John Thornberry > Recent Status Updates

Maugham meets Larry in a bar and he is pleased to see him and they agree to meet up the following night.

Starting reading again

He then awakes on the beach again and is rescued.

Drake speaks to the old man who tells stories. He tells of how he was shipwrecked and then found on the African side of the Red Sea. He is taken to a gathering of tribes and then led into a sandstorm by a woman who turns out to be a beast.

Drake is visited by a Captain Tideworth who is a friend of Carroll. He tells him of the rich and exotic passengers that he is sharing the passage with including the mysterious man with one tale.

Drake writes to Katherine and tells her of his journey first to calais then Paris and onto Marseilles by train. Through the Mediterranean to Alexandria and through the Suez canal and into the Red Sea. He still sees the trip as for the power of music to heal rifts rather than for the war office.

Drake and Katherine have some intimate early morning strolls before he eventually leaves from the Albert Dock for Asia.

Kathleen finds out about Edgar's commission when the war office delivers a package to their house. at first she is upset then thinks Drake is doing it to try and prove something which annoys him. Eventually they come to terms with it and start getting things ready for the trip.

Drake tells his wife he has a new contract but doesn't go into detail. He doesn't rush things he is a patient man.

After leaving the War office Drake walks through London, his home town, feeling nostalgic. He returns late to his terrace home/workshop on Franklin Mews and is greeted by his wife of 18 years Katherine. They have not been blessed with children but are very much in love.

Drake meets Colonel Killian at the War office. He thinks that Carroll has lost the plot reciting poetry and playing the piano but his superiors don't mind if it keeps the natives quiet. Drake finds Carroll interesting but not quite sure what he will do with the piano.

The strange request for a piano was met with surprise but then insisted upon to the degree of potential resignation. The war office didn't want this as the Major was doing an excellent job keeping the peace in the area.

Piano tuner Edgar Drake is requested by the war office in 1886 to work on the piano of Surgeon Major Anthony Carrol at his posting in the Shan States Burma.

Nick gets dressed formally and meets Paul Tomkins who he new from Oxford and is Gay also and rather fat. However he has had more conquests than Nick. They discuss targets and he is surprised that Paul sees Gerald as a possibility.

Catherine lures her photographer boyfriend Russell to the mansion by telling him that Thatcher would be there.

Lord Kessler, Rachel's brother, shows Nick around the house and treats it like an interview but for a non-existant job. He shows him albums of when the famous stayed at the house including his hero the novelist Henry James.

The family and Nick leave Notting Hill, Leo and the carnival for Rachels brothers stately mansion Hawkeswood. The house is full of many beautiful things including a Cezanne above the fireplace.

Nick and Leo meet at the hetro pub and get on well. They can't go to each other house so end up in the public garden behind the Fedden where they have sex for the first time. Leo has some more to try out before Nick is taken on full time.

Gerald and Rachel finally return from their holiday baring gifts. Nick feels a little on the outside. Nick has never dated a man only in his fantasies but low goes to meet his black man Leo at the local pub.

The piece is about to be broken as Gerald and Rachel are to return to Notting Hill from their holidays. Nick takes away the implements of Catherines self harm and puts off meeting Leo.

It's 1983. Oxford educated Nick lodges in Notting Hill with new mp Gerald Fedden, his wife Rachel and their too children former self harmer Catherine and former Oxford friend Toby. Nick has a blind date with a Leo coming up which Catherine is taking a keen interest in.

The book concludes. Pereira dies and Robert sells his work to a new audience. Luisa dies and Robert grieves what could have been from afar. He opens the Tannery as a new clinic. He eventually builds the courage to read his father's suicide notes to him and his mum.

Robert intends to leave the island and says his goodbye s. However Pereira drops the bombshell of his father being shot by a firing squad after attempting suicide in the trenches.

Robert buys back his old family home "the Tannery". He goes back to see Pereira on his island. He suggests that Robert is some sort of schizophrenic because he has heard voices occasionally over his life and had d illusions happen to him.

Robert goes to the ski resort where Luisa is staying. It takes a while to pluck the courage up to go and see her. When he does she has aged but he still recognises her. They embrace and he tells her he understands. She is terminally ill.

Robert returns to London for Christmas. He remembers Luisa and all the lame relationship s since. In the January Tim Shorter finally catches up with and tells him Luisa was married to his now dead brother. He also tells him she was very ill and still loved him.

Celine goes for a walk with Robert and makes love with him en plein air despite there 20 year age gap.

Celine comes along to dinner with Pereira - clothed this time. Seems her grandmother was the woman cured of insanity by malaria in his book. Turns out Pereira is trying to cure Robert over his pain losing Luisa and of never knowing his father.

Robert is to return to see Pereira. He realises he knows little of him so does some research in Paris. He finds out that he has written a novel based on himself finding a cure for a girls madness who he was in love with when she contracts malaria.

Robert continues writing his book in Birmingham Alabama and spends time with Anna from the tourist office. eventually he goes back to England where to his surprise he was offered a publishing deal first time of asking.