One of Aleister Crowley´s less curious friends came by that day. If I am not mistaken it was a young Louis Umfreville Wilkinson, but maybe he came after Reading Gaol. Memory is such a sly thing and too often it plays tricks on the old.
Well this young gentleman approached us for help. A dismal Saturday morning it was too. His umbrella safely stowed, he enquired after a lesser strain of Alibi often called Habili due to its popularity in Middle Eastern lands. It was to be for a certain famed individual.
We were not unduly taken aback, it was quite normal for a friend to act as a representative or intermediary and making such an approach on behalf of a public figure. And Oscar was already enormously well known.
It seemed that Mr Wilde was possessed of the need to make a trip to Sunbury to meet a scholar from Banbury, to whose poetry he had grown quite affectionate. The meeting with the scholar, it transpired, was to be kept, be any means necessary, from the public eye.
The reason for the secrecy was not revealed.
I can´t imagine…
Nothing could have been easier. It took no time to invent an effective Habili tailor made to Oscar´s circumstances.
We gave him details of a very elderly, very frail relative. To this sketch, a few minutiae were added whose particulars could be checked out to the satisfaction of any keen journalist, private investigator or any such prying eyes. And we gave this infirm relative the name Bunbury.
Bunbury was born!
And so the young gentleman left satisfied that all could handled in a tidy fashion, but such was his haste that he forgot his umbrella. A sad state of affairs given the climate of this city.
Oscar took the whole thing very seriously, using the alibi on numerous occasions and even once spoiling us with an impromtu visit in persona.
It was such meticulousness on Oscar´s part that led us to give the whole affair the codename Earnest, . Although the alibi was subsequently used by a notable series of Uranists, it should be appreciated that Codename Earnest was infact employed by individuals of all tastes including, notoriously, a leading politician of the day.
Unfortunately, this alibi -echo gave rise to Oscar´s long standing dispute with ourselves and his subsequent reticence in consulting our archives during his appallingly misconceived libel case and mishandled trial.
A reluctance which without doubt led to his encarcelation. Criminal!
Still got the umbrella somewhere hereabouts.
(Ben Jennings, The Guardian)
(Martin Rowson, The Guardian)
The Alibi Library 