Wednesday 24 December. Home for Christmas

Christmas Eve. Today we return home. In many ways, I’m sorry to leave the ship - it’s been a thoroughly enjoyable cruise. In other ways I’m pleased to be leaving. We have  spent a couple of Christmas days on shipboard - Geoffrey again as ship’s lecturer-  and it is nowhere near as good as being at home - indeed little different from other days on the cruise, where every day is a feast day. I will have to get my running shoes on to be ready with Christmas dinner tomorrow.   Actually it shouldn’t be too bad. The cake and the pudding are made, the poultry is ordered and the presents are wrapped. Knowing the difficulties, I did as much as possible in advance. ( I’m aware that these remarks have a touch of hubris. I’d better be careful; some awful catastrophe may be lying in wait for me !)  

In what can now be classed as a fairly long life, I’ve spent many Christmas days away from Melbourne: in England, in Germany, in Italy, in USA. I can remember a wonderfully picturesque Christmas in America at Lennox in the pretty Berkshire Hills north of Boston. It was snowing and I arrived without my gloves and had to cover my hands with a pair of Geoffrey’s socks - fortunately he had brought a spare pair. On this visit I was researching my biography of Fanny Kemble, the celebrated British actress who married an American plantation owner who owned seven hundred slaves. Fanny went as a young wife to the plantation in Georgia and was so sickened by what she saw that she devoted the rest of her life to fighting slavery. In Lennox, Fanny met women of similar mind and her happiest times in America were spent among her fellow female abolitionists in the Berkshire Hills.  Indeed in times of trouble, it was to Lennox that Fanny mentally retreated, finding serenity in the memories of her days there. Melba employed a comparable  mental strategy in times of trouble.  When anxious or depressed, she used to return in her mind to her happy childhood in Melbourne on the banks of the Yarra River.  Maybe we all do something of the same when life becomes too much for us ! 

As this is my last day to speak to you, I want to say how much I have enjoyed the experience. I hope you feel able to share my pleasure.  My very best wishes to you all and a very Merry Christmas.