Parade's End: Ford Madox Ford's untold love story As with Tietjens, Ford was 20 years Stella's senior; plump with a big pink face and drooping, bright blue eyes; a man she described as possessing "every known human quality, with the hidden places of the heart his special domain." He was stiff and dutiful on the surface, a tortured swirl of complicated emotions beneath - and it gave Ford "the air of tragic vulnerability that was plainly in need of support." This was, she added, "a walking temptation to any woman, had I but known it." Ninety years on, there is now only one person alive who remembers Stella well. Mirabel Osler is an award-winning garden writer whose mother, Phyllis Reid, brought the two together. She shows me the many letters they exchanged and others sent by Ezra Pound, and a painting by Bowen hanging above her fireplace. It is a somewhat sombre portrait of the Lavrignes who ran the Neagre de Toulouse restaurant, one of the most vibrant venues in Paris in the Twenties. "They kept a room at the back for Stella, Ford and their friends," explains Osler. Imagine the occasions they must have been, with Joyce, Hemingway and Stein round the table. I remember Stella telling me that Stein's clothes were always held together by safety pins. Picasso, Matisse, they all met there; all of them flat broke. In Paris, Ford founded the influential Transatlantic Review, effectively discovering Ernest Hemingway and eventually Jean Rhys. It was here that Ford embarked on the gruelling project that was to become the tetralogy, Parade's End, forcing Stella to give up her dream of being a painter. Osler says Stella saw herself as the consort to another and more important artist. In order to write, Ford needed total silence and a calm house, so Stella even had to find separate accommodation for their daughter on the outskirts of the city. He demanded her constant attention which devoured what mental space she knew she would need to produce her own work. It's terribly tragic. Her memories remain vivid. Osler's own mother was wayward and constantly distracted by doomed affairs, whereas Stella became a serene presence in her life once her affair with Ford was over, although even as late as the Forties, she recalls Stella longing for a reconciliation. It was around this time that Jean Rhys crashed into Ford's life. The then-Ella Rees Williams approached Ford with a manuscript and, typically, he fell for her immediately. She arrived on their doorstep like a waif: "Stella said she appeared with a single cardboard box containing all she possessed," explains Osler, "destitute and unhappily married to a Dutch spy who made everyone's life hell. Ford immediately launched her into the literary world, while Stella offered her a bed, fresh clothes and financial support. Perhaps Stella was too confident of her love for Ford to see what would happen. The point of no return came in 1925. Bowen and Ford separated, even though his affair with Rhys ended bitterly shortly afterwards. By then Ford was in America, where he stayed, eventually marrying another painter, Janice Biala, which must have bitten Stella hard. Bowen returned to England as a single mother and eventually did pick up her brushes again, becoming a notable war artist for the Australian War Memorial. Their daughter, Julie, always held a candle for her father, despite his neglect. Osler remembers seeing "pathetic little letters" sent by Julie to Ford, who would occasionally turn up in England to see her, but never stayed for long. And then, just as her painting career finally took off, Bowen was struck down by cancer. Ezra Pound was heartbroken when he heard the news. Spreading it out on her table, Osler shows me the letter Pound wrote after Stella's death, with its echoes of today's critics" opinion of Ford's ground-breaking treatment of narrative that became the blueprint for modernism. "Fordie himself has never been properly recognised," wrote Pound, "though he was right, back in 1912, when nobody else was." Mirabel Osler's view is that you cannot properly understand the symbolism in Parade's End until you understand the role Stella played in Ford's life. Ford wasn't just writing a book, he was charting completely new ground. He told her after they had separated: 'What I am now, I owe to you. She played such a critical role in his best work. The tragedy is that he was the love of her life; there was no other, so it is heart rending to read her own account of living with Ford which also gives such a visceral portrait of that marvellous period in Paris. A tantalising last glimpse of the bitter sweet Parade, perhaps, before it ended for good. Ian Skelly is a presenter for BBC Radio 3. Mirabel Osler's memoir, The Rain Tree, is published by Bloomsbury. Stella Bowen's memoir, Drawn From Life written in 1940 was reprinted by Pan Macmillan in 1999. The fifth and final episode of Parade's End will be shown tonight on BBC Two at 9pm.