Robert Temple - Author of The Sphinx Mystery





Brian and Ruth Fawcett, with Olivia, at our house in Somerset in the 1970s
Brian was the son of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, the famous explorer who was lost in the Amazon. Brian spent much of his life searching for him and his brother Jack, but never found them. I first met them in the summer of 1963 with my friend Prince Friedrich Ernst von Sachsen-Altenburg, when we travelled to Carlisle for that purpose together. I then retained contact with Brian until his death, and I have several tapes I made of his strange reminiscences. Brian's uncle was the philosopher Douglas Fawcett, whose literary executor I am. I have numerous documents and photos relating to the Fawcetts. Douglas Fawcett was one of the 'four young men' who lived in the house of Madame Blavatsky and assisted her in writing her famous books (the other four being his chum Bertram Keightley, and also G. R. S. Mead and John Watkins). I was a friend of Geoffrey Watkins, John's son, owner of Watkins Bookshop in Cecil Court, London. Geoffrey gave me two original Victorian photos of Madame Blavatsky which had belonged to his father, and I also have tapes of Geoffrey's reminiscences. All of these people were so interesting, but they are all gone now!


© Robert Temple 2009-2022