Tag Archives: isle of wight

THE SEASON FOR GIVING

December 1985 Vonelli the Floridian art dealer invited Lizzie and me to celebrate Christmas on the Isle of Wight. I told her about the trip in a Bastille cafe. THe singer and I had been having an affair for the past month. Neither of us pretended that we were serious about our time together. Nobody […]

In Vino Veritas or Oblivio

From 1847 to her death in 1901 Queen Victoria had ruled the British Empire from Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. Prince Albert, her consort, had designed the royal residence with the aid of Thomas Cubitt, the London architect. Once finished the Italian Renaissance palazzo on the Solent Osbourne House served as a refuge […]

Tennyson Walk the Isle of Wight 1985

December 1985 Vonelli invited Lizzie and me to the Isle of Wight. We were sitting in a Bastille cafe. Lizzie had a show on TV that night. Her song was playing on the radio. I had to work at the Balajo later. There wasn’t much holiday spirit on the Rue De La Roquette. “We’ll do […]

THE SEASON FOR GIVING by Peter Nolan Smith

Early on the morning of December 24, 1985 Vonelli, Lizzie and I boarded a train at Gard Du Nord. I could see my breath in the cold. Lizzie exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. She liked her Gaulloises. Lord Ventnor had invited us to spend the Christmas Holiday on the Isle of Wight. The train […]

CROSSING THE CHANNEL by Peter Nolan Smith

I had moved away from Boston in 1971, but every Christmas of my adult life had been spent with my family on the South Shore. This streak of thirty-three years was broken in 1985, when n art dealer invited a female French singer and me to his cottage on the Isle of Wight for the […]