Introduction

KM wrote to fellow writer Sydney Schiff from the Villa Flora in Menton, suggesting they meet for tea. He brought his reply in person the next day, with an invitation for her to visit him and his wife, Violet, at their villa in Roquebrune, the next town along the coast; in a note on that reply, KM described him as the ‘most soigné creature in the world’, whose apparent shock at her ill health dismayed her. This cagey response to her visitor may be the remnants of a scuffle between herself and Sydney the previous year, over a story of hers that was under consideration for publication in Art and Letters, of which he was patron at the time. Nevertheless, KM was quickly captivated by these new friends. She rejoiced particularly in her shared literary path with Sydney, whom she had described as her ‘literary fairy godfather’ before the month was out (to JMM, 24–5 April 1920). But then, by September that year, she told JMM that she was ‘DEAD OFF Schiffs’ after they praised their friend T. S. Eliot’s editorial prowess over her husband’s (21 September 1920). Though KM evidently ran hot and cold about the Schiffs and their connection was to end somewhat abruptly, these wealthy, cultured and attentive companions were of great comfort to KM in her later years.

Despite many differences, there are some echoes between KM’s and Sydney’s backgrounds in well-to-do bourgeois families and their youthful rebellions against them. Sydney Schiff was born about 12 December 1868 (the exact date is unknown) to Caroline Mary Ann Eliza Cavell (née Scates), who was from a respectable English country family, and Alfred Schiff, a German–Jewish merchant banker born in Trieste. His parents’ marriage, which took place the year after his birth, was an unhappy one. Close to his mother, Sydney was brought up Anglican, cared for by a series of nannies and mostly home-tutored. By the time he was eighteen, he had developed a strong antipathy towards his father, and having failed to win a place at Oxford University, he went to Canada and the United States after refusing to join the family’s merchant banking firm.