Arrival of Robert Leiper - Saturday 23rd December

I had expected Robert Leiper to arrive by the 12.22 train and went to the station to meet him. Several people got off the train, but not Robert. I wondered whether he had arrived by an earlier train, and spent some time looking around the railway station (station bar, waiting rooms, surrounding streets) before returning home.

At home the telephone rang – Robert Leiper had got off the train at the wrong station, and now had to wait for the next branch train. When this train eventually arrived I was there to meet it. Robert Leiper was one of the last passengers to descend the footbridge steps, weighed down with luggage.

Robert Leiper is a mixed-race American, aged about thirty. I have known him about ten years. He is very sports-orientated, but is also interested in serious subjects, such as the environment, and Democratic politics (enthusiastic about Hilary Clinton). In mid-December he had been fired from his job with an academic association in New York and had now come to Europe with the intention of becoming a writer. He intended to go to Paris and duplicate the career of Ernest Hemingway. On the way he was spending some time in London, and I had asked him to my house for Christmas. He spends a huge amount of money on clothes, and will always tell you what he is wearing, whether you are interested or not. It’s as if he depended on clothes for his identity. Today he had on (I listed them down) Tommy Hilfiger jeans, American Apparel black T-shirt with a sort of collar, black Tod’s trainers, nondescript coat that he had bought second-hand.

There was a lot of difficulty getting all of Robert Leiper’s luggage into the car. Among the items was a long black case (about six feet in length) that held his skis. It was a waste of time his bringing them as the only snow in Europe was in Norway.

We got to my home and introduced him to everyone (I will have to refer to them obliquely as they have specifically requested not to appear in this blog). I gave him a cup of tea and offered him a choice of a meal or going out to see something of the country (we would have to go immediately as the light was already beginning to fade). He chose to go out (we took the dog with us).

We went down onto the plain, and across to the sea coast (not a long journey – it takes about twenty-five minutes from my house to the shore). Most of the coast is inaccessible, but one point where you can get to it is at a tiny seaside hamlet represented by two former hotels (one converted into holiday flats, one ruined) and a scattering of cottages strung out along the inner sea wall (a great grassy bank of earth). The salt water had retreated from the hamlet, and we walked to the next sea wall (via a connecting bank) and then the sea wall beyond that before we were finally at the edge of the coastal marshes.

For about two miles we walked in isolation along the outer sea wall. The bleakness of the landscape (the colours comprised of muted greys, browns, dull greens), the crying of the sea birds, the steady salt-scented sea wind (not really cold) taken together created a mood of solitude and melancholy. Like most visitors, Robert Leiper seemed surprised at the haunting beauty of the coast. As we walked he talked about his continuing obsession with CW. Not for the first time I wondered whether he might be mildly stalking her. I advised him to keep away from Sussex while he was in England.

We returned home. Dinner of poached salmon with asparagus and boiled potatos. Robert Leiper was very interested in “chavs” having read an article on them in the New York Times. He wanted to see some chavs during the holiday. I told him it would be impossible to avoid them. His continual references to chavs sounded weird - are the fashions and lifestyle mores of the ASBO generation starting to register on the international tourist itinerary?

On previous visits to the United Kingdom Robert Leiper had complained of the cold, and so instead of giving him a bedroom upstairs (most of them hard to heat) I had set up a portable single bed for him in one of the downstairs rooms where the cold is not too bad, despite the room having a stone floor.