Olivia Harrison
concerts, no matter what their opinion and it is George's view that it was a success—in many ways. George recalls much love among the musicians and all helpers, whether Western, Indian {for the finest Indian musicians were among the 'cast of thousands7 for whom George took responsibility) or people who had forgotten when they were from. The strain of the tour, the condition of George's throat after singing all day long for weeks of rehearsals and performing on stage, the overlay of a new shining relationship with Olivia Arias from Los Angeles, the Beatlemania never an inch away, the ultimate responsibility for everything, was almost, but not quite, all too much.
If Brian had been alive, probably I would not have ended up in this house because part of getting it meant that I was going beyond my means, completely, and karmjcally the only way 1 could have done this was to have a manager who was going beyond his means, too. It was in his (Allen Klein's) interest to keep us happy, so in a way, he was doing the right thing and that's good enough because if I'd worried about whether or not to do it, well I wouldn't have done it. I'm glad I did it, it was the right thing, it was a cinch really and what this place has done is to enhance my life no end. This was not my first garden. My dad, when we moved to Speke, had a garden about ten feet by ten feet at the front, but then quite a long one at the back, maybe about twenty-four feet, so he grew everything there.
He grew flowerbeds, lawns and behind the shed we had jumping beans, runner beans, cabbages, everything. In the front we had all those other nice things; golden rod, lupins, night-scented stock. Also we had a plot of land at Hale outside Liverpool: it was countryside then, and it was very fertile and I remember digging it and getting my fingers in it. So I really always liked gardens. I planted things when I was young and picked them and had spuds and all that. After Speke I didn't have a garden until Esher where I met my current head gardener, Maurice, who lived there. He was the resident gardener at the school, Claremont.
George remembered a 'log' we had been burning during a conversation in California. It was one of the modern 4og-alik.es' which are not logs at all but
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which are log shaped, compacted shavings and chemicals and all manner of nonsense and they are packed in a cheery 'ioggfpaper and the piece d' Americana is that the manufacturers insert coloured flames, which burn for three hours, yellow, green, orange. Duraflame, that was a major brand-name and we bought them in supermarkets and they were one of the reasons we left Los Angeles and came to live in Suffolk. No Duraflames in Suffolk, but logs. Logs a plenty in Suffolk. Ash, Ash wood wet or ash wood dry, a King may warm his slippers by.
George: Maurice would have liked that log, Duraflame, just the way it is. I dunno, it certainly is proving it is Duraflame, that it will last three hours. I have had coal fires in the bedroom at home, and get 'em going with wood. It's good to do it ourselves. It's good not to be surrounded by slaves, because for every one you have then you are their slave too. I dunno, the less entanglement you have, the better. But Maurice, he's wonderful. He has done all the wonders at the Park. He would have loved that log. It was so 'off the wall'. Gardeners are great people in Britain—not like those guys in LA, just blowing leaves off the road with machines. The British gardeners work, whether it is cold or rain. Americans stand in the kitchen at the Park and ask: "do they go home when it's raining?"
/ have observed that there is much more staff outside the house than inside. Gardeners appear to be everywhere although, in fact, there are only seven, headed by Maurice, but good gardeners in a big busy varied set of gardens get around a lot so that their ubiquity is deceptive. I asked George if he concentrated more on the garden than the interior.
He said: It started in 1969, trying to assess inside and outside and figuring what to do first. I knew there was no rush anyway and the main thing was to get the house so that it would not drop apart and during the first spring, I was with Terry1 walking and I remember just spotting this flower growing off a tree, battling its way through the weeds, brambles and undergrowth. So Terry and I set about clearing around the magnolia tree to let it breathe and on that day, as we were
Terry Doran, one of the old Liverpool gang, friend and partner of Brian Epstein, head of Apple publishing, friend of everybody in Bcatle circles and in others far beyond. In the early days of George's residency with Pattie at the Park, Terry served as Estate Manager.
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doing that, our old gardener Maurice came and said: "I was wondering whether I could come and work for you ? I'm getting a bit fed up with living there and doing that place at Esher" and so Maurice came to the Park and he has been here nine years, more even. Originally he was found by Bill Corbett, our first chauffeur, Beatles' chauffeur, when we moved into Esher and I said "find me someone to do the grass". It was five feet high. Bill went around and came back with Maurice. He had an old scythe and he looked like someone from the Middle Ages. It was a boiling hot day and he was scything the grass and I went out to him saying: "can I give you a drink, a cold drink or something ?" and he wouldn't even look at me for a long while but he's opened up now.
Well, we've got gang-mowers to the Park and he started cutting the grass and tried to get other people to help and it went from there, dug the lakes out and all that, and bored down 350 feet for water and the more you get into something the more incredible it is.
Dylan Thomas had a little hut at the end of his garden overlooking an estuary and there he derived a lot of the influences that helped him write. Well, in our lives, other musicians are on the road, looking at other rock 'n' roll bands and listening to the radio and as I have, anyway, cut myself off from all that, my source of inspiration has been right here where the mood is so different from anywhere else because of the peace.
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