Retracing final moments The Singapore Grip author's life
The Singapore Grip was the last novel JG Farrell ever completed - he drowned aged 44 on a remote part of the Irish coast in 1979, in circumstances never wholly explained. ITV's upcoming six-part dramatisation of his book is now reigniting interest in in the author's life, and how he died.
"There were three earlier books, which probably aren't now much read. But in 1970 he published Troubles, which takes place in 1920s Ireland after independence."I suppose it's still his best-loved work and suddenly Jim had found his theme - the collapse of British imperial power around the world. With The Siege of Krishnapur it was India - and then came Singapore in World War Two.
Farrell had polio in 1956 as a student at Oxford. Lavinia Greacen suggests the experience contributed to his sense that life is precarious and frequently unjust. "He'd lived a few minutes from Harrods and the museums and people were always popping into his small flat. So moving to what most London friends thought the middle of nowhere in southwest Ireland actually for him was perfect."
The weather beyond his windows had been rough. But he set off anyway to fish from his usual spot down the lane. "We could see him in the water - just his head. I said I'm going to go down to reach to him but the children said no you'll fall in. We called to him to take off the boots. But he didn't even attempt to take the boots off He was quite close to me, only within about eight feet.
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