Word: simeone
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Paradise Postponed combines some of the social sweep of Brideshead with the hugger-mugger of Rumpole, the overweight, conniving and lovable Old Bailey barrister. The novel's central mystery emerges after the death, in 1985, of Simeon Simcox, 80, Anglican rector of Rapstone Fanner, a village some two hours' driving time west of London. The clergyman's will contains a staggering surprise. He has left nothing to his wife Dorothy or his two grown sons Henry and Fred. Instead, the ardent Socialist once known as "the Red Rector of Rapstone" has bequeathed all of his shares in the family-owned...
With this problem firmly established, Mortimer backs and fills over the four decades of complications that preceded it. The fortunes of the Simcox family form one important skein. The successful end of World War II and the subsequent victory of Clement Attlee and the Labor Party inspire Simeon in his pulpit. He draws his sermons from Revelation 21: 1: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and earth had passed away." Firmly committed to social justice at home and abroad, the minister writes impassioned letters about the New Jerusalem to his bishop, signs...
...then does Titmuss turn out to be the beneficiary of Simeon's estate? The answer proves every bit as intriguing as the preparations that lead up to it. For Mortimer has attempted nothing less than a long case history of his native land, post-1945. Behind the narrow focus on the imaginary Rapstone and its inhabitants, larger events are disclosed: sugar rationing after the war, ban- the-bomb marches during the edgy '50s, the rise of swinging London, the Profumo scandal, strikes, strife and the sinking of traditions in a new tide of commercialism. The fate of the Swan...
...said of a man so wrapped up in himself? Judging from what he did with his billions, Getty had little idea of the social responsibilty that vast wealth confers. In the American lore of the superrich, his place is just below William Randolph Hearst, the builder of San Simeon and another driven megalomaniac...
...most celebrated murder occurred three weeks ago. Ben Wilson, 17, a senior at Simeon Vocational High School, was an extraordinarily talented forward on the state champion basketball team and ranked academically near the top of his class. As he walked near Simeon one afternoon with his girlfriend, he made the fatal mistake of brushing past a boy who is said to be hooked up with a gang. "He pushed me," the angry young man told his pal. "Pop him." The friend drew his revolver and shot the 6-ft. 8-in. star twice in the chest. That weekend...