Brian Aldiss - When the Feast is Finished

BRIAN ALDISS

With Margaret Aldiss

A memoir of Love and Bereavement

Harper Voyager

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk

This ebook first published in Great Britain by Harper Voyager in 2015

Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2015

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com

Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 978-0-00-748260-3

Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-748261-0

Version: 2015-07-01

To Alison

Who made my life habitable

after the feast was finished –

with much gratitude

In loving memory of my wife,

Margaret Christie Manson Aldisss

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,

But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,

There falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;

And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,

Yea, hungry for the lips of my desire:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

ERNEST DOWSON

Contents

Cover

Title Page BRIAN ALDISS With Margaret Aldiss

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Introduction Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Postscript About the Author Also by Brian Aldiss About the Publisher Harper Voyager An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk This ebook first published in Great Britain by Harper Voyager in 2015 Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2015 Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015 Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 978-0-00-748260-3 Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-748261-0 Version: 2015-07-01

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Introduction Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Postscript About the Author Also by Brian Aldiss About the Publisher To Alison Who made my life habitable after the feast was finished – with much gratitude

Epigraph Epigraph Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Introduction Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Postscript About the Author Also by Brian Aldiss About the Publisher I cried for madder music and for stronger wine, But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire, There falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine; And I am desolate and sick of an old passion, Yea, hungry for the lips of my desire: I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion. ERNEST DOWSON

Introduction Introduction We must all be grateful to Brian Aldiss for his courage and determination in writing this fine book about the terminal illness of his wife, Margaret, who claimed she was not ‘important’ enough for such attention. In doing so, he has given us a portrait of a remarkable woman and a remarkable marriage; he has also produced the best day-to-day, personal account of a terminal illness I have ever read. Anyone who has worked with the dying will instantly recognise the authenticity of this account, which is particularly valuable to medical professionals in its report of the first-rate hospice care provided by the Sir Michael Sobell House, Oxford. For this reason alone, the book should be read by every hospice worker and all medical and nursing students and practitioners. For the general reader, the extraordinary honesty of the book makes it compelling reading. Brian Aldiss is an excellent writer and he writes as life really is: raw, contradictory, repetitive, bright at one moment, unbearable at the next, glorious, infuriating, ultimately mysterious beyond our power to comprehend. I believe it is a book that will comfort many people who face similar circumstances, including the dying themselves, as well as the care-givers and the bereaved. Such a fearlessly intimate glimpse into lives in crisis serves to remind us all that whatever happens, we are not in this alone. Sandol Stoddard Leading advocate of The Hospice Movement and author of The Hospice Movement: A Better Way of Caring for the Dying

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Postscript

About the Author

Also by Brian Aldiss