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Family memoir
Pamela Morris had an extraordinary life. Sent from Paris, where she was a classmate of Simone de Beauvoir, to ebullient Greek relatives in Corfu in 1918 after the death of her mother, she married into a stiff English family and found her way to Oxford, where she eventually became principal of St Clare's.
When Chris Yapp, director of Green Branch Press, was approached by the Norrington family to publish the story of her life, The Blind Horse of Corfu, written by her late daughter Anne Norrington, he assumed its appeal would be exclusively to those who knew Pam personally. However, on reading it, he soon realised that this remarkable and moving story could reach a wider audience.
The Blind Horse of Corfu relates the musings of the elderly Pam in her care home as she recalls her past, when she lived in Paris, Oxford, the West of Ireland - and Corfu.
Although it was written entirely by Anne, she did not live to see it published as she died of motor neurone disease in 2006, four years after her mother's death. Anne dictated the final chapters to her daughter, Sophie James, who picked up the reins and put the book together. Sophie typed and edited her notes with the help of her step-father Brian Ambrose.
Many Oxonians will know Pam Morris, who among many other things in her long life was co-founder of St Clares, they will also know her daughter Sophie for her kindness, generosity, courage and shrewd judgement, as well as her knowledge and love of literature and music.
Sophie explained that her mother Anne was no stranger to writing, having written short sketches used by members of the West Oxfordshire Arts Association in Bampton during the 1980s. "Her plays were usually about everyday life such as the school run, and were always humorous.
"She also wrote two plays that were put on as part of the Oxford Festival in 1989 in a pub in Cowbridge." Her play Bogs and All That was used by the National parks in County Galway to help raise awareness of the destruction of the Irish peat bogs, being cut for fuel.
When Sophie's grandmother Pam came to live with her mother towards the end of her life, Sophie says the two women would sit for hours talking and laughing together, and so the idea of the book was born.
"Pam was very flamboyant and spirited, whereas my mother was much gentler by nature, but both were full of humour and generosity," said Sophie, who was introduced to the opening passages of the book shortly after her mother had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease in May 2005.
"I thought it was wonderful, and said so, and suggested that maybe I could help her typing it up. She agreed and we decided that it could be our project, so for the following few months Anne would read from her notes and then I would take them away to type. We did it this way because my mother's handwriting was always quite tricky to read and the motor neurone disease didn't help matters." Sophie said that it became a wonderful diversion from the dreadful disease that was quickly making her mother's life more and more limited.
"We completed the book in six months. I remember her reading the final words and both of us bursting into tears. The ending is very moving anyway, but we both knew that it was my mother's own story too."
Sophie went on to admit that in a paradoxical way, terminal illness gives you time.
"We all knew that mum was a talented writer, but as wife and mother (and also caring for her parents) she rarely took the time to use her undoubted talents.
"Her diagnosis allowed her to focus in a way that she was unable to do before, and I think it is no accident that she chose her mother as the subject of her book, because, like my mother too, Pam was a truly remarkable person.
"It's interesting because in many ways, the book and its writing is about the very close relationships that can exist between mothers and daughters."
Sophie was determined that the book would be published and is delighted that it may now reach a wider audience than first planned. She sees it as a fascinating social history of the 20th century and a book which insightfully embraces love, life, death marriage, old age and also the very young.
After her mother died, Sophie discovered a few notes Anne had written following her diagnosis. Compensations start to appear: I can't cook, wash up or iron and although I may not be able to walk among the bluebells for long, I can still look at them. The notes ended with a poignant line which spoke of her joining the world of pushchairs and prams which accept you without question. A baby waved at me today. We understand each other's point of view.
The Blind Horse of Corfu is published by Green Branch Press at £9.99.
3:03pm Thursday 24th April 2008
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