Various places/people/things-- A Glossary

Bronte-- Anna says of Kate, "there was a good deal of Bronte about her...but if I thought Bronte I did not think she was Bronte in passion but only in secrecy, in being so private". There were three Bronte sisters--Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, all writers and the daughters of a parson--who spent the vast bulk of their short lives (none of them lived to forty) in their family home in Haworth, a town in Yorkshire. They are remembered as being fiercely private, but their gothic novels (most famously Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights) are remarkable for their passionate romance, which particularly in Wuthering Heights is coupled with an obsession with death-- Heathcliff's digging up of Catherine's body is an interesting counterpoint to the chilliness of Kate's final story about Anna and the dirt.

Brompton Road- -This street, which the Wayfarers Tavern is located just off of, is located in Kensington--so this would have been in a decent part of town.

Cote D'Azur-- French for "Azure Coast," this stretch of the southeastern coast of France is also called the French Riviera. Such famous and luxurious resort locations as Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Antibes, and Saint-Tropez are all located on the the Cote D'Azur. The Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly takes place on the Cote D'Azur and captures the culture of extreme wealth Deeley is alluding to.

Gian Carlo or Per Paulo-- I'm wondering if Deeley, when asking Anna about her husband's name, isn't playing off the names of a couple of well known Italian artists in order to mock her. Pier Paulo Pasolini was an extremely famous realist, ant-consumerist film director who adapted works like Oedipus, Medea, The Decameron, and The Canterbury Tales. Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian composer, who spent much of his life between Italy and the United States, who founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and the counterpart festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Or--they could just be very stereotypical names. Menotti, for one, was gay.

Edgware Road-- Deeley mentions the "Edgware Road gang" while talking about Wayfarer's. This street in Westminister. It is known now for its large Arabic population, which began in the late 19th century and continued in the 1950s with an influx of immigrants from Egypt. There are lots of late night bars and hookah cafes on this road.

Greenwich--a neighborhood in London on the south bank of the Thames, home to the famous Greenwich Observatory as well as a number of palaces (used particularly by the Tudors) and buildings designed by architect Christopher Wren.

Lambeth-- neighborhood in South London, heavily bombed in World War II. In the fifties, it was the site of the 1951 Festival of Britain and a popular destination for West Indian immigrants. It is also the location of the Archbishop of Canterbury's London residence, Lambeth Palace.

Lobster sauce-- this is a sauce commonly made in France, which uses lobster bodies and shells along with butter, garlic, tomatoes and brandy. The ingredients make it pricey and a sign of wealth.

Maida Vale--Deeley refers to the "Maida Vale group" when talking about the Wayfarer's. This was another posh neighborhood in London, near St. John's Wood in the West End. Significantly, given Pinter's background, it had a large Jewish population, and was home to some of the BBC's broadcasting studios.

Orson Welles--Deeley says "I am Orson Welles," who is of course the famous director and actor, most notably of Citizen Kane. I can't find any strong ties between him and Sicily, or reasons for Deeley to say that except as humorous self-aggrandizement.

Paddington Library-- a public library located in Westminister (not far from Edgware road).

Tate--refers to the museum, now called Tate Britain after the expansion of the Tate system of art museums that includes the Tate Modern. More info and pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Britain

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/

Wayfarer's Tavern-- I think Pinter made this place up-- can't find any trace of it. In any event, it's a pretty generic name for a pub; "wayfarers" were travelers who would break their journeys at inns and taverns.

Westbourne Grove--where Deeley remembers going to a party with Anna. This is in the middle of Notting Hill, right near Portobello Road. Although it is now a very posh and popular neighborhood (and famous in the US thanks to that Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie), it was actually a very run-down, poor part of town in the 1950s, although it has always been associated with artists.