The Mortdecai ABC

Charlie Mortdecai

by Kyril Bonfiglioli, Margaret Bonfiglioli

The novels of Kyril Bonfiglioli have achieved something like cult status since they were first published in the seventies. Admired by writers as different as Stephen Fry and Julian Barnes, Susan Hill and Craig Brown, they portray an unsettling world where louche characters perform unspeakable deeds while maintaining a life of apparent ease and sophistication. But who was this writer who shared the same profession -art-dealing - as his main character, Charlie Mortdecai, and professed to share similar tastes and talents too? What lay behind the smokescreen that he chose to throw up? He was, he said, "abstemious in all things except drink, food, tobacco and talking", "a dedicated marrier of beautiful women" and "a fair shot with most weapons". Using the ABC formula beloved by Kyril Bonfiglioli himself, Margaret Bonfiglioli - his second wife - has woven a fascinating portrait of this most enigmatic of writers and provided an intriguing guide to the books he wrote. The truth turns out to be scarcely more credible than the self-descriptions. Of Italo-Slovene descent, the son of a emigre antiquarian bookseller specializing in natural history, Bonfiglioli saw service as a regular soldier in West Africa before arriving at Oxford as a widower in the 1950s with two young children. After graduating, he set himself up as an art dealer in the city, at exactly the moment in the sixties - brilliantly captured in the books - when the art world was becoming truly trendy. It was then that he discovered his Tintoretto...Margaret Bonfiglioli builds up a complex picture of a man who loved art and literature as much as he loved action, who fled from business to write books. As well as the ABC of his life and works, "The Mortdecai ABC" contains Bonfiglioli's pungent editorials for "Science Fantasy", the science-fiction magazine he edited, a number of short stories that he never collected into a book, and some illuminating correspondence with his wife and children, and with his publishers. The result is a witty and unusual book that is the perfect guide, and tribute, to the world of Kyril Bonfiglioli.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Kyril Bonfiglioli was variously an art dealer, editor, and writer.

He wrote four books featuring Charlie Mortdecai, three of which were published in his lifetime, and one posthumously as completed by the satirist Craig Brown. Charlie Mortdecai is the fictional art dealer anti-hero of the series. His character resembles, among other things, an amoral Bertie Wooster with occasional psychopathic tendencies. His books are still in print and have been translated into several different languages including Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese.

Bonfiglioli's style and novel structure have often been favourably compared to that of P. G. Wodehouse. Mortdecai and his manservant Jock Strapp bear a fun-house mirror relation to Wodehouse's Wooster and Jeeves. The author makes a nod to this comparison by having Mortdecai reference Wodehouse in the novels.

Reviews

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Мозаика жизни писателя, упорядоченная по алфавиту (подход странный, но так любил сам автор), из которой складывается отдельный литературный персонаж — неоднозначный, чарующий и довольно неприятный. Но никто и ждет, конечно, никакой пушистости — будь он пушистый, не было бы и Чарли Маккабрея. Ждала, видимо, только его вторая жена, которая и собрала эту книгу (первая жена Бона умерла довольно рано, про третьих история умалчивает; но все дети - число пятеро - живы, один сын даже страницы про папу делает в гугле и фейсбуке).

А забавных фактоидов, невзирая на детские психические травмы (довольно серьезные), масса:

— он собирался писать роман в жанре «русский роман» под названием «Братья Война и Мир»; это-то ладно, но, то что он не успел написать, два продолжения «Всего чая Китая» и роман про папу нашего героя с условным названием то ли «Вот те куншт», то ли «Наци за нос», а также роман в рассказах «Призрачный поезд» — по-настоящему обидно;

— кино по первому роману про Чарли Маккабрея могло состояться в первой половине 70-х. С Дейвидом Нивеном и Питером Селлерзом в главных ролях. И режиссурой Майка Пауэлла;

— в 1975-м Бонфильоли, вероятно, побывал в Москве, но на экскурсию в Кремль не пошел — она очень рано начиналась, в 10 утра;

— дружил с Брайаном Олдиссом, бухал с Хэрри Хэррисоном, а Кристофера Приста и вообще в люди вывел. Их частично приводимая переписка, кстати, — среди лучших страниц этой книги. Она преимущественно об истории женских гигиенических тампонов и нюхательных солях.

Шуток и анекдотов, на самом деле, внутри довольно много, но пересказывать не буду, чтобы не портить никому впечатления. Надеюсь, хотя бы все, что есть в завершенном виде, издать по-ру удастся.

[CQM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining glimpse into the life of the author of the Charlie Mortdecai books through alphabetically organised anecdotes and letters. A dip in and out affair.