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I opened The Times today to read the obituary of Angela Culme-Seymour. I met Angela in 1983, when she was already 71 years old, although she was very cagey about her age. Still tall and elegant, she lived with her last husband Bulent Rauf in the biggest house on Bitez seafront. Going to visit Angela was like walking into the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel. The house was full of Bulent Bey's students of the "Esoteric" who were beautiful young people with an "Hon" somewhere in their name and Angela's friends who would gossip wonderfully about British aristocracy and especially about the size of Princess Margaret's bust. Angela was a talented water-colourist and I'd often see in her large straw hat, perched on a stool, painting road-side wild flowers . I visited her once in Dorset where, in her late eighties, she was still painting and selling her work to greetings card companies.
When I was quite new to Turkey and eager to learn, Angela languidly handed me a copy of Lord Kinross' biography of Ataturk saying, "Take this, you might like it. I was married to the author once." The mind-boggling details of Angela's love-life are detailed in the link below so I won't repeat them here. It always amused me to hear the locals call her "Melek Hanim " as she definitely was no angel. One comment will stick in my mind for ever. Discussing her many lovers and husbands, she was asked why her marriages didn't last:
"Because of my uncontrollable infidelity" she replied without batting an aristocratic eyelid.
The funeral of Angela Culme-Seymour will take place in Scotland on Tuesday, 21st February
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9060216/Angela-Culme-Seymour.html
http://thepeerage.com/p10630.htm
You paint a wonderful picture of her. I just love the "uncontrollable infidelity" quote. A classic.
ReplyDeleteAmazing and incredible - My days of uncontrolled infidelity are behind me mostly because no one's remotely interested anymore. Ah well. She makes our racy pasts seem so pedestrian!
ReplyDeleteThose of us who missed out on a racy past can just dream and hope for a racy future.
ReplyDeleteImpressive to learn of a real "character" in the play of life! The "uncontrollable infidelity" quote is marvelous!
ReplyDeleteInteresting piece and many thanks for it. It's good to have a few more colours on the painting.
ReplyDeleteMark Culme-Seymour (No. 1 son)
Thanks Mark,
ReplyDeleteYour mother was an amazing lady and she was very welcoming to me when I first moved to Bitez. The world will be a duller place without her.
Annie
What an interesting story and lucky you for getting the opportunity to spend time with such a lady. Love the name 'Melek Hanım.'
ReplyDeleteAngela and Bulent commanded huge respect from the then local farmers, fishermen, the one taxi driver and all who met them in Bitez or Bodrum in those days. Not because they were aristocratic but because they were human beings with a love of life. The elegance that comes with that kind of person becomes rare with their passing.
ReplyDeletePremonition-I absolutely agree with you. They had none of the "assumed superiority" that usually comes with the city visitors to the Turkish village. If they had, I certainly wouldn't have been invited in.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog in my search for Angela's obituary in the Times (that I still haven't come across). I made a return to Bitez and Bodrum about ten years ago by sea and whilst Bitez was still, just recognisable since the 1970's, Bodrum seemed like the nightmare I had imagined it would be. But having swam at dawn to the yeni beach at Bitez (used to be stones and rocks) we saw a young woman on a balcony looking out to sea and for a second realised that it must have been like heaven through her eyes. We last saw it with Mandelin groves and the old fisherman living on the beach in a shack made from and old boat. There were no hotels and a clear horizon without villalar. Thank you for your blog.
ReplyDeletepremonition - I get lost if I go to Bitez now. I remember picking flowers in the fields next to Hugh T's house, now there are rows of streets. Do you have any photographs of the old "beach" (road with sand on it")? The earliest I have is from 1984.
ReplyDeleteRe The Times - a subscription is now needed to view on-line..