related to the prominent Chamberlain family who has brought us many great politicians and with Neville Chamberlain even gave us a prime minister. No wonder that those four vagabonds were really exceptional people and not just regular Joes.

Artists in their twilight years

Houston was still keeping a close relationship with his friends, who, like him, were living in London. Cynthia and Charles had recently made the news by creating a street picture on Trafalgar Square. They even got sued for it. Apart from that, they had a steady source of income by illustrating books.

Douglas was less successful financially with his concert for oboes and twelve type writers. He was still making music on the streets or performing as a solo entertainer in cafes and pubs.

Houston considered himself a writer without ever having had something published. He was planning a huge piece: a thousand years of world history in a thousand short stories. To summarize, the four were doing moderately well for themselves, but without the support and heritage of their rich families, they would have never been able to keep up their lifestyle into old age. They would have had to work, like I had to.

The fact that our paths have crossed, once upon a time in Nice and then again today when I met Houston at Speaker’s Corner, was a coincidence. The fact that these chance meetings have blossomed into a lasting acquaintace and collaboration was destiny.

London‘s Pubs (1.4)

The Swan

It was time to grab a beer. A pleasant pub, rich in tradition, was situated right on the other side of the street: “The Swan.” It’s one of Houston’s favorite hangouts, so that’s where we went. The front yard was filled with wooden benches and tables but nobody was sitting there since it was too cold to sit outside. The inside of the pub however was jam-packed. We found an empty table on the right side of the entrance. A big table was filled with work colleagues taking their lunch break together. They were up to all kinds of shenanigans. As soon as a neighbor wasn’t looking, his full glass was switched with an empty one. When someone left their seat for a short moment, the others would tie the sleeves of the jacket hanging over his chair, which made it hard for him to put the jacket back on later. I thought what a fun work day this was for the British. The inside of the pub was angled and convoluted. It had been remodeled and added to continually and had several balconies. A table filled with women could be reached halfway up a flight of stairs. Ten to twelve women were sitting there and playing games. They gave a very emancipated impression and obviously didn’t have to stay home and cook for their husbands.

How to get a beer

I grew kind of irritated with the waiter, who passed us by several times without noticing that we had no beer. Then my new friend enlightened me and told me that in pubs, you have to get your own beer. That is why I then went to the counter, where eight taps got different kinds of beer straight out of barrels. Houston told me: “Get me a beer as well, from the fourth tap.” The beer had to be paid for right away, no notches on coasters in London. Actually, not a bad system. Makes paying the check easier.

Fish and Chips

Drinking made us hungry, so Houston suggested we eat some fish and chips. They also had to be ordered at the counter and paid right away. I had meant to treat Houston to the meal anyway, but it bothered me a little that he just had me pay for his food like that. Still, the fish was very, very good – a fresh cod filet. The chips were like fries but wider and even more delicious since the crispy to soft ratio was even better balanced. My order was assigned a number that was put on a tiny banner and given to me to be put on the table. Soon, the waiter was waving a tray with a little banner with the same number on it. Everything went really smoothly. Again I thought how practical the English were. Dine-and-dash? Not even possible.

Fouquet’s

The thing that happened to me at Fouquet’s in Paris would have never happened to me in London. An apparently honorable, serious-looking older gentleman had addressed me in front of the restaurant. Back then, I was a “poor student” and he asked me if he could treat me to a meal. I was surprised but really grateful and we both ate well and plenty in the noble restaurant. That is, until my gracious benefactor had to go to the bathroom real quick and never returned, leaving me no choice but to pay the whole bill.

Gallows

Before Houston and I left the Swan, Houston asked me: „Did you know that four hundred years ago, the people with death sentences would get their last meal in this pub before going to the gallows?” The gallows were on the other side of the street, right where Speaker’s Corner is today.

Strange how a place can just change its role like that. The place where people used to gather to amuse themselves by watching the legs of hanged men twitch involuntarily is now the place they go to laugh about the confused speeches and willing displays of the mostly psychopathic performers. It’s weird, but the Genius loci somehow stayed kind of the same after all.

Since Houston is so knowledgable about English history and knows his birth city so well, I asked him to show me all of the old traditional pubs. A full program. We both had the time, my work days were over, my kids had left home, and Houston had stayed a bachelor his whole life.

The 2ndday

The house in East End (2.1)

Paddington Station

For the next day, we had planned for me to visit him at his house in East End. When I left the house the next morning, of course I had neglected to allow for rush hour. I wanted to depart from Paddington Station. However, the station was already so packed with people that getting into the train was obvious as a lost cause right away. I therefore sat down in the back on one of the benches and watched the hustle and bustle.

Every two minutes, a train arrived. People in the back were pushing the people in the front until the cars were so full that not a single person more could fit no matter how hard they tried. As soon as the next train arrived, the whole show would start anew. Really fascinating. Well, for me anyway! But the poor people who had to go through this every day…

Finally, I underwent the same procedure. In spite of the many people standing in the cars and blocking my view, I could still see pictures on the walls of shelters and helpful women passing out coffee and cake to the people seeking refuge there. Reminders of the first German air strikes on London. Again I was hit by the ever present historical awareness here. In no other city have I seen reminders of air strikes even though they had suffered from them a great deal more.

At last I reached East End and soon found Houston’s house with help of his description of it. Today, East End is a chique artists’ quarter, but not so long ago, it was the poorest part of London. Houston’s house was built during a time when it was mainly poor dockworkers living there.

Archives, notes, and manuscripts

Houston was still busy with bringing a little order to his chaotic library. Typical for when someone is coming to “visit.” “I have always had some trouble with keeping order” was how he commented on his cleaning efforts. That is probably the reason why so far, all my efforts to put my assorted stories into some kind of orderly format have failed. It takes an enormous amount of diligence. One of your great poets once said “Being a genius takes 5% talent and 90% diligence.” I may have the 5% talent, but am obviously lacking the 90% diligence.

Greeting

First, we wanted to celebrate our renewed acquaintance with a glass of wine. In his wine cellar, Houston had the Port and Sherry that the British love so much, but also dry white wines from California, Chile, and Australia. He had travelled the world and therefore knew his way around a wine cellar, too. I was feeling right at home and it was obvious that he also cherished the chance to discuss his authorical problems with somebody.

The year of destiny: 1932

I will start my story collection with 1932, the year of destiny, and let the plot unravel front and back. For what reasons had he chosen this year as a crossroad, I wanted to know. For me, the date held no special symbolic power. He sees it as a pivot point in American politics. In 1932, the American establishment managed to prevent the best president the US ever had from being re-elected:

Herbert Hoover. Instead, they put one of their own into this powerful position: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This man had also promised the American public peace, but only to snatch peace-loving voters away from his opponent. His true objective: “I need a big war.” He was thinking about a war in the Pacific, a war that Hoover had wanted to prevent at all costs, and also about a war against Germany, which he wanted to utterly destroy this time.

Hoover