After four months in hospital, Denton moved to Southcourt nursing home in Broadstairs. In AVTAC he recounts how his mother’s friend, Clare (Irene Dallas in real life) escorted him in the ambulance from hospital to Southcourt. The journey is around 90 miles, with no motorways, so it was quite the long haul. They call briefly into Denton’s room at Blackheath so he can pick up some essentials. Endearingly, Denton doesn’t even think about clothes – his only thought is “which of my treasures do I want to take with me?”. Clare eventually enters in exasperation and grabs an armful of clothes before bustling him back into the ambulance.
Let’s not forget that Denton is still only 20, AND he’s privileged to have been looked after in one way or another his entire life. The people around him have taken care of practicalities like clean clothes and food. All Denton needs to think about are the only things that can still bring him joy; his treasures. JMC’s biography recounts how, even as a ten year-old boy in Shanghai, Denton’s friend Nancy Quinlan recalls that they had to play in the spare room. They couldn’t play in his bedroom because there were “fans, feathers and shells” displayed on tables and they feared knocking something over. Denton became an extremely discerning collector as an adult, but the thought of that little boy’s bedroom crammed to the gunnells with (probably) cheap tat is adorable.
But, Dentonesque, I digress. He spent a few months in Broadstairs, and probably left sooner than he should. One word (OK, two three words): Dr Jack Easton, who appears as Dr Farley in AVTAC. For an author who loves to embellish, it’s interesting that Denton does quite the opposite when recounting his behaviour around Dr Easton. He makes it all sound very dispassionate and brisk, when in reality his behaviour constituted solid grounds for a restraining order.
The good doctor decides to move to Tonbridge, 60 miles away, to progress his career. Denton can’t countenance life without Dr Easton and decides to move to Tonbridge too. In AVTAC, he presents this as a logical decision – this doctor knows me and my case, so I’ll move to be near him. Of course! Who wouldn’t?
Two days after Dr Easton’s departure, still barely able to walk, he gets on a train and arrives at Dr Easton’s house in a state of near-collapse, requiring a stay in a Tonbridge nursing home to recover. Not the pleasant house hunting day trip with Evie depicted in AVTAC, although the unfinished book ends in the middle of that day. Who knows how honest Denton would have been about his subsequent behaviour had he completed the book? He lurked in Dr Easton’s garden, peered through the windows, broke into his house on at least one occasion, and called him at all hours of the day and night. This obsession lasts for three years.
Three. Years.
Dr Easton finally writes a much more polite letter than Denton deserves to tell him that their friendship and professional relationship must end.
The surprise is that Denton is normally as brutally honest about himself as he is with his opinions of other people and their behaviour. Disagreeable and vulnerable by turn, he doesn’t flinch from presenting himself in an unflattering light. What prevented him from being so honest on this topic, I wonder? From his journals, it sounds as though 1936 was (understandably!) a desperately unhappy year for him, so perhaps it was just too painful to acknowledge the reality of events.
Happily, life gets better…