Rainbows for Thomas the Rhymer

And here I am in Paris, packing to return to London for my big gig at the British Library November 9th. With only a few small footnotes.

Nov 07, 2023

We left NYC on September 20th, on a daytime flight to London that got us in that night.

7 days later, I was at the British Library, handing my scribbled up old script pages to their Deputy Registrar, and getting the thrill of watching them being carefully placed in an archive box in preparation for the forthcoming Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibit.1

But first, I had my meeting with the BL’s Head of Events, Jon Fawcett, and the musician he had picked to partner me in the Thomas the Rhymer performance on November 9th, the great singer, folklorist, song collector, radio producer & nature activist Sam Lee.

Ellen Kushner, Sam Lee, Jon Fawcett. British Libary, Sept. 28, 2023

Sitting in the sun outside the BL cafe, in the course of about an hour, I managed to explain to Sam the weird hybrid I’ve been performing for years, a weaving-together of the text of my novel and the ballads that inspired it - or actually appear in it - creating a narrative of words and music supporting one another: the tale of the clever and arrogant minstrel who finds himself bound to serve the Queen of Elfland for seven years in her realm, and does not return unchanged. What started as a “OK, what songs do you need me to sing when?” conversation morphed over the hour into an excited discussion of where he might also play the sruta and the jews harp for atmosphere under my reading - and the exciting fact that he had collected from the English Traveller singer Freda Black [CLICK HERE!!!] a version of the novel’s keystone ballad, The Famous Flower of Servingmen, with a tune no one had ever heard before, that he would learn from his archive tape to sing at our performance.

I offered Sam his choice of copies of the book - and of course he chose the one “with the most beautiful cover,” the 2005 Bantam/RandomPenguin edition by the great painter Kinuko Y. Craft2

Thomas the Rhymer, Bantam paperback reissue (2005) — Go here for many more covers from around the world: http://www.ellenkushner.com/writing/thomas-the-rhymer/art-gallery/

I should note - and this is IMPORTANT - that the performance will be the second half of what promises to be the panel of the century: Professor Rob Maslen, founder of Glasgow University’s Fantasy Literature Master’s program, essential to their new Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic (and also creator of the amazing lit blog The City of Lost Books) will be guiding a conversation between me, Terri Windling & Jeannette Ng3 for the first half of the event, which begins at 7:00 p.m. in the 255-seat theater of the Knowledge Center of the British Library. Without intermission, we will then flow seamlessly into the performance.4

Info on Tickets for the live and streaming event at the bottom of this letter.

In that fateful meeting, I also learned that I had to alter my 90-minute script to fit a 30-minute time slot.

I came away with stars in my eyes . . . and the echo of my voice saying firmly, over and over to questions that arose as the meeting ran out of time, We’ll make it work.

So Delia & I left London on Sept. 29. We went to a beautiful wedding in a manor house in Surrey. We visited Geoff Ryman in rural Oxfordshire, and celebrated my birthday (Oct. 6th) with a picnic on an Oxford canal boat with beloved writer friend Amy Butler Greenfield. We drove to Cambridge to spend time with friends there, and took two glorious days to just be tourists at the amazing Bed & Breakfast in the 1910 Tudor Potemkin Village at Hever Castle (childhood home of Anne Boleyn, which I’ve always wanted to see. Don’t miss the gardens!).

We arrived in Paris on 13 October, utterly exhausted, but happy to be back, reunited with friends and jewel-case windows full of pastries sold at a very reasonable rate. We were blessed with the world’s most delightful houseguest, Australian artist and writer friend Kathleen Jennings, whose website & Patreon I highly recommend for a series of delectable treats (including many, many sketches of Paris street life!).

And I discovered that what I needed more than anything was a few days to just go be by myself somewhere quiet, and write the script.

A friend’s family has a tiny place in Arromanches, the town on the Normandy coast that was a major part of the Normandy Invasion (which Delia’s dear Uncle Foxy parachuted into!), in a former hotel overlooking the sea. By the time I learned it wasn’t available, I was dead set on going there - and to both our amazements, found a studio that turns out to be in the same building!

