PC/3/4/15 - Letter, PC to her parents, 17/6/1948
Reference code
PC/3/4/15
Level of description
Item
Title
Letter, PC to her parents, 17/6/1948
Date/s
17/6/1948
Quantity & Format
6 numbered pages; 2 leaves Letters (MS)
Creator
Crampton, Patricia, 1925-2016Creator
Wood, Vera MarionAdministrative/Biographical history
recipientCreator
Wood, Leslie John CardewAdministrative/Biographical history
recipient
Scope and content
MS. 6 numbered pages. 2 leaves.
PC writes from Venice. She had travelled to Salzburg by car and then by train to Venice. “Austria just isn’t like an occupied country at all – the currency has been properly established & everyone has lots of self-respect & eggs for breakfast.” [Years later PC would write in a biographical account: “Breakfast is important for me, since 1946, breakfast has been Swedish. No more boiled eggs …” – ‘Round the World in Sixty Years’]. She describes meeting a spoilt Contessa on the train to Villach; and the intimate liaison which followed with a high-ranking railway official. “When the Contessa reappeared she looked like a mixture between a Cheshire cat and an old floor mop.”
She describes Venice. They had visited a lido and had their cameras stolen - her [Kodak] Retina I and Wolf[gang Hildesheimer’s] Retina II. The photos they had taken were also of course lost.
PC wants Wolf to travel back with her across Switzerland so she can see “Charles Macpoodle” [i.e. Macnamara]. “He [Wolf] has a frightful time with visas and such like, as do all these stateless people.”
They had visited the Exhibition of Modern Art. Henry Moore and Turner represented Great Britain. “Moore is one of my great loves as you know, so as I’m not at all interested in Turner I had a lovely time wallowing in the whole rooms of Moore.” [PC was later to marry the sculptor Seán Crampton].
Wolf had received his visa and they were travelling to Milan.
PC writes from Venice. She had travelled to Salzburg by car and then by train to Venice. “Austria just isn’t like an occupied country at all – the currency has been properly established & everyone has lots of self-respect & eggs for breakfast.” [Years later PC would write in a biographical account: “Breakfast is important for me, since 1946, breakfast has been Swedish. No more boiled eggs …” – ‘Round the World in Sixty Years’]. She describes meeting a spoilt Contessa on the train to Villach; and the intimate liaison which followed with a high-ranking railway official. “When the Contessa reappeared she looked like a mixture between a Cheshire cat and an old floor mop.”
She describes Venice. They had visited a lido and had their cameras stolen - her [Kodak] Retina I and Wolf[gang Hildesheimer’s] Retina II. The photos they had taken were also of course lost.
PC wants Wolf to travel back with her across Switzerland so she can see “Charles Macpoodle” [i.e. Macnamara]. “He [Wolf] has a frightful time with visas and such like, as do all these stateless people.”
They had visited the Exhibition of Modern Art. Henry Moore and Turner represented Great Britain. “Moore is one of my great loves as you know, so as I’m not at all interested in Turner I had a lovely time wallowing in the whole rooms of Moore.” [PC was later to marry the sculptor Seán Crampton].
Wolf had received his visa and they were travelling to Milan.
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PC - Patricia Crampton Archive
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PC/3 - Nuremberg, the 1940s and Early Career
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PC/3/4 - Letters from Patricia Crampton in Nuremberg to her parents, 1947-1949
- PC/3/4/15 - Letter, PC to her parents, 17/6/1948
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PC/3/4 - Letters from Patricia Crampton in Nuremberg to her parents, 1947-1949
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PC/3 - Nuremberg, the 1940s and Early Career