Late 1960s

The Late 1960s form a turning point in Edward Mayhew’s life and in his understanding of his failed marriage to Florence Ponting. As sexual freedoms and fashions transform the world around him, the offer he once rejected begins to look to him like an act of generosity he had been unable to recognize; meanwhile, he leaves scholarship behind for an improvised life in the present.

Reconsidering Florence’s Offer

A year or so after the separation, Edward’s anger has faded, but pride keeps him from looking Florence up or writing to her. Because he hears nothing from her, he becomes convinced she must be with someone else. Later in the decade, amid new freedoms and numerous love affairs, he often remembers her proposal. What had seemed ridiculous, disgusting, or insulting now appears liberated and far ahead of its time: an innocent act of self-sacrifice that he had failed to understand. He never tells anyone about that night, so this reassessment remains private even as it alters the meaning he gives the rupture.

A Life Without a Firm Plan

By the late sixties Edward is living in London, caught up in what the narrative presents as a sudden elevation of sensual pleasure and a growing willingness among women to pursue it. He moves through these years with a mixture of happiness and bewilderment, as though reprieved from a prolonged punishment. His series of short history books and his hopes of serious scholarship are behind him, but no decisive career choice replaces them: he simply falls away from history and settles into the present.

That change takes shape through a succession of practical and cultural pursuits. Edward helps administer rock festivals, helps start a health-food canteen in Hampstead, works in a record shop near the canal in Camden Town, writes rock reviews for small magazines, and eventually becomes part-owner of the shop. His private life is similarly unsettled: he has a chaotic sequence of overlapping lovers, travels through France with a woman who becomes his wife for three and a half years, and lives with her in Paris. For a time he distrusts the straight press, believing it controlled by state, military, or financial interests; he later disowns that view.

The Classical Music He Misses

Edward’s precarious interest in classical music has faded entirely in favour of rock and roll. Consequently, he never hears of the Ennismore Quartet’s triumphant debut at Wigmore Hall in July 1968. The Times praises the young players’ intensity and musical maturity, and singles out the first violinist, Florence Ponting, for playing with lyrical delicacy and expressive force. Her success makes the paths of the former couple sharply diverge: while Edward is absorbed in a new life and no longer follows concert reviews, Florence is being publicly celebrated as a musician. The missed news gives their separation an additional, quiet consequence—he remains unaware of a major achievement in her life.