In the autumn of 1966, Bellairs was less than a semester into his teaching position as Shimer College when the internal rumblings between the administration and faculty came to its ugly head. Unsure of any positive future in Mount Carroll, Bellairs severed his connection with the school by submitting a resignation that November. Perhaps a gradual disdain toward teaching and the enjoyment he had gotten from his first book weighed on his mind as he thought out his resignation letter, explaining "I am going to go to England to write for a year or so."
It was time for a change, nonetheless and perhaps, Bowen suggests, a hint of literary success motivated the move. It would make sense: St. Fidgeta had been received popularly at Shimer, as had its "famous author," and by now he was out of graduate school and more interested in writing, including a short piece that would go on to become The Pedant and the Shuffly.
These "literary success" were not however the glittering prospect of immense fame and riches, but "the warmly glowing prospect of enough money to lead the literary life in some comfortable nook, such as the imaginary English provincial city in Joe Duffy's shared daydream," says Bowen.
In June of 1967, following his departure from Shimer College– and in retrospect, the life he had known for the better part of the 1960s – Bellairs sail for England.
There was of course the matter of where he would live; Bellairs claimed, in a 1967 letter, that he would "[live] in some bucolic retreat and [write] like hell." John Drew, a friend from Chicago and originally from England, remembers Bellairs asking about staying at his family's cottage in Farningham, Kent, about twenty miles southeast of London. This apparently didn't pan out, though it's anyone's guess whether he visited Kent or the Drew family during his stay.
Prior to leaving Bellairs also wrote to friends that any loneliness would "be relieved a bit by a contingent of Shimer students at Oxford." For years, the Mount Carroll campus allowed upperclassmen the chance to study abroad in conjunction with Oxford University. How many Shimer students and faculty in the Oxford program Bellairs actually knew is uncertain, but it would it be a chance to socialize (and tell rousing tales of the 1966-67 school year) with people not just from Shimer but also from the United States. Leading the delegation was Harry L. Golding, who had been a popular ("garrulous," says Bellairs) instructor back in Mount Carroll in years past. It was, in fact, Golding whom Bellairs had replaced as the head of McKee Hall.
At some point Bellairs settled in Bristol, the largest city in the southwest England and one of leading hubs of entertainment, education, and cultural attractions in the region. We’ve discerned from a letter to John Drew and from the Bristol Records Office that Bellairs lodged at 13 Cotham Gardens, a boarding house owned and/or operated by a woman named Elizabeth Pimm. The Cotham Gardens neighborhood – not to be confused with the similarly named city park about a half mile to the northeast – was experiencing a distinct downturn in its profile during Bellairs time, though now reversed. Much as it was during the 1960s, the area has numerous flats and boarding houses for visitors to rent.
Besides Golding, Bellairs made another friend in David Morris. Little is known of Morris, described to us as a very distinguished-looking older man. Priscilla Bellairs believes he earned his living as, possibly, a security guard in a factory or hotel – in short, "a job for which he had a uniform, but he was a committed amateur artist and traveler." During their 1975 visit to England, Priscilla notes they visited Bristol where John met up with Morris, who gave the them guided tours of Bath, Wells and Glastonbury.
Bellairs' original plan of a year overseas was cut in half when, in January of 1968, he returned to the United States on the Queen Elizabeth II. Taking up residence in Boston, Bellairs explained his decision to his friends, including Bowen, of how the money didn't exactly pour in and told of "being cold and wretched in Bristol, constantly needing a shilling to put in the gas meter." Bowen believes he made the decision to come back when he was, to use an English expression, "cutting his suit to fit his cloth."
From this holiday, however short, Bellairs returned with early drafts of a story he had been tinkering with involving a new character, Prospero. In addition, his memories of living in Bristol – such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, and the Christmas Steps – would provide memorable plot points in his 1990 novel, The Secret of the Underground Room, based almost entirely in southwest England.
