Kay Pope - Cabo Trafalgar in the Moonlight: Pen & Sail: My Life with Dudley Pope

Cabo Trafalgar In The Moonlight

Pen & Sail: My Life With Dudley Pope

First published in 2012

Kay Pope; House of Stratus 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The right of Kay Pope to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

This edition published in 2012 by House of Stratus, an imprint of

Stratus Books Ltd., Lisandra House, Fore Street, Looe,

Cornwall, PL13 1AD, UK.

Typeset by House of Stratus.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress.

www.houseofstratus.com

Kay Pope was born in London in the western suburb of Ealing in 1935, but when her parents bought a small hotel in partnership with friends after World War II, she lived the latter half of her childhood on the sea front in Bexhill. She attended Battle Abbey, a boarding school a few miles inland from the nearby seaside town of Hastings, before moving on to Secretarial College in London. It was this that led to a life changing event as shortly after taking up her first job on The Evening News she met Dudley Pope. They married a year later when Kay was just eighteen.

She had always wanted to travel and had dreamed of faraway places when, as a child, she could see the Royal Sovereign Lightship flashing on the horizon out of her tiny attic window. When Dudley told of his dreams of writing whilst cruising the world on his own sailing boat, she was ready to sign on as first mate. For nearly thirty years the couple lived on board, along with their daughter, Jane.

Besides typing all Dudleys books, acting as teacher to her daughter and painting the boat Ramage, Kay began collecting seashells after they first sailed to the West Indies. This became a family hobby, as the family snorkelled among coral reefs together, and one new species found was named after her. She also wrote articles describing their seashells in two magazines devoted to malacology, both for amateur collectors like herself, and marine biologists.

The best part of this life, however, was being with Dudley and together meeting new people as he sailed and researched his books, and of course the sailing itself, particularly in the Mediterranean and her much loved West Indies. Widowed now, Kay lives on the Island of St. Martin.

For

Jane Clare Victoria

with Love

This is the story of my life after meeting Dudley Pope: our both working on a London evening newspaper, then moving to Italy, and later sailing in our cutter Golden Dragon to the West Indies, with our baby daughter Jane, and living among the islands of the Antilles.

Of course, a large part of our lives was Dudleys work as an author. I shared in this, however, typing all of his manuscripts and we worked both hard and well alongside each other, whilst visiting many places and bringing up our daughter, including arranging her schooling on board.

I have always felt I was specially blessed in my marriage: I shared Dudleys working life which many women do not experience, although the wives of farmers, parsons and country doctors are often the exception. We married in 1954 when many women still stayed at home, had children and did not continue with their careers. Their objective was to encourage and support their man, but otherwise stay in the wings.

My husband was a fine seaman; and sailing and writing sea stories were his life. We lived on board boats longer than we ever lived on shore. In Italy we discovered the fun of snorkelling and once in the West Indies, this led to collecting seashells and a passionate hobby began.

Dudley wrote eleven naval histories and twenty-four novels, eighteen of which feature Nicholas Ramage who progresses from a lowly lieutenant to captain of a 74-gun ship of the line in the Navy of Nelsons time. Sometimes the Ramage novels are set in places where we lived, or visited, and my husband also used the research we had gathered for the background of his naval histories.

After writing a renowned biography of Sir Henry Morgan, Dudley also wrote another series featuring generations of Ned Yorkes, beginning in the late seventeenth century and ending in the Second World War.

This book is therefore about life with an eminent naval historian and novelist, the sharing of his triumphs and frustrations, travel and living in Italy and the Caribbean, and the sea and sailing. It is the story of uninterrupted love between two people who shared in everything, including as its sub-title suggests, Pen and Sail.

I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to many friends who have encouraged me to set this unique story down, but must mention and give special thanks to John Gold, one of my husbands oldest friends. After reading an early draft, John posed a series of questions which demonstrated where improvements could be made, and also offered more general advice.

Kay Pope,

Le Pirate,

Marigot,

St. Martin,

F,W.I.

The Beginning 195254

One of the girls who worked in the clippings library stuck her head round the office door and said: Dudley Pope has shaved his beard: he looks so handsome! I now knew the name that went with the beard, and it was obvious this man was considered one of the more desirable bachelors on the paper.

Dudley told me later he could not understand what was going on that morning, because so many of the girls from the library kept popping in to ask him if he had this or that folder of cuttings.

I was seventeen at the time, shy and had just found my first job. Little did I realise how my life would eventually change from the path I had embarked upon, or guess at the adventures to come!

Having decided to work on a newspaper after finishing secretarial college, I needed to join a trade union, which was the only way in. One foggy afternoon in November I had walked across Blackfriars Bridge, down the road towards the Elephant and Castle until I found the NATSOPA office. Feeling distinctly nervous, I said I wanted to join. This caused no comment, and I was asked to pay my dues. I then said I wanted a job on a newspaper. A ledger was produced from under the counter and it transpired there were two available: one in the Editorial Department of The Evening News and the other in the Circulation Department of the Sunday Dispatch. Before I could open my mouth, a man standing next to me turned and said: You take the News job, miss, its an appy paper.

A telephone call was made and I was given an appointment immediately to see a Miss Joanna Gabbedey. So I found my way to The Evening News building, which was in Carmelite House in the street of the same name, one block up from the Thames Embankment. I was interviewed, seemingly approved of, and told to start work the following Monday at 9 a.m. on a months trial. I was to be assistant to Miss Gabbedey, who was in turn the editors secretary.