KISSING THE JOY AS IT FLIES : Letters to the Beloved

At a time in our history when communication by technological means has become the norm, the epistolary art of letter-writing has ceased to be commonplace. Kissing the Joy as it Flies may be one of the few contemporary accounts of a great love which was celebrated for over thirty years, during which time the lovers conveyed their desires and frustrations by pen in the long dark hours of the evening and the still quietude of early morning.

It was not a love which supported domesticity. It was expressed sporadically and spontaneously together with rigorously-planned trysts which enabled the lovers to catch what joy they might for a few precious moments. They enriched these momentary encounters with silent missives dropped off by Shobha surreptitiously after dark, when the world was asleep and by Douglas in the early morning hours, before the world was awake.

When love became seemingly impossible, the humble letter fanned the flames of their passion for ideas and for each other and brought them to a moment when they realised they had fulfilled the deepest longings of their hearts and arrived at a consummation devoutly to be wished and gladly to be experienced.

They were soulmates. They had known each other before, in the mists of time. This is their story - in their own words.

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This is the story of how the lovers inspired each other in a spiritual, literary and musical way, so that when Douglas slipped sideways there was no farewell, but a continuation of the energy which had animated them for so many years. It is a book for those who have found their soulmate and for those who wish to find theirs, but it is not for the faint-hearted.