The place was tiny, but had been rehabbed by an architect couple. It was like being on a ship - including the “box” bed behind sliding doors. The tides at Arromanches are long. When they’re out, you can easily walk out to the remains of the hulks. And when they’re in - I woke in the morning to see the waves right up against the breakwall: from my bed, it looked like I was out to sea!

Morning view in Arromanches, late October, 2023

I walked. I thought. I read, and listened, and obsessed.

Then I called Terri to beg for advice - and she read me a quote about why I wrote the novel in the first place that I had entirely forgotten:5

"I had to do Thomas," Ellen recalls, "because, like every other writer, I knew Thomas was my story. He holds the mythic power of King Arthur in the hearts of poets: the artist who is literally seduced by his muse, comes closer to her than any human should to the source of his art, and is profoundly changed. He can never be at home in this world again, and yet he must continue to live in it. That’s how every writer feels, I think. Many writer friends had talked about writing a Thomas story someday, kind of like an actor playing King Lear: it’s a Great Subject that probably should not be tackled in one’s youth. I still feel a little humble about it. I don’t think I’ve written the definitive Thomas; I’ve just written my Thomas, the Thomas who addressed issues that were upon me in those years. Twenty years from now, I might like to do him again."

I went out for a bracing lunch of galettes by the sea, then sat down and wrote the first draft of the script.

The next day I finished it - and the most astonishing rainbow appeared over Arromanches.

Me, looking stunned with amazement that I actually hit a deadline early. I slept well that night!

I got back to Paris, and - oh, I forgot to mention:

2 days before I left, Delia took a tumble on the curb of the Boulevard St Michel, and broke her pinky finger. My deepest thanks to the cafe owner who insisted that D sit the hell down while she called the Pompeurs: apparently here in Paris the firemen double as ambulance drivers - I guess because they know how to get through the streets the fastest! I was able to get there before they left, so had a groovy ride through the streets (slowly, obeying all traffic laws) to the celebrated hospital of Salpetriere, where we learned firsthand the excellent of the French healthcare system (no bill, as yet!).

The only reason I was able to leave Paris was because Kathleen was here to help out my suddenly single-handed darling, bless her forever. And I’m happy to report that, now that the rather magnificent swelling has gone down in her right hand, Delia is able to use her un-splinted fingers admirably, and has even, in desperation, taught herself Continental-Style knitting.

May be an image of 1 person and Sacré-Cœur — Paris, Sunday morning. November 5, 2023

I sent the script to Sam, who said he’d just gotten back from a “world music conference in Spain sleep deprived and delirious from seeing all the world’s cultures collide” so could we possibly just do a call and talk the whole thing through together?

Which we did. I was a bit anxious about the whole thing - would this huge presence in the contemporary British folk world be willing to work with me, and what I was asking him to do?

Just as our call began, on the usual crappy, cold, rainy November afternoon in Paris, I looked out the window and gave a shout - which must have startled Sam Lee considerably - and Delia rushed over . . . and took a photo of this:

We went through the script moment by moment. Sam not only came up with just the right song for each one - singing bits of each down the wire to me with That Voice - but started working out ways to underscore the text with instrumentals.

I got chills.

And I think you will, too, whether you can be there in person, or can watch the live streaming from the British Library (which should continue to be available for 48 hours after the event).

The Bad Part

The British Library sustained a massive cyber attack last week. So as of my writing this, you cannot buy tickets for live or streaming via their website. However, it’s a big space, there were over 100 seats unsold before the crash, so just show up at the door with cash and you should get in. The Library’s also setting up info & even tickets via their Social Media: XTwitter, Facebook are good places to start, and also their Temporary Emergency Blog:

While our website and online services are unavailable, we’ve published a blog with other resources and websites that you may find useful, as well as the latest on what’s currently available at the Library: http://bit.ly/BLServiceUpdate

The Good Part

I have some comp tickets to the event AND the Streaming code to give away.

The first 10 people who do something I like will get them.

What do I like?

Ellen Kushner's Bad Advice

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