Society Newsletter #19 The Anthony Powell Society From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 In the words of that old English song – Newsletter The Anthony Powell Society is a and torment of many a childhood – charitable literary society devoted to the “Sumer is i-cumen in: lhude sing cuccu”. Issue 19, Summer 2005 ISSN 1743-0976 life and works of the English author Although it is a long time since I’ve Anthony Dymoke Powell, 1905-2000. heard, let alone seen, a cuckoo (I do live

Address by Tristram Powell in an urban area) summer is definitely Contents Officers & Executive Committee at a Service of Thanksgiving for Address by Tristram Powell … 1 here in England as I write on a warm, Lady Violet Powell From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 sunny May Bank Holiday Monday. So Patron: John MA Powell Holy Trinity Church, Chantry Suits You, Sir … 5 we can be sure that Mid-Summer’s Day Saturday 7 May 2005 Society Wedding of the Year … 6 isn’t far away: and of course that is a time Hon. Vice-Presidents: Mobility between the English Classes … 8 when we pagans go merrily dancing Julian Allason The Widmerpool Award … 10 On behalf of John [Powell] and myself and naked around the Devil’s Fingers in Hugh Massingberd Annual General Meeting 2005 … 11 John S Monagan (USA) all our family I’d like to welcome Eton’s Powell Exhibition … 12 celebration. everyone to this service of dedication. Local Group News ... 13 *Chairman: Patric Dickinson “Father of the Society” – Vice-President … 13 Like many members I find it curious that *Hon. Secretary: Dr Keith C Marshall Centenary Corner … 14 someone so apparently conventional, and It was in 1951, when I was eleven and *Hon. Treasurer: Kevin Jewell Centenary Year Events Calendar … 16 an admitted non croyant, as Powell John was six, that our parents, who’d been Society Notices … 18 searching unsuccessfully for a house in the Wallace Collection Powell Exhibition … 19 should appear to have such an abiding *Committee Members: country, were rung up by my Aunt Julia, Character Models: Odo Stevens … 20 interest in the pagan and occult. AP’s Dr Christine Berberich, whose son, Ferdy Mount, is here today From the APLIST ...21 world does seem to be more occupied by Dr Nicholas Birns (USA), with most of his family. On the lookout “When found, make a note of …” … 24 occult characters than the conventionally Leatrice Fountain (USA), for houses in these parts she’d seen that a Bohemians in Dance … 25 religious: John Aubrey (surely no Stephen Holden, Military Glossary for Dance … 26 stranger to odd practices?), Dr Trelawney, Georgian house near Frome was for sale Cuttings … 27 Tony Robinson, and thought that my parents might like it. Our Former Defence Correspondent … 28 Mrs Erdleigh, Scorp Murtlock (plus Prof. Ian Young (N Ireland) Letters to the Editor … 29 hangers on, including Lord Ken Everything about the place was curious Widmerpool), The Fisher King, Aleister Newsletter Editor: Stephen Holden and interesting – very run down, and Crowley and the local witches who Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall decayed since 1825, the year when the reputedly used the grottoes at The PR/Media Adviser: Julian Allason Fussell family, local ironmasters who Chantry, all spring to mind. By contrast All correspondence should be sent to: made agricultural implements, had built it. the only equivalent religious is Canon In those days you could, I’m assured, drive Fenneau – and one even wonders about Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society a little pony and trap right round the him! 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford artificial lake that they had made in the Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK valley below the house, and there were Curious too that our Chairman happened Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 grottoes with fake stalactites and eaves – a across the obituary notice for RH Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 miniature estate, in fact, complete with its Greenfield (page 28), a fellow Telegraph Email: [email protected] own ruins, derived perhaps from newspaper correspondent of AP’s, who Stourhead or Cheddar Gorge. Of course later became a pagan priest and who, had * Members of the Executive Committee who are the dates been better matched, would the Society’s trustees. All officers are resident our parents fell for it immediately. I can in England or Wales unless stated. remember their excitement, the “for sale” surely have made a superb model for a notice going up on our house Powell character. © The Anthony Powell Society, 2005 and the individual authors named. All rights reserved. (eventually some ballet dancers moved in). Published by The Anthony Powell Society. And then, some months later, the furniture Once again life imitates art imitating life? Printed and distributed by Express Printing, Peterborough, UK 2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 though proud, so he claimed, of being one as was fashionable at the time. John of the few motorists who could actually Betjeman rallied to her support to stop the Everything about the place drive a car. We would all try not to wince despoiling of a fine example of mid 19th The plaques are designed was curious and interesting as he drove closer and closer to the passing century craftsmanship. by Richard Kindersley ... … decayed since 1825 hedgerows. the slate comes from North So, as the plaque describes, protector of Our mother threw herself into village life church and countryside. Finally Wales was packed up along with our then cat, and local politics, conservation and “biographer” – of her family and its Albert, and we set off for Somerset with planning issues long before they had history, and of a number of women writers, Albert wailing in his basket. become major national topics. She was whose lives had, for whatever reason, been Richard Kindersley. I asked him about the part of the seven-year battle to stop the unjustly neglected. But I don’t think slate which comes from Wales, and he told Living in London we didn’t have or need a closure of Mells Lane, as some of you will you’d call her a feminist. She resists being me: car. There weren’t many about just after recall. She was quoted as saying, labelled just as she didn’t label others. So The slate comes from a small