I, John Ozias Talbot, aged thirty-six years and three months, beingin my perfectly sane mind, wish to write down this statement.I do so entirely and solely for my own benefit and profit--in fact,for the quietening of my disturbed mind. It is most im... Read more

I, John Ozias Talbot, aged thirty-six years and three months, beingin my perfectly sane mind, wish to write down this statement.I do so entirely and solely for my own benefit and profit--in fact,for the quietening of my disturbed mind. It is most improbablethat anyone other than myself will read this document, but shouldanything happen to me and I die without destroying this writing, Iwish the reader, whoever he or she may be, to realize fully that noone could conceivably be of a more complete mental sanity andhonest matter-of-fact common sense than I am at this moment.It is because I wish to show this self-evident fact to myself and,if need be, to the whole world (after my death) that I write thisdown. There will be many minute and apparently insignificant factsand details in this record because CIRCUMSTANTIAL FACTS are in thismatter the thing! I have suffered during these preceding monthscertain experiences so unbelievable that were I NOT sane, and weremany of the facts not so commonplace, my sanity might be doubted.It is NOT to be doubted. I am as sane as any man in the UnitedKingdom.Because in the course of this narrative I confess to a crime thisdocument will be kept in the greatest possible secrecy. I have nodesire to suffer at the hand of the common hangman before I need.That I do not myself FEEL it to be a crime matters nothing, I amafraid, to the Law. One day, when the important elements in suchmatters are taken into account rather than the unimportant, justicewill be better served. But that time is not yet.I was born in the little seaside town of Seaborne in Glebeshire onJanuary 3rd, 1903. I am married and have one son aged ten. Iinherited my father's business of Antique and Picture Dealer. I amthe author of four books, a Guide to Glebeshire and three novels--The Sandy Tree (1924), The Gridiron (1930) and The Gossip-monger(1936). The last of these had some success. I was born in abedroom above the shop, which is in the High Street and has, fromits upper windows, a fine view of the sea and the now neglected andtumbledown little harbour.I was the only child of my parents and adored by them. Some havesaid that they spoiled me. It may be so. I worshipped my motherbut had always a curious disaffection to my father. This waspartly, I can see now, physical. He was an obese and sweaty manand would cover my face with wet slobbery kisses when I was small,and this I very greatly disliked. My mother, on the other hand,was slight and dapper in appearance, and the possessor of the mostbeautiful little hands I have ever seen on any woman. Her voicewas soft and musical, marked with a slight Glebeshire accent. Shehad something of the gipsy in her appearance, and liked to wear gaycolours. I remember especially a dress made of some foreignmaterial--silk of many brilliant shades--that I used to love, and Iwould beg her to show it me as it hung in the cupboard in thebedroom. My father, when they woke in the morning, would always godownstairs to get breakfast ready (he worshipped my mother), andthen my mother would take me into her bed and I would lie in herarms. Never, until I married, did I know such happiness.My father was successful in his little business--successful, thatis to say, for those easier, more comfortable days--and we livedvery pleasantly. His great passion was for the buying of old andapparently worthless pictures. He would clean them with the hopethat something by a Master might be discovered. He did, indeed,make one or two discoveries--a Romney portrait and an Italian Pietàby Piombo were two of his successes. But his main business waswith visitors and tourists. He visited all the local sales andsometimes went quite far afield. Less