Larry Donovan Bridge Jumper (1862-1888)
I have done two really stupid things in my life which might have endangered my life.
The first was when I was thirteen years old and I was dared (and offered money) to climb along the outside of a railway bridge in my home town
That was a stupid thing to do how high was the bridge?
It was a sixty foot drop into the river
So if the fall didn’t kill you
You would drown
But I made it
If you had fallen then you would not have met me
The second happened when I was twenty when I dived into Harwich Harbour in November for the reward of ten pounds
You could have drowned
Was the water cold?
Freezing
Did you swim?
Funny question but yes I swam back to the harbour steps
Did you do it naked?
No I wore my underwear
When did you thaw out Peter?
During the summer
I was sent to the South of France to recover
Larry Donovan was a bridge jumper who became famous because he jumped without serious injury from the following bridges
Brooklyn Bridge
Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Schuylkill River and High Bridge
Chestnut Street Bridge
London Bridge
Waterloo Bridge
Hungerford Bridge (this was his last bridge as he sadly drowned during the attempt in August 1888)
What are you writing about Peter?
Larry Donovan the famous bridge jumper
I have never heard of him
He is forgotten
But he was a brave man
In 1922 a secret tunnel stretching from Buckingham Palace to Clapham Junction Railway Station was discovered during improvements at the station
It had been constructed during the 1850s and was to be used to transport the Queen to safety in the event of an attack on Buckingham Palace
When discovered three men walked its entire length and were arrested when they emerged in Buckingham Palace
The intruders were later given £5000 each by the state in exchange for their silence and were told that disclosure of any kind would result in imprisonment
When the last of these men (James Cole) died in 1959 he told his son of the 1922 discovery on his deathbed.
In June 1960 the Daily Mirror ran a story about the mysterious tunnel after being contacted by the son of James Cole
After official denials the newspaper was fined £10000 in camera
The son of James Cole (Graham Cole) was threatened with imprisonment but was subsequently given £2000 and told to issue a denial saying that he had made the whole story up
The Daily Mirror ran this story on the 9th of September 1960 and the story went dead until December 1967 when a number of newspapers reported that Graham Cole who was by then the owner of a successful car dealing partnership in Croydon had drowned off of a beach in Southern Australia
I am off shopping do you want anything?
Nothing I can think of
I am meeting Justine at Macy’s and we are going to have a coffee together
Give her my regards
She hates you
That is because I married you
She thinks you are an arrogant shit and that I could have done better
You married a writer
A successful writer
We live in Manhattan
In a nice apartment
You have written about all the major bridges in New York
Thanks to Larry
I owe him a lot
If I had not read about him I would have not come to New York and written the book
And you would have not met me
I was bi-curious at the time
I cured you of that
And now I am just curious
Curious about the love- lives of my girlfriends
Would you do me a favour?
Ok
Would you pop this into Jerry’s it is my piece about the Buckingham Palace tunnel
Are they going to publish it?
In the next edition of Spotlight
Will that not piss the British Government off?
You might get fined or even imprisoned after all you do hold a British passport
I have not written it under my name I have used another name
What name have you used?
Larry Donovan
You see they cannot prosecute a dead man even if they wanted to prosecute someone
Especially one who has been dead for one hundred and twenty-nine years
Translation
Whilst he was in Vietnam in 1968 Bobby Schultz was given a copy of The Natural History of Selborne by the Reverend Gilbert White
He was given this book by a dying peasant who explained that his father had purchased the book in Paris before the war
The book saved the life of Bobby Schultz as it deflected a bullet away from his heart during an ambush some months later
Because of the seriousness of his injuries Bobby was invalided home but he recovered and subsequently translated the book into Vietnamese
Before his recent retirement Bobby Schultz taught in a prestigious university and was recognised as an expert on the Austroasiatic language families