JG Farrell in His Own Words : Selected Letters and Diaries

Postscript

383 Postscript September 1979 ‘Barring some unforeseen disaster’ he had written automatically. On the following day, 11 August 1979, Jim Farrell was drowned while fishing, after routinely writing without a break until 4pm. Rod in hand, precarious of balance, and intent on casting his line, he was washed off a rock into Bantry Bay in the treacherous early stages of a storm that ultimately took fifteen more lives in that year’s Fastnet Race. His body drifted in the depths, unseen, past the tip of the Sheep’s Head Peninsula,1 which faces the open Atlantic, and towards the far side of the vast bay. And there, behind Bere Island (An tOileán Mór), lay a densely-reeded stretch of coastline where his body was found, near Castletownbere. 42 Elers Road London W 13 9QD 30th September 1979 Dear Dr Simha, I am writing to you in case you have not heard the tragic news that my brother James Farrell died on 11th August in Ireland. It was his habit after his day’s work to go fishing from some rocks near his house. How exactly it happened is not clear, but it seems that he was swept from the rocks by a large wave and was carried away before anybody could help him. His body was eventually recovered about 2 weeks ago. As you can imagine, we are all shattered by what has happened as Jim meant so much to so many different people ... I am very sorry to have to bring you this sad news. Yours sincerely, Richard Farrell 384 J.G. Farrell in his Own Words From Sonia Orwell to Hilary Spurling 100 bis rue d’Assas 75006 Paris September 1979 My dear Hilary, ... I found a two days’ old Herald Tribune and read about Jim. I wanted to telephone at once, I wanted to write at once, but there I was on holiday in Brittany ... unable to communicate my grief to the people I was with ... I mean the unbearable bit of death is that not only will we not see Jim again and that’s just terrible, if only for his smile and giggles and sudden dogmatic outbursts and his whole general elegance which did so enhance any room he was in, but also that he won’t see anything again ... Much love Sonia ...