Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jerusalem, Israel, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 November 8: autograph manuscript signed.

Admitting she should be "tramping round the old city but I didn't have the heart so I'm spending the morning alone in my cousin's flat" in Jerusalem; describing the "depressing" final leg of her trip-- her panic when her luggage was lost on the flight to Jerusalem, and her realization of "how symbolic my few English things are to me-- almost like a wall, a protection or something to wrap myself in which helps me remain upright and myself"; recalling "what Nirad C. said in your film-- how every time he steps on English soil, he feels like a soldier home on leave. I feel exactly the same. And now I'm returning to the front and have to gird myself"; noting with relief that a half-hour ago she received a phone call saying her luggage has been found; continuing, "Yes, and if I make such a fuss about so trivial a loss, what am I to say about Catherine [Freeman] who has lost everything, the very ground under her feet, the very sky above her head?"; describing in detail how she found Catherine in London-- "She was sick, very sick"-- and the "savage and cruel" way John has been behaving; describing her visit and her efforts, along with their mutual friend Marghanita, to help and comfort Catherine; telling him how the children, Matthew, Tom, and Lucy, have been trying to cheer Catherine up; telling him that the last time she saw Catherine before she left, she was staying with a friend "in another very cosy Hampstead family house," soon to check in to a "nursing home" for 3 days, "to be put under heavy sedation"; noting that like her, many friends are "eager to help [Catherine]," but "no human being can help much. She lives in an abyss of despair and loss, & when she wakes up from her sedation, with that abyss be any less deep & dark?"; assuring him that, while important, Catherine's predicament was not all her visit entailed, and describing an unpleasant, alienating exchange she had with someone in passport control in New York, who pointed out that, while she is a British citizen, her parents weren't-- "I knew from that moment of arrival that I was not longer a British citizen, not a real one, just a 2nd class one. I think this last stay is really the end of England for me"; noting that "It was pretty depressing staying with my Mother too, I'm afraid"; passing on her brother's address in Oxford, with the assurance that "he will be happy to do what you want if you tell him"; assuring him that there were some bright spots during her trip, like spending time with "Murrays" [i.e. the people at John Murray, her publisher] and meeting with other friends; describing with annoyance how she strained her back on the last night in England, but noting that it has gotten better and didn't cause the problems she'd feared it might; saying that tomorrow she will complete the last leg of her journey home; noting, "How I hate airports"; vowing never to "break my journey anywhere again, never ... Next time I shall fly straight to where I'm going & straight back again."