Search Results for 'Michael Bodkin'

On a late August afternoon my friend John Hill drove me across the city of Zurich, climbing the suburban heights until we stopped at the gates of Fluntern Cemetery. We walked up the last incline to where, among the trees and billard-table lawns, we saw the Joyces’ grave. There was no mistaking it. Just above the grave is the Giacometti-like sculpture of the writer himself, the work of American artist Milton Hebald. There James Joyce sits, in characteristic pose, deep in conversation, head tilted, one leg resting on the other knee, cigarette poised, his slim cane delicately balanced. Someone once remarked that he held his cane like a musical instrument.

Nora Barnacle was born on the night of March 21/22 1884 in the maternity ward of the workhouse, part of which served as a hospital. At the time her family were living in Raleigh Row. Her parents were Thomas Barnacle, an illiterate itinerant baker whose heavy drinking kept the family in poverty, and Annie Healy, a member of a family of substance who believed in education and hard work. They married in 1881 and for the next 26 years, led a nomadic life as they moved from tenement to tenement almost with the birth of each child. They had eight children in all, one of whom, John Patrick, died in infancy.

We get out of bed at nine, and Nora makes chocolate. At midday we have lunch which we (or rather she) buys (soup, meat, potatoes and some thing else)...At 4 o’clock we have chocolate, and at 8 o’clock dinner which Nora cooks.