Dru, Steinbeck and the Book of Deer

Dear Juliet I think that's it. It's not a perfect cure or solution, of course (that is the province of film and fantasy), but I think taking a few days at Point Lobos, walking up the path to the Carmelite monastery there and spending some time in the grounds and chapel should be of help. I think the nuns do tours . They aren't Vulcan high priestesses, of course, but sometimes fantasy has a basis in reality. Nor is there a timetable for this. Go when and if you feel ready, but I think I'd recommend climbing the steps to your Mount Seleya . I think that if there is Somebody Up There, He does like you . But if there is, the one thing He can't do is override your free will . However, He can make some pretty firm recommendations and if you don't follow them, well, you get stomped. Seen that happen a few times ... So, might be an idea? In the meantime, I've got the ticket for the Globe, with a stop-off at the Golden Hinde , which is a bit like an early Enterprise...

Dear Juliet I'd wanted mildly to move on and not stick too deep in the sands of Drusilla's beach, mention that I'm going to go to Shakespeare's Globe post-Southwark (15th-19th June) to try and get some pictures for you there. I'll enjoy that, too. Many years ago, I used to wind up an ex-girlfriend at work with Shakespearean quotes. I think she came close to hitting me on several occasions... I also don't want my blogs to get too introspective, remembering that the point is to reassure you of your worth, build up your self-esteem, give you the occasional metaphorical hug 🤗 and get you addicted to Ben & Jerry's! And I remembered an old quote from Dear Miss Landau (where else?) about "pilgrims on the mountain road to Calvary."  There's also America's progress towards the shining city on the hill . I know there've been a few bumps in that road... However, it always seems an upwards path must be walked. With sweat, with strain, with a...

Dear Juliet I don't think you've ever been to Gibson beach, but it looks like it's nevertheless become your sanctuary. My memories of it are seventeen years deep and so profound the only way I can deal with them is through humour. I was coming off a near nervous breakdown at the time, and did indeed get off the Number 5 bus like a pilgrim looking for his Calvary. I think I had the same straw hat both first and last times. The Chevron filling station south of Carmel is a pretty unlikely shrine, but I orientated myself by it and went on down to the Point. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. For sure. I'm probably going to get shouted at for this, but a Mack truck did get a bit close while I was getting my bearings. Mind you, I didn't think I was going to run out of luck just then. It was just the faintest of reminders that one day my road would be run. I asked directions at the ranger station, found Gibson beach on the map and renamed it Drusilla's beach when I go...

Dear Juliet Well, this is what it is : From: james.christie466@btinternet.com To: info@carmelitesistersbythesea.org Sent: Wednesday, May 27th 2026, 22:27 Subject: Prayer request for my dearest friend, Juliet Landau Dear Reverend Mother and Sisters, Juliet Rose Landau God be with you. To explain as concisely as possible, my name is James Christie and I am autistic. In 2010, I crossed America overland by Greyhound bus with the backing of the National Autistic Society Scotland in order to meet Hollywood actress Juliet Landau on Sunset Boulevard and also to visit Point Lobos. The book detailing these events is called Dear Miss Landau , and tells some of our story. Juliet became more than just an actress to me, and she's had some tough times recently. I am trying to support her, and in doing so told her that I regularly light a candle for her at my own church. This seems to comfort her. I had hoped we could conceivably revisit Point Lobos someday (specifically Gibson beach) but it may n...

Dear Juliet I'd like to buy you an ice cream! Not Ben & Jerry's, admittedly. In The Way We Were , Hubbell Gardiner's first novel was called  A Country Made Of Ice Cream . Maybe that's where I got the idea from. I was going to joke about going to London, not mention the Carmelite Monastery or the Point, but I don't think I'm going to do that now. I really like Gibson beach and a pivotal part of  Drusilla's Roses  is set right there. The  sky above the bay's the brightest blue I ever did see. S urf rolls and sparkles like a liquid diamond sea, light's etched hard on the rocks to the lee . Sure I'd like to go back. I never visited the monastery or the Carmel Mission either, and I'd like to do that, too. If America's made of ice cream, Monterey County's a confection of cookie dough! For now, though, there's another Lady Chapel in Southwark Cathedral, renamed the Retro Choir , and instead of bantering about being blown up by unexpl...

Dear Juliet I'd better not think about pastrami and rye, time's passing by... I'll be in London 15th-16th June, back in Shifnal on the 17th and back in London again 18th-19th June. I'd originally booked to go to a book launch on the 15th, then decided to attend the Society of Authors' (SoA) big summer blowout at Southwark Cathedral on the 18th. London hotel prices are so lethal it's probably best to go home midweek, then return. No, I'm probably not being very logical, but I've booked myself in at two separate shoeboxes and I can check Henry Pordes for Donna Tartt. I'll also see if I can access my blog via my smartphone. Everything should be fine although the government may fall on the 18th if Andy Burnham wins the by-election and Keir Starmer resigns . Unlikely, but... Do not worry, everything should be fine. As well as the SoA, I'm a charter member of the Self Preservation Society ! On the other hand, perhaps it's about time to tell you tha...

