Katya & The Prince of Siam

The original shallow marble stairs lead not to lofty palatial rooms but to rooms small and cramped in size, filled with office desks, filing cabinets and clacking typewriters. Only the dark teak, carved and fretted fanlights remain from the past, as do a profusion of art-nouveau light fittings, in one of which Narisa noticed a birds nest-lending an informal touch – but which would certainly have been swept away by industrious servants in Chakrabongse and Katya’s day. We found it difficult to identify, even with the help of Bisdar and the faded snapshots taken by Katya almost eighty years ago with such enthusiasm. But we did recognise her sitting-room where she had her piano and where the lamp burned before her icon, and also the window from where, alas, poor Cham fell to her death.

Before we left, saddened in spite of the kindness with which we had been received, we were taken to a large room on the ground floor arranged as a shrine where, before a garlanded statue of Chakrabongse, we knelt and burned josssticks in his memory. The fact that this shrine exists in a high-powered Government department is characteristic of the respect for the past which is a way of life in Thailand, for there is no wish to obliterate the time when Chakrabongse and Katya lived there, but to honour and remember it.

As for me, my mind retreated from reality to recreate Paruskavan as I had long imagined it, when Chakrabongse, Katya and Chula, who ‘loved it more than words can say’ were happy there; before Katya went abroad; before Chavalit, appeared.

The house is full and humming with life. There is bustle in the kitchens. Fountains play and waterfalls splash and sparkle in the gardens brilliant with exotic blooms and flowering shrubs. The slow-paced baby-elephant waits for Katya’s visit with his favourite fruit. The horses stamp and whinny in the stables where perhaps Ramushka is being groomed and the sun has risen, shining on another day, bright with the promise of felicity.

 

SIMPLIFIED FAMILY TREE

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Siam

Bowring, Sir John, The Kingdom and People of Siam; (1875), London.

 

Bristowe, W S, Louis and the King of Siam; (1976), Chatto & Windus, London.

 

Chakrabongse, HRH Prince Chula, Brought up in England; (1943), G L Foulis, London.

 

Chakrabongse, HRH Prince Chula, Lords of Life; (1960), Alvin Redman, London.

 

Chakrabongse, HRH Prince Chula, The Twain Have Met; (1956), G T Foulis, London.

 

Chakrabongse, M R Narisa, Desnitsky Family Archives; (unpublished).

 

Chakrabongse, M R Narisa, Prince Chakrabongse Diaries; (unpublished).

 

Crosby, Sir Josiah, KCMG, CIE, KBE, Siam: The Crossroads; (1945), Hollis & Carter, London.

 

Leonowens, A H, The English Governess at the Siamese Court; (1870), Trubner, London.

 

Poum, Nai, The Education of Prince Chakrabongse in Russia; (unpublished).

 

Pramoj, Kukrit, Four Reigns; (1981), Éditions Duang Kamol, Bangkok.

 

Smith, Dr Malcolm, A Physician at the Court of Siam; (1947), Country Life Ltd, London.

 

 

Russia

Brook-Shepherd, Gordon, Royal Sunset; (1987), Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, London

Bruce Lockhart, R H, Memoirs of a British Agent; (1932), Putnam, New York & London.

Buxhoeveden, Baroness Sophie, Left Behind; (1929), Longman Green, London.

Cassini, Countess Marguerite, Never a Dull Moment; (1956), Harper, New York.

Crankshaw, Edward, Shadow of the Winter Palace

; (1976), Macmillan, London.

Deutscher, Isac, The Prophet Armed; (1954), Oxford University Press.

Dolgorouky, Princess Stephanie, Russia Before the Crash; (1926), Herbert Clark, Paris.

de Grunvald, Constantin, Les Nuits Blanche de St Petersburg; (1968), Berger-Levrult, Paris.

Herzen, Alexander, My Past Thoughts.

Herzen, Alexander, From Another Shore.

Karsavina, Tamara, Theatre Street; (1947), Constable, London.

Knox, Major General Sir Alfred, With the Russian Army, 1914–1917; (1921), Hutchinson, London.

Kochan, Lionel, The Making of Modern Russia; (1962), Jonathan Cape, London.

Massie, Robert K, Nicholas & Alexandra; (1968), Gollancz, London.

Obolensky, Serge, One Man in His Time; MacDowell Obolensky, New York.

Paleologue, George Maurice An Ambassador’s Memoirs, 1914-1917; 3 Volumes 1923-1924 & 1925. (Trans. A Holt) Huchinson, London.

Romanov, Princesse Pavalovic, Éducation d’une Princesse; (1931); Grevin, Paris.

de Stoecle, Agnes, Not All Vanity; (1950), John Murray, London.