Juliet Hulme

It was perhaps a twist of fate that the illness struck Juliet just as her parents were preparing for an extended visit to London. There have been those who have speculated that the timing of the trip may have rekindled some of those old fears of abandonment that had plagued her during her earlier illnesses.

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This time, however, as Pauline recounted in her diaries, Juliet was not alone. She had Pauline.

Not only did Pauline visit her sick friend regularly at the sanatorium, but the pair also wrote to each other, taking on the roles of two star-crossed lovers, characters they had created in the mystical Neverland of Borovnia.

As Pauline wrote in her diary on May 29, 1953: "This evening I had a brainwave. That Juliet and I should write to each other as Charles and Deborah. I wrote a six-page letter as Charles and a two-page letter as Pauline. She has entered into the spirit of the thing greatly."

Years later, Perry would dispute published accounts suggesting that the relationship was unreasonably devoted. Still, she has, as Porter writes in his treatise on the film, "placed enormous weight and importance on this correspondence from Pauline during (her) confinement in the sanatorium. Ms Perry has frequently called it 'a lifeline' in her recent interviews, stressing that this correspondence with Pauline was her only contact with the outside world during a 'very sad and lonely time.'"

There is little question that by the time Juliet was released from the sanatorium — uncured, as the physicians said at the time — her relationship with Pauline was the principle one in her life. As The Press reported in a 1989 review of the case; "To help Juliet's recovery Pauline, who left school the previous year to attend a commercial college, was invited to stay more frequently at Ilam. The relationship between the two then became a lot closer."

And that relationship was about to undergo a dramatic change.

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