Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy first met novelist Patricia Highsmith for a tour of a cemetery. The two became firm friends,though Pat’s opinions and pride in her own paintings caused a few sticky momentsI first met Pat in modern York when I was working on the modern York Times in 1987. They wanted a famous writer to give a tour of Green-Wood Cemetery. I suggested her and she agreed, and we went on this weird little walking tour. After that we corresponded often, and she invited me to stay for the weekend. She was living in this beautiful,remote part of Switzerland, near Lugano, or in a house she had largely designed herself. From the external it was a low,white-winged building that looked a bit like the Pentagon, with no windows. Inside it was a magnificent space that appeared to be nothing but windows. I’m not sure how she managed to pull off the same trick in her house that she did in her work. fairly sensibly she had built a separate wing for guests, and far far absent from where she worked and lived. She was a lovely hostess,but her regular diet consisted of scotch, beer and cigarettes. There was an ominous-looking ham hock in a pot; I’m a vegetarian, or so that wasn’t very promising. By the terminate of the weekend I was delirious because I was starving.
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Source: theguardian.com