Dear Juliet I was going to update you on my next London trip, try to be logical and competent (15th-19th June 2026, by the way); then I think I saw you'd been reading about Point Lobos again. I'd love to go back to the Point. I stayed at the Hyatt in 2023 but hung out in Monterey in 2024, took the bus down to the edge of town and walked back to Gibson beach. I saw the Carmel Mission Basilica ( founded 1771 ) over my shoulder from the bus, sloped around the old Chevron filling station and set off along California Highway 1. I remember seeing the Carmelite Monastery in the hills , and the surf on Monastery beach. And for a' that, I think I heard you singing down the wire while Dru walked quietly with me. There was some school or other further along the way, and in its grounds the remains of an old jalopy. Either used by paisanos on the farm or driven across from Oklahoma during the days of the Great Depression, in search of the land of milk and honey. I'd just seen the B...

Dear Juliet I had a not-particularly-great night last night, with too many Jelly Babies and too little concentration on Star Trek IV and my co-ordination. I feel a little frowzy this morning although I never get a hangover. In fact, it looks like I inherited my father's allergy to alcohol. I can't actually drink much or my liver starts telling me "the engines cannae take it" , as Scotty would say. I've got to do five calls tonight, and am considering crying in a layby. So I just thought I'd mention I'm not perfect either. I eat too many biscuits and I don't want to take exercise any more. I've made plenty of mistakes in the past and will make more in the future. Such is life. Just thought I'd say so. In fact, when I first met you, I certainly thought you were the world's best actress, a great beauty and Hollywood royalty, but I never thought you were perfect either. I liked you for who and what you were. I might be a bit late back tonight....

Dear Juliet Regarding a certain State Reserve in Steinbeck country, I thought I'd just make passing mention of a brief and personal thought, quiet and beneath your ken. Not a mote in God's eye nor anyone else's. Something like: "Though about Point Lobos, pity it cannot be," and add a link to Perry Como's Impossible ... Oh, look and see ! But I think I understand that a daughter of narcissists always believes that love is conditional, that the other shoe is forever poised to drop if you're not always perfect. That at any moment, I could turn into some sort of violence-crazed maniac bent on revenge like Dr. Evil if I didn't get my way. So I thought I'd take a risk and simply say: No, I won't. I'm just sad it's impossible. That you weren't able to see the view from the Hyatt, walk past Brad Pitt's place, sit on that petrified log and have a pastrami and rye sandwich with me. I'm sorry you didn't sit on Drusilla's beach...

Dear Juliet I think you're happier and I think you're getting into a good place so I'll just once again say: You were always worth it, and the thing is, I always enjoyed going to see you even if it meant standing outside for an hour in the freezing rain! I liked you as you were, not as some impossible ideal but as an actress from Hollywood who was "kind, sweet, sensible and shy." ( Dear Miss Landau ) I liked trudging around Glasgow with wet snow leaking between my toes looking for a present for you. I even liked you more than Kirk liked Spock, which is saying something. P.S. You don't need to call me Admiral, you can call me Jim . In Jimmy , Stewart mentions that someone said to him, "being famous is like being a God." I don't think you're a God, I think you are my dear Miss Landau. You mean the world to me, and that's not for sale. I remember going to Point Lobos and wishing you were there, and I remember (metaphorically speaking) steal...

Dear Juliet Something of a confessional mashup of things today! There was that good lunch with my friend from college days yesterday, leaving me later at my desk, brain unleavened with nothing much to say. Cleaved from my intellect like a penitent in Erewhon, fearful of writer's block and the boring blank page. But I think all that has happened over the last seven weeks simply caught up with me, and there's no shame in saying I needed a break to recharge for a day. I got that in the form of some emotional release. They're making a film about the life of Jimmy Stewart , specifically the time  where he flew B-24s during World War Two . Every time I see B-17s or something similar in flight, it breaks me up completely. The last time I really got emotionally caught was the Eagle landing scene in First Man . It was more the air of quiet concentration that got to me. Like NASA, staff were doing their jobs at the National Autistic Society in Glasgow without fuss, but with a profes...

Dear Juliet I had a long lunch with an old friend from college today (hence the late blog, sorry) but I've also been called into hospital to give more blood tomorrow. However, it looks like things are winding down, the course of chemo pills concludes in August and I don't think they're going totally to exsanguinate me. That said, I think I've given my pound of flesh and pint of blood. It looks like the long walks through Wolverhampton are coming to an end, and (with respect to Evelyn Waugh), a  "small red flame - a beaten-copper lamp of deplorable design relit before the beaten-copper doors of a tabernacle; the flame which the old knights saw from their tombs ... burns again." I'm unquestionably being a bit overdramatic, but the result might have been different in other days. The king, whom I briefly saw last week, doesn't actually have prostate cancer and very little has been said about the actual diagnosis , but on the basis of my very subjective gli...

