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Paul Bailey on Mavis Gallant: 'She was a truth teller, in her life and her work'

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In his fine obituary of Mavis Gallant, Christopher Hawtree observes that her father died young. The news of his suicide was kept from her for several years. She was 14 when she learned that he was not "in England", as Mavis's mother had informed her.

"I waited every day for a letter 'from England' from my father, and for a ring at the door; every time a car or a taxi stopped, I thought he would emerge and announce he had at last come to fetch me."

I am quoting from a letter she sent me, in which she describes her feelings of belated, and buried, grief. She never forgave her mother for what she considered an act of cruel duplicity. From an early age, this shrewd, wonderful writer was made aware of the complex nature of human behaviour. Mavis was always a truth teller, in her life and in her work.


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