James Warden

Bingham Crosses the Bar

Binghamis asked to travel to Wolverhampton to accompany the mother of an olduniversity friend, Clive Salmon, to her son's funeral. This is during thecoronavirus lockdown in the summer of 2020; nowhere is open on the road andBingham is fatigued by a journey without a break. After the funeral he stays onwith Juliana Salmon, partly as company in her time of immediate grief, partlyto help her cope with Clive's bungalow. Therehe meets a young man of mixed race, Arthur Malcolm, and his fiancée, Eunice,who is of Afro-Caribbean descent. Arthur has been brought up by his mother,Irene, because his father deserted the family when the boy was a toddler. Hismother having passed on a few months earlier, Arthur is keen to find hisfather, as the only family he will have at his wedding, to be held as soon asthe pandemic passes.Aftermeeting the young couple, Juliana talks of the early years when the firstimmigrants arrived from the Caribbean, apologising that local people were notas welcoming as they might have been but that this stemmed not from bigotry butfear. Afew days later, Bingham meets Arthur and Eunice again. They are keen to helpJuliana with looking after her son's bungalow until it can be sold, and it iswhile Arthur is giving Bingham a hand moving furniture that Eunice invites him,socially distanced, into their immaculate garden for a coffee. Here, talk is ofthe forthcoming wedding and Arthur's sadness that he has never known hisfather, a father who his mother was reluctant to discuss. Bingham offers tohelp find the missing man, asking for any photographs, certificates, lettersand addresses of Irene's friend they might possess. Binghambegins his search while still in Wolverhampton and meets Claudia who wasIrene's friend. She tells Bingham of their early lives and the negative affectof the colour bar; in particular, she places stress on people's attitudes tomixed marriages. She points out forcefully that Irene would not want PaulMalcolm at her son's wedding.AsBingham leaves, Claudia's husband, Abel, puts him in touch with one of Paulfriends who explains that his people were Londoners and that is where he mightbe found.Backat Juliana's, Bingham receives two phone calls from people eager to help butwho wish to remain anonymous; when Bingham insists he must know who he isspeaking with before sharing information, the callers ring off. Eventually,he contacts a young woman who works at Wolverhampton City College who says thather mother talked of Paul Malcolm and that he was nothing but a joke to them;she does remember, however, a friend she knew when studying at the LondonSchool of Economics whose mum also knew a Paul Malcolm.Andso, Bingham returns home, wondering how he might find a way of travelling toLondon against government orders to pursue his search. He finds his friend,Phil, who manages five allotments, has an arrangement with a "posh Londonrestaurant" to deliver fresh produce once a week, which the restauranteur needsto provide free food for NHS staff as well as take-aways and frozen food.Phil invites Bingham along and so the searchcontinues with the help of Bingham's friends and family, especially hisdaughter, Fiorenza, who lives and works in London. This is the ninthBingham novel.