Dear Juliet I lit a candle in the Lady Chapel for you. Not for the first time. I have to run out and work now (work being a four letter word), but I'll quickly add a quote from Brideshead Revisited , which I hope will please you: "There was one part of the house I had not yet visited, and I went there now. The chapel showed no ill effects of its long neglect.; the art-nouveau paint was as fresh and bright as ever; the art-nouveau lamp burned once more before the altar. I said a prayer, an ancient, newly-learned form of words, and left, turning towards the camp; and as I walked back, and the cook-house bugle sounded ahead of me, I thought: 'The builders did not know the uses to which their work would descend; they made a new house with the stones of the old castle; year by year, generation after generation, they enriched and extended it; year by year the great harvest of timber in the park grew to ripeness; until, in sudden frost, came the age of Hooper; the place was des...

Dear Juliet Bit late, sorry. Spent too long getting stuff ready for my tax return, which was fascinating. Not. No emotional upheavals at work, thankfully. Unfortunately, it's all confidential... I'm still a bit wary of going too deep, particularly at half-past-two in the morning when I have to get up later on and light a candle for you. But perhaps that's the point. That I've been lighting a candle for you for over five years. That I didn't forget about you, or think you weren't good enough. I worried about you during the Covid pandemic, thought endlessly about what I would say if I got back into the arena in front of you in Telford, got a copy of A Place Among the Dead and really had to struggle with myself not to email you when I was on Hydra while L.A. burned... Yes, I did worry about you. I'd far rather you'd been walking up cool Greek streets of white stone than smelling smoke wafting through cypress trees in the Hollywood Hills. I wish you'd s...

Dear Juliet I have to work again tonight because they're all desperate as usual. Out into rural parts of Shropshire you probably couldn't even find with Google Maps (although you can have a look for Ryton and Albrighton if you wish!) and not back until 3.00 pm or so your time. I'll pop you a note then if it's all right, and fill in for now with details of my next London trip so you won't feel unduly discommoded at the time. I hope. It's actually two trips between 15th-19th June respectively. The first is for a book launch back at Granary Square , just north of King's Cross 15th-16th June. The second for the Society of Authors' summer party in Southwark Cathedral 18th-19th June. I'd booked the one, then decided to go for it and attend the second. London hotel prices are more lethal than Daleks on the rampage so I'll actually be back in Shifnal on the 17th. Yes, I know I'm probably not being very bright, but I didn't want to have to econo...

Dear Juliet Damp dawn gave way to the azure opalescence of a mid-May London day. I reluctantly swapped the rugby shirt for a blue cotton top and cream jeans, made my way to the Society of Authors in Bloomsbury and after Harriet Tyce 's talk, began trying to find ways of creating a photographic memento for you. Anna Ganley (SoA chief executive) gave me a good bit of help and here's the other result: With that, I headed back to my usual haunts on Charing Cross Road and I noticed a first edition of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend in Henry Pordes. I'm back in London 15th-19th June so, if it's still there, I can pick it up if you'd like me to. Yes, I used to love doing this sort of thing for you. Seriously considered going to a showing of The Producers at the Garrick Theatre, but decided it was just too nice a day to stay inside so I wandered round Leicester Square, saw Gene Kelly and bumped into this piece of street graffiti: Also got this shot of The Mousetrap f...

Dear Juliet You're just not going to believe this... Anyway, it was nice to see Heathrow again. Not a lot of people say that, but I suppose for me it's like visiting Spacedock and Dear Miss Landau  (DML) kickstarted a liking for aviation. My father also once told me that there's nothing, absolutely nothing , on Earth as exciting as an operational take-off and it all captures some essence of that time I stole the Enterprise ... I remember bringing her in on a wing and a prayer ... All for the best gal in all the world. Sorry, got a bit emotional there... So, first day in London and don't think I just forgot about you and enjoyed myself. It's like that bit of poetry on p. 148 of DML, the sort of thing sailors read in the long hours of the off-watches, thinking of the girl sitting by the shore while they themselves were far away at sea. I hung about Parliament Square for a while, seeing if I could get the British government to collapse for you, but I'm afraid it a...

Dear Juliet Wildly to paraphrase Oppenheimer, "I am come back, but I am not the destroyer of worlds..." A very quick check with AI confirms that the week 11th-15th May "has been one of the most severe peacetime political crises for an incumbent modern government in modern British history ... and stands as the most rapid loss of authority for a landslide majority government in the democratic era ... The combination of a massive parliamentary rebellion, high-profile Cabinet walkouts, and borrowing costs spiking to a 28-year high for 30-year gilts solidifies this week as a historically disastrous moment for British governance. " Can I cook or can't I? Maybe a few rebellious Democrats could club together for the airfare to bring me over so I can walk around in front of the White House for a couple of days? Who knows might happen? And I also had my bit of luck (more about that later), and I wish you could have been there. And for all I know, our glorious government ...