Fletcher: Good friend

London, July 22: This could only happen in a (civilised) country like England. Peter Beach is getting married but who should be “giving him away” at the wedding ceremony but his former girlfriend Jo Fletcher?

If a Hollywood mogul gets hold of this plot, he might immediately sanction a script with the working title, Peter & Liz & Jo & Ian.

Peter is marrying Liz and Jo is marrying Ian. Once upon a time, before the skies above England had been darkened by Tony Blair, Peter and Jo went out together but now they are very good friends.

The story does not have perfect symmetry — Ian and Liz have never been out together but one day they, too, may become friends. In fact, the chances are they will. Peter and Liz, who are now boyfriend and girlfriend, were once good friends but not boyfriend and girlfriend.

Clear?

Bleach, 52, who was released thanks to a presidential pardon in February after eight years of detention in Calcutta for “waging war on India”, is marrying a long-standing friend but not a girlfriend, Liz (Elizabeth) Day, a divorcee about his own age with two children.

“They are having a civil service in a country house hotel close to Scarborough on October 1,” said Fletcher, a former journalist who now works in London for Orion, the prestigious publishing house which made a killing with Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy.

Bleach and Fletcher were boyfriend and girlfriend but she again made it clear to The Telegraph yesterday that they split up “before” the one-time arms dealer was picked up in India.

Fletcher is the one person who emerges with credit from this whole confusing and sad saga. She did not dump Bleach when he got into trouble in India but campaigned for him and even met him at Heathrow when he arrived in London after his release from a Calcutta jail.

She has a successful post-Bleach relationship with a man called Ian Drury, the publishing director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which, as Fletcher points out proudly, is “the prestigious literary imprint of the Orion Publishing Group”.

She herself co-runs Gollancz, Orion’s science fiction and fantasy imprint.

When Bleach arrived back in England, Drury, perfect English gent that he obviously is, accompanied Fletcher to the airport.

Some journalists, unfamiliar with the lie of the ground, asked Fletcher if she was going to resume her interrupted romance with Bleach. The answer was an emphatic no — and she meant it.

All in all, Bleach’s wedding should be a happy occasion.

Fletcher and Drury themselves hope to marry in spring next year (when one assumes Bleach and his new wife will be among the guests).

“Ian and I are invited and have accepted,” confirmed Fletcher. “I shall (obviously!) be giving Peter away officially. I think that’s only fair.”

“Peter’s marrying a family friend,” said Fletcher. “He’s known her for more than 20 years. She lives in the Scarborough area and whilst he was in prison, she was very supportive and kind to his mother. They always got on well — she’s a down-to-earth no-nonsense Yorkshirewoman.”

“Peter’s decided to get married because he doesn’t see any point in not marrying,” she added. “It makes a lot of sense when you look at it from his point of view. I believe the Bishop of York is going to be one of the (very few) guests at the wedding.”

Life has not been easy for Bleach since his release, she pointed out.

Fletcher said: “Peter’s health has been severely damaged by TB and all he wants is a quiet life. He’s of the opinion that his days of wildness are over, so why not settle down with Liz? He’s known her for a long time, they get on well together, they’re having fun — so why not? Liz used to bring her sons out when we lived at Howdale (the property where Bleach and Fletcher had lived). We owned 10 acres, and it was fantastic for children to play.”

There is the larger question of whether Bleach will return to India to clear his name, as he told The Telegraph he was determined to do after his release.

The British government has effectively washed its hands of him, though he has always claimed British intelligence was informed of what he was doing. After the recent Iraq disclosures about the incompetence of British intelligence, Bleach may find the great British public more willing to believe what initially appeared to be his unlikely tales.

No one really knows whether the book he is writing will be classified under fantasy or biography.

Fletcher remains exceedingly loyal to Bleach. “Peter’s doing what he can to put the last eight years behind him. He is writing his book — I’ve read a chunk and can’t wait for the rest — and in the process has found out a lot about his own family he never knew before. He’s finding the project fascinating. He still intends to clear his name, but that’s going to be a long old job. He’s started, though.”

As for her own relationship with Drury, she disclosed that “we met shortly after he joined the company and discovered that our lives had run on parallel tracks since we were teenagers. Through the 80s and 90s, we were at the same concerts, the same folk festivals, the same publishing parties; we have chums in common; I used one of his colleagues for info when I was an investigative journalist.

“Anyway, we’ll marry in the spring, at St Mary’s, our church in Walthamstow (east London); the Right Rev Paul Butler, the new Bishop of Southampton, will perform the service,” she went on.