Lord Lucan's Editor writes

How Lord Lucan's Story is told in his own hand

THE LORD Lucan saga has been one of the greatest and most enduring mysteries of the 20th Century. The very name 'Lord Lucan' has now entered the English language as a byword for the far-fetched and the simply unbelievable. His sudden disappearance in 1974 after the murder of his nanny Sandra Rivett has about it the fairytale quality of a modern-day Rip Van Winkle. And ever since, the world has been speculating as to his whereabouts. Did he escape to South Africa, to South America, or even to Alaska? Or did he take his own life after realising that his final throw of the dice had - yet again - ended in abject failure?

Here, and in his own hand, is the answer. It is Lord Lucan’s personal account of his life as the world’s most infamous fugitive.   www.lordlucan.org is the start of your journey to find out more.

It is not for me to spoil Lord Lucan’s narrative by alluding to the story. But I do think it fair to say that there are a number of anomalies about the text. Sometimes it is difficult to know where reality ends and fantasy begins.

When I was first confronted with the job of editing this sprawling manuscript, I was tempted to clear up some of the major inconsistencies. But having immersed myself in the project, I realised that these very anomalies have their own charm, as they reveal so much about Lord Lucan’s character.

It was also noticeable just how much Lucan’s writing style seems to vary. From one chapter to the next, his character can change from bluff to tearfully maudlin. And although Lucan was by no means a writer, his style occasionally has a startling directness and candour.

My editing has largely consisted of clearing up some of Lucan’s  spelling and grammatical infelicities, as well as putting this hodge-podge of reminiscences into a sort of sequential order. He also frequently switches tenses, flip-flopping from present to past, but for the most part I have let these inconsistencies stand. Three quasi-dream sequences, however, have been excised altogether. They were incomprehensible. Should any reader care to have a look at these rambling screeds, or fancies that they might be able to make head or tail of them, then I would be happy to supply the details.

For a number of legal reasons, I am unable to reveal the full provenance of the Lucan papers. What I can say, however, is that in 2004, a cache of hand-written papers ended up in the vaults of a leading London solicitors. Two years ago, I was approached with a view to editing these papers. I can only hope that I have done the manuscript justice.

Finally, it should be noted that Lord Lucan levels a number of venomous accusations at his one-time friends, particularly Sir James Goldsmith. I am sure that if the ever-litigious Sir James were still alive today, we would already have been hit with the first libel writ.

I was in some doubt as to whether to include these sundry rants against Sir James, but in the end opted to stick with the spirit of the manuscript. I realise that, given his fragile state of mind, Lucan is not a credible witness. But those who seek to defend Sir James must also concede that he was a charlatan of the first order. I am therefore more than happy to leave it to the readers to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to weighing up Sir James’s many calumnies.

I have included a number of footnotes, the better to clarify and embellish some of the points which Lucan breezily skates over.

But for the rest of it, this is wholly the work of Lord Lucan. This is his story.

William Coles
Edinburgh 2009

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