seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Colombia
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Pakistan
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seen from United States
seen from Kyrgyzstan
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The Croft Anthology (Books 1-6) by Winston Smith
(1960) The Land of Darkness. New York, NY: Random House (1964) The Riches of Altaussee. New York, NY: Random House (1965) The Amber Room. New York, NY: Random House (1971) The Tsarcophagus. New York, NY: Random House (1973) Pacho’s Reel. New York, NY: Random House (1978) Love’s Labours Found. New York, NY: Random House
Lady Lara Croft and Winston Smith, ‘circa 1950′.
Winston Smith in a 1982 interview with ITN, promoting Perdurance, then the latest addition to his popular, albeit controversial, novel anthology: The Adventures of Lara Croft.
From 1946 to 1953, after he had recovered from injuries sustained serving with the British army during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Winston Smith found work as a footman, then butler, in the employ of Countess Lara Croft, known by then as the most esteemed female historian and explorer of her time until her disappearance in September of 1953, on the first day of what would have been her second expedition of the Himalayas’ Hindu Kush mountain range.
Last seen in the Fergana Valley, in what was then part of the Soviet Union as Russian Turkestan, she was to leave no clue and make no effort at signalling her location to the team she had left behind. The group, concerned by nightfall (for they had presumed her lone departure to be characteristic, and nothing more than a reconnaissance of the area), searched for her the next morning. She was never found.
Seven years later, in 1960, Lara Croft was declared dead in absentia, and as per the instructions detailed by her last will and testament, her vast estate was left to Winston Smith.
INTERVIEWER We begin with Winston Smith, a man firmly cemented as a National treasure since the publication of his debut novel, The Land of Darkness, Since then it has been followed by seven others in the series dedicated to and featuring the notorious explorer, Countess Lara Croft, whose disappearance in 1953 continues to baffle the world at large. Winston Smith’s work has since been translated into twelve languages, and sold an approximate eighty-million copies worldwide. We’re very pleased to have him with us. WINSTON SMITH Thank you, Michael. INTERVIEWER The first novel was released in 1960, the year Lady Croft was declared dead in absentia by the British government, whereupon you inherited her estate. You came into some criticism for the timing, and was accused of sensationalising the event. Did you think the release insensitive, or take stock in the claim that in naming your heroine after Lady Croft, you were profiting further from her disappearance? WINSTON SMITH The British press sensationalised her disappearance long before I did, so no. Who was there to take offence? Those quick to do so forget that she was my family, not theirs. I was but still a boy when I returned from the war in 1945, with nowhere to go before she took me in and decided to offer me a job and a home. You cannot police grief. I continue to refer to the books as pseudo-biographies, for imagining this life for her offers some degree of comfort. I’d like to think the books as neither weakness nor denial, but her absence is still an inconceivable tragedy to me. In my mind, they’re the obituary of a life lived, as I hadn’t the strength to write one for a life cut- short. INTERVIEWER To the public, she was always a, if you will forgive the expression, closed book. Could you offer any insight as to the kind of woman she really was, beyond the adventure heroine that features in your stories? WINSTON SMITH She had this irrepressible spirit. Projecting airs and graces exhausted her and so she found it easier to be cold to public society, but in all actuality, her passion was unmatched. Her temper was frightful, and in it she could hurt anyone and revel in it, but her melancholy was even more so. Loving worried her, pained her even, for she hadn’t much practice, but in the event that she’d succumb to the indulgence of loving she did so completely. And was instinctively good at it, as a matter of fact; self-taught, whilst the longer I live the more firm I am in my belief that the rest of us are still just guessing. INTERVIEWER Have you ever considered selling the rights to your novels, so we might see her adventures brought to the big screen? WINSTON SMITH Never. There have been offers, but I shouldn’t like to see her as anyone but herself. INTERVIEWER Do you think we’ll ever get an answer as to what happened to her? And do you take any stock in the theories surrounding her case? WINSTON SMITH I like to think that we might. In the coming years, I imagine we’ll learn more somewhere down the line that may shed a little light on not just her disappearance, but also perhaps her work during the war beyond speculation. I’ve always been convinced that we haven’t access to all of the facts, but as for the numerous conspiracy theories? That she was a Russian spy or that she’s living somewhere in the Americas? Lovely though the last one may be, were it to be true, it’s complete and utter codswallop.
To this day, Winston Smith continues to reside in Croft Manor, and in spite of advancements in investigatory technology and the eventual declassification of MI5 files regarding Lara Croft’s work during and after the Second World War, her fate remains a mystery.
