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did she have boyfriends?

Well, my sister and I have wondered about that and we rather think that something took place between my mother and Compton McKenzie in Capri. Compton McKenzie was a dashing author, gentleman, scholar, what have you. He ended up as Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, honorary title in England, but nevertheless a distinction. We also know that she had an affair with a Colombian gentleman who lived in the hotel where we lived in Lausanne. One of the reasons I know that is that I had a slight affair with his daughter about twenty-five years later [laughs].

And you compared notes? [laughter] What was your mother like? I mean, she was the one who was with you all those years.

She was a lovely person. She was completely devoted and dedicated to the two of us, as far as I can remember. It seems to me that she was always there, always reasonably ambitious for us, but not unduly so, not to the point where I'd feel it. She saw to it that I did my homework. She tried to make life as pleasant as she could for us. I never did ask her why we moved around so much, neither my sister nor I seemed to know exactly why we did this.

What kind of personality, was she a gay, ebullient type or more serious?

No, reasonably poised, sedate, equable. She didn't get