II - ‘My life is inextricably bound up in yours’: May 1942 to November 1944: Letters 13–70

Summary

The freighter MS Axel Johnson reached the port of Liverpool on 17 April 1942. Its five-week journey across the Atlantic had, for its passengers Pears and Britten, been a frightening and uncomfortable experience. The ship had made its way by crawling up the coast of New England to Halifax, Nova Scotia, before a perilous twelve-day crossing of an ocean filled with submarines. Somewhere along the way, one of the vessel's funnels caught fire, apparently causing their protective escort to move on and leave the Axel Johnson to complete its voyage alone and unguarded, but fortunately without further incident. To make matters worse, the company on board the ship was, in Pears's estimation, ‘rather desolate’.1 He was unable to sing during the journey, but Britten, despite competition from people whistling in the corridors, and the ship's refrigeration unit right next to their cabin, was actually quite productive. His music manuscripts had been confiscated at the customs screening in New York, so on board he finished the Hymn to St Cecilia (text by Auden) and wrote out the portions of his Clarinet Concerto that he had completed prior to the voyage (eventually left unfinished). During the ocean crossing, Britten also composed A Ceremony of Carols for treble chorus and harp, inspired by finding a book of early English poems during the stopover in Halifax.

Upon disembarking at Liverpool, the two made their way to London together, but until they could find a flat to share they now had to separate. Pears made his home base with his parents in Barnes while Britten stayed with his sister Barbara in Chelsea. By September they found lodging with Ursula Nettleship at 104A Cheyne Walk, a situation less than ideal for privacy, so five months later they moved to a maisonette in St John's Wood High Street, keeping this as their London base. They would later share this with Britten's publisher Erwin Stein, his wife Sophie and daughter Marion. In December 1943, Britten returned to his pre-war composition retreat, the Old Mill in Snape, Suffolk, joining his sister Beth and her family (husband Kit Welford and children Sebastian and Sally). There, despite the sound of military aircraft (the ‘bloody, bloody’ aeroplanes – see Letter 48) he was able to complete Peter Grimes.