Nutrition

In post-WWII London, a simple dish launches a torrid affair

By: Jennifer Wolff
[ Updated: Jul 14, 2008 - 4:46:57 PM ]

Onions were a symbol of eternal life in ancient Egypt, but in the sexually charged world of Graham Greene, they were an emblem of eternal lust. The British author had many mistresses, but his most passionate affair—and the one considered to have inspired his finest writing—was with Lady Catherine Walston, wife of a wealthy British landowner.

Greene and Walston fell in love in 1947 over onion sandwiches, a meal that came to define their mutual desire, as it then became their code for sex. “I love onion sandwiches,” Greene wrote in a postcard he sent from Amsterdam soon after their trysts began. In other notes, Greene told Walston, “IWTFY,” which meant the same as onions.

The edible bulb also provides a pivotal turning point in Greene’s novel The End of the Affair when the author’s stand-in, Bendrix, and the married Sarah Miles—just before commencing their sexual liaison—eat steak and onions at Rules, London’s oldest restaurant. Rules was known as an establishment where men took their mistresses, and Greene was a frequent customer. In the book, Bendrix asks Sarah if her husband, Henry, likes onions. “He can’t bear them,” she tells him, then forks a heap onto Bendrix’s plate, then onto her own. Later, when their romp is finished, Bendrix tells Sarah that he can’t bear to think of her husband kissing her. “He won’t,” she assures him. “There is nothing more he dislikes than onions.”