Patchwork
Beverley Nichols
Paperback
(Forgotten Books, July 29, 2012)
It is the custom of novelists to-day, even when writing obviously of public men or women, glibly to inform their readers that these characters are entirely imaginary. Whether such a fiction expresses a secret wish that they had indeed been creatures of the brain and not of the flesh, I do not know. I would merely say that it is not a fiction in which I would myself indulge. It would have been quite impossible, in writing of that university from which I have so recently and so reluctantly departed, to banish from my memory the figures which coloured its stage so vividly, to try to shut from my ears the echo of their laughter and their talk. And so I may as well admit that a few a very few of the characters in this book are founded on fact. Where this has been the case I have been scrupulous that the persons concerned should read the manuscript before it was published. In no case has any objection been raised. Raymond Sheldon, however, the chief figure (he would have hated to be called a hero ), is, to the best of my knowledge, an imaginary character. It is true that he did many things which I myself did, but he did them in quite a different way; and though I admire him very much, I do not approve of all his actions. For the sake of unity certain happenings have been transposed as far as their chronological order is concerned.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text.