Jericho

by Dirk Bogarde (Narrator)

Writer William Caldicott's life is complicated enough. He is about to embark on divorce proceedings when he receives a cryptic letter of farewell from his estranged brother James together with the key to his house in a remote French village.

William --- out of exasperation, duty or self-dissatisfaction --- accepts the key and begins to look for James. Gradually, as he begins to unravel the complexities of his brother's strange life, he discovers things that, even as a writer, he could never remotely have imagined ...

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, France

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Dirk Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde was born of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry, and baptised on 30 October 1921 at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham; 1892–1972), was the art editor of The Times and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898–1980), was a former actress. He attended University College School, the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow (a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. He began his acting career on stage in 1939, shortly before the start of World War II.

Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.


Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.

During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.

Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Dirk Bogarde reads his adapted novel, set in Provence

Quite boring, NEXT!!! Thanks for the advice Bettie.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

CRUD! UTTER CRUD! Bah and fie! Bogarde's attempt to create a sense of mystery about the protagonist's missing brother is woeful, frankly I get a greater sense of mystery walking to the fridge and wondering if there's enough milk left for breakfast! His protagonist is a narcissistic looser who narrates in a manner similar to an home insurer cataloguing the items of a home, he simply describes each room he enters smack bang in your face, an example:

"Three windows in the south wall, none in the north. Beamed ceiling, canopied fireplace, tiled floor, rough whitewashed walls. A battered settee before the firplace covered with a tartan rug and a number of sheets of newspaper. A small doorway led down two steps into a flagged stone kitchen. Good electric fittings, washing-machine, cooker and so on. Walk-in larder with a few bottles of fruit, cucumbers, some kind of jam, a large bread-crock empty."

And it goes on for pages like this and it's an ongoing thing. BAH! How the duece this got printed is beyond my comprehension! I got halfway through it before seriously considering taking it outside and burning it.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dirk Bogarde reads his adapted novel, set in Provence.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 3:30pm Monday 2nd August 2010
Duration:
120 minutes
Available until:
3:47pm Monday 9th August 2010
Category:
Drama


No - not now, not ever.

[Graham Monkman]

I enjoyed every volume of Dirk Bogarde's memoirs, as well as his novels 'Closing Ranks' and 'Jericho'.

The latter is set in France and revolves around the strange disappearance of James Caldicott - an artist living in a small village in Provence. Before disappearing, he bequeaths his house and studio to his older brother, William - mailing the key to him in London, with the accompanying words 'don't come looking for me because you'll never find me' and adding that he intends to 'take the road to sweet oblivion.'

The brothers have had no contact for many years, so in an effort to get to the bottom of his brother's odd behaviour, William decides to visit the house of which he is now the owner. He has misgivings -particularly as he is in the middle of a divorce and surrounded by the pressures and conflicts it inevitably involves.

He and his wife have ultimately proved incompatible and are parting by mutual consent. He knows she has been a good mother, which prompts his anger that his career as a writer has made him a somewhat distant father.

One wonders if William is a rather sanctimonious complainer, because - unlike most divorces - his wife makes no claim on their three storey house. Similarly, he takes a pious posture when he learns about his estranged brother's life during the years they have been apart.

James, it transpires, was bisexual with an appetite for sado masochistic activity with either gender, vividly documented in a series of diaries and photographs which William obtains through his investigations 'Oh Christ' is his reaction.

He meets and falls in love with Florence, his brother's former partner with a disabled son, fathered by James. Unexpectedly, the relationship improves his character - an interesting twist amongst many others, and they continue right to the end.

Jericho is an unusual and absorbing story full of Dirk Bogarde's customary insights into human relationships and behaviour - which acquaint us with many unusual and fascinating characters, some unsavoury. The book also contains beautifully written descriptions of the Provence countryside and lifestyle.

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but loses steam and feels pretty unresolved in the end. Gets more sordid in places than I expected it to (sordidness being something I enjoy, particularly sordidness of this variety) but ultimately it shies away more than I’d like it to. Quite interesting in its themes, ruminating on family and conventionality, sexuality and unconventionality, and (dis)ability – both inborn and the kind that comes later in life. It makes sense for Bogarde to wrestle with these topics, particularly at the time in his life when he wrote this – presumably after or perhaps even during his partner’s illness and death, and after his own first stroke. The world he puts on the page is well-realized, his characters unique. Only his most interesting character never actually appears…

[Helen O'Toole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed his biographies but honestly it was a chore and much speed/ skim reading to even plough through this novel. I frankly wanted to scream at the older brother, William : who cares? His much younger brother James has disappeared of his own volition leaving his wife and a disabled son. James has sent William the keys to his small French house. William should have stayed in London and never headed down the course of discovering some very disturbing aspects of his brothers life.

[Agnes Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is many years since I have read Dirk Bogarde’s autobiographies but I enjoyed them. This book too I enjoyed. It did make me want to revisit France. I loved the descriptions of the house and the villages. As another reviewer mentions it does get a bit sordid at times. I thought the description of Thomas the Down’s syndrome child a bit clumsy and lacking in humanity which surprised as Bogarde’s writing is normally sensitive.

[Matthew Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undoubtedly well-written, but hard to get past how dated this is. Casual racism, describing a child with Downs Syndrome as an "error", "backward" and "an abberation", and explaining a character's homosexuality as being the result of corrupting forces are some of the tougher parts to get through, but the narrator is fairly unlikeable without all that. There's something about it, though. It's not awful, but at the same time I find it difficult to articulate just WHAT I liked about it.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was given to me by a family member, glad they did as it was not something I would ever have chosen for myself and I would have missed out on this different type of read!
Well written, set in France telling the story of someone who disappears (by choice) and the stories that 'come out' about him as his older brother searches for him.

[Jane Routley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writing. An oddly bitter book. I think it may reflect Bogarde own feelings about his sexuality.

[Liz Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd book. Definitely dated, slightly seedy somehow. Characters not quite plausible, so disappointing.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good novel. Suspense is built up slowly and steadily. Very well written. Interesting to note that Dirk Bogarde has put a lot of his own life into the novel.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book via this post: https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.c...

[Moorlandthistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm ... won't be reading that one again although I did enjoy williams dull sarcasm throughout 3 stars because I actually managed to finish it so I suppose they are really awarded to me for endurance

[Senne Note · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corny but cute.

[Neil]

I have to admit, it's the 1st Dirk Bogarde that I've not enjoyed. The author did the reading and he sounded tired and bored.

[Jane Wilson-Howarth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy effortless enjoyable read with some absolutely lovely descriptive passages on the Provincal countryside, the birds and whatnot.

[Surina Suhaimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really nice read which took me to the French countryside in an instance.