by Dominic Black
I got myself involved in the most extraordinary, multi-faceted, darkly delicious and complex situation when I was a student at university, back in the 80s. What I am about to write may seem incredible, unbelievable even, but every word of what you are shortly going to read is true!
I went to university in Norwich, England, a delightful county town with a great literature faculty. At 'uni' I read English and American literature, and lived on campus in my first term. I soon moved out, however, as I found myself sharing a room with a Goth and an avid smoker, who kept the curtains drawn all day! I myself was quite a shy, sheltered, nature-loving, creative sort of boy, not really that interested in what 80s teen culture had to offer. I was a bit dreamy... a bit of a mystic. So I took a room in a town house with a nice lady called Mrs. Thomas... Gwen Thomas, a mother of grown-up children, and a retired civil servant... and I had a room of my own and could pretty much come and go as I pleased.
In order to earn extra money I found a part-time job in a homely little restaurant called Tatlers... a lovely place... where I did some waiting on tables and also helped out in the kitchens. Gwen, used to housing students, had suggested I pop down there to see if they needed any student staff, and they did, which was great. Gwen also helped me to procure a gardening job with a friend further out of town, Eileen Ford, and all this really helped me to pay my way financially as a student, as I wasn't entitled to much of a grant.
Eileen Ford was a very Bohemian kind of woman, a writer, painter, sculptor, and an academic. To look at her she was a bit of a hippy, with long, floral-patterned dresses, shawls, scarves and quite wild, greying hair. I'd guess she was about 48 or 49. She had a lovely, rambling house and garden, and there was interesting art everywhere, some of it quite erotic, I noticed. There was also a lot of literature on pagan, occult and Wiccan stuff on her shelves. I had never heard about anything in this field except the writings of Alistair Crowley, whom I perhaps ignorantly assumed was simply spooky, supernatural and 'weird'. I was just an introverted suburban, middle-class boy, with no real knowledge of art, academia, the occult or anything like that. I was fascinated by Eileen Ford and her house and felt like some sort of apprentice because she'd talk to me about philosophy, art, and life's deeper truths! I think that maybe she was 'monied' through her family, either that or she'd earned a lot of money through her art.
She seemed very easy-going and made me feel particularly welcome and liked, taking a great interest in me.
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