News from Jupiter
From My Notebooks In 1974: Rio to Brasilia
August 23, 2026
August 21/22 Somebody in the military government must have thought it worth trying to persuade me that they were the good guys. They booked me two nights at the Hotel Nacional and bought me a bus ticket there and back. The bus was very luxurious, better than a plane, 16 hours overnight and I arrived in the morning. Brasilia, built from scratch by Niemeyer, was […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Andrade’s Story
August 16, 2026
Rio, August [My imprisonment/detention in Fortaleza was Kafkaesque, in the sense that I was locked up in an office where, during the day, all normal office procedures took place. There was a plump young blonde secretary at one desk, and the head of a drug squad (Toxicos) at another. A handful of agents, three or four men, one woman, hung around waiting for a call. […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: An Ex President In Rio
August 9, 2026
Still enjoying the luxuries of Rio de Janeiro, making the most of my very highly connected friends. I have been waiting for a chance to talk to an Ex President. August 2nd Finally had meeting with Kubitschek. Mild mannered man, surprisingly un-monstruous. In fawn suit. Flat featured, grey-eyed, a faded tan colour. With him was a stocky fellow in casual academic disarray suitable to […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Travelling with Lulu
August 2, 2026
Still in Rio, travelling around with Lulu but dealing with a consequence of my prison diet. This is not for the squeamish. July 20th Went to visit Lulu’s grandmother in Vassouras, about 75 km inland from Rio. Countryside hilly. No level land at all. River Paraibo. We visited a colonial house preserved as a museum. It used to be occupied by a rich spinster […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Still in Rio
July 26, 2026
Still in Rio, enjoying the patronage of the wealthy. Rio de Janeiro, Friday July, 12th Tonight Maria-Luiza and I are to go to a Macumba service in Petropolis. We leave early to get to ML’s first lesson at 10am. [ML teaches ballet.] On the way we pass the façade of an enormous hotel built in a sort of mock Tudor style. She says that […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Rio de Janeiro
July 19, 2026
Rio de Janeiro, July 3rd Arrived the day Brazil was eliminated from the World Cup. Stepped into Baby’s flat, such priceless art, to struggle out of my clothing. [Well, that needs some explaining. Before I left London a friend of mine, Roy Round the ballet photographer, gave me an introduction to a wealthy man in Rio known as “Baby” Bocayuva. He subsidized a ballet company […]
Not From My Notebook (plus something from Ceylon in 1976)
July 5, 2026
I’d like to think you missed me last Sunday, but I apologise for not popping up as I usually do. I was preparing for a visit to England where I spent two days at the monster ABR meeting, talking and selling books. At the last minute there was too much to do. Now I’m in trouble because I find I’ve left behind the notes I […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Fortaleza Part Two
June 21, 2026
This is Part Two of a dispatch I sent to the Sunday Times after my detention by the Federal Police. If you didn’t read last week’s episode, please do that first: >>> Fortaleza Part One At two the team drifted back. There was nowhere to sit. I tried walking about. There was an older sergeant figure with a hard-boiled face. He pointed to the […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Fortaleza
June 14, 2026
When I booked my passage on the Zoe.G I knew only that it sailed to Rio de Janeiro. Later, once on board, I discovered that it would first call in at Fortaleza, a city in the far north of Brazil. Though it had a population of a million I had never heard of it – an indication of my ignorance. I also did not know […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: On the Zoe.G to Brasil
June 7, 2026
Along the way through Africa I occasionally wrote small essays or mini-reports. A major issue of the day was Southern Rhodesia’s refusal to accept that an all-white government was not sustainable. Britain having divested itself of empire could not afford to be sheltering a white colony, and Ian Smith’s efforts to go it alone led to heavy sanctions. In theory British firms were forbidden to […]