A Private Matter

Mervyn, an academic, wants to write the biography of General Black-Matheson and has come to talk to his widow and two sons. However, apparently there was some scandal in the War and the General was temporarily sent to a mental institution and the family have quietly lived with the disgrace ever since. The scandal is never spoken of -- but it seems that they all know some of what happened. Christopher, the oldest son, is against the biography being written and Anne, the wife, is now also against the book being done. Mervyn reveals that he knows the secret and Anthony, the younger son, discusses his father's faux pas: Towards the end of the Second World War the General was ordered to appear in a parade in honor of the founding of the battalion, but after all the fighting and deaths of troops on both sides he apparently felt that it was totally wrong to have a parade. On the day of the parade he tried to go to the parade ground naked. Anne tells how she has tried to live with the ...