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It was not all misery. In later years she recalled “Alec and I on foot over the hills from Aberdeen to Hong Kong, a lovely deserted path and prospect, a bird alighted on the path, and we were still. He said, low-voiced, ‘I think it’s a plover.’ Such pleasures were new to me. Respect and curiosity f…

Shirley and Vedeniapine had first met in early September 1947, on a day marked by “clarity of sky and air,” and soon were attached, if not publicly a couple. On New Year’s Day 1948 Shirley recorded in her diary, “Half day at work. Alec took me for a walk before lunch … we climbed a hillside into a …

More interesting to Shirley were the young RAF officers who were also part of the unit, skilled linguists with expertise in Chinese languages, who worked alongside local Chinese teachers, translators, and administrators. She was struck by the knowledgeability and social ease of these officers, “peo…

Last summer, Vladimir Nabokov was remembered in the press as having told his students: “You have to saturate yourself with English poetry in order to compose English prose … You must study the poets.”

I read this to Francis and he said: “Exactly. Still, one cannot truly do it for a ‘purpose.’ On…

Shirley Hazzard embarked early on a project of self-cultivation and self-creation through extensive and passionate reading. Throughout her adult life she mixed in elevated cultural circles, seeking out people to admire and learn from. This all culminated, in a way, in her marriage in 1963 to Franci…