slate mine the war. My mother wrote in her the plaque we are dedicating today is her near Corris which is a few miles from autobiography: I shall be attending the enquiry as long as only label. Machynlleth in North Wales. The entrance I’m able to. This lane goes back to the to the mine is by a shaft driven horizontally It was obvious that in our country home we 1500’s and it outrages me that purely for into the side of the mountain. In the centre commercial reasons they want to obliterate Both the plaques [to Anthony Powell and would require a motor car, but the search Lady Violet Powell] are designed by of the mountain there is a seam of very pure was difficult. New cars were dreams at the it. slate from which the Memorial is carved. end of a long waiting list. Even the This pure seam is surrounded by a thick strangest second-hand models had to be As those of you who live here know this strata of inferior quality slate. Because of chased like shy animals. Some people was a battle that was lost. the folding of the earth’s crust over 250 managed to acquire London taxis, which million years the once flat and level had passed the date when they could be She soon became a member, and sedimentary rock is now vertical within the licensed to travel the streets of the eventually president, of the then thriving mountain. This produces a difficult metropolis. Anthony rather leaned towards environment from which to extract the slate. a taxi, but I protested that I did not wish to Women’s Institute, which used to meet just It is essentially an ever deepening cavern. become known in a new neighbourhood as a up the road in a dark old pub. female cabbie. But, most important of all, the tablet She was a devout Anglican, having been to doesn’t say what a delightful, witty, loyal Finally we bought an old Humber, even a school for the daughters of the clergy and deeply loving wife, mother, more ancient than the model which Colonel (which she wasn’t), St Margaret’s, Bushey Powell had cherished since before World grandmother, great-grandmother, mother- War Two. The bonnet did not present a too – a part of the world, near Watford, which in-law, aunt, great-aunt and, of course, outmoded appearance, but the rear view, I’ve got to know only too well as a lot of friend she was to all of us. solid except for a tiny glass panel, looked television is filmed there. only too like a taxi serving a village I thank everyone who cares for and community far behind the times. This As a regular attendee at this church she worships in this church. Martin Weymont ponderous vehicle did inspire a certain awe protected the integrity of the interior when among drivers coming from the opposite and Jean Kilpin for taking this service, direction, but the local car auction, the then rector wanted to get rid of this Valerie and David Rawlins and the appropriately situated at Cannard’s Grave, rood screen and the choir stalls in the members of the Parochial Church Council. showed little enthusiasm when we finally chancel in order to bring the altar forward This plaque would not exist without their put the Humber in for sale ... The days of support. We are profoundly grateful to you the booming market for antique cars had yet all for helping bring about this act of to come. the furniture was packed ... commemoration and celebration. I have to say that, riding in the back of this and we set off for Somerset stately car, with its wide running boards, I This is a slightly edited version of Tristram with Albert wailing in his Memorial to Lady Violet Powell in Holy Trinity, Powell’s address. was happier with my mother at the wheel. basket Chantry; dedicated on 7 May 2005. My father was a nerve-wracking driver Photograph: Keith Marshall 3 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19

Suits You, Sir flying grouse. Even shotgun pellets are Society Wedding of the Year By Julian Allason deflected according to one gamekeeper. From our court correspondent Tailors disapprove of dry cleaning, Terry Empson [in an APLIST discussion preferring occasional airing, preferably in The marriage took place on Holy properties of its mineral water, bottles of of Bill Brandt’s photograph of Anthony the Highlands, and where necessary attack Saturday, 26 March, 2005 at the Palace which are stocked by many UK Powell] recently detected that, “Powell with a brush. Jeeves employed a sponge Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire between Ian supermarkets. The town itself – said to be has clearly borrowed Evelyn Waugh’s suit to remove Bertie Wooster’s breakfast from Stefanuti and Christine Berberich. the highest market town in England – may, to be photographed in”. his lapels, a technique superfluous on a in the words of one local, be described as This magnificent occasion occupied the having “decaying charm”. While not built The rigidity achieved by Savile Row Highland tweed. greater part of a day: the ceremony being on the same imposing scale as, say, Bath, tailors of that period, especially when A waistcoat would have been worn with a followed by a reception, the wedding Buxton does nonetheless have a splendid using the tweed favoured by Evelyn single breasted suit, the coat of the latter breakfast, a ceilidh and a disco, all of small Georgian crescent (now under Waugh, was said to be sufficient to enable having two side vents, one vent being which took place at the Palace Hotel. restoration), a world-famous Opera House, a drunken subaltern to pass Colonel’s considered “common”. Absence of the circular Great Stables (built for the inspection. Naturally it would only have The bride wore a dress of ivory satin with venting marked one out as of Italian or Duke of Devonshire’s horses; later a been worn west of Chiswick, south of a train and veil, and carried white lilies. Balkan extraction, not necessarily hospital; and now being converted for use Croydon or north of Hampstead. Her bridesmaids, Maria and Nicole, wore attracting the social cachet now attached to by the University of Derby) and some (Cavalrymen and members of the dresses of dark red silk. The groom and Italian tailoring by the media (although not magnificent open spaces. the male attendants wore dark bottle green Household Brigade were not thought to go perhaps in St James’s). east). Some magnates had their suits worn coats with ivory and green brocade The Palace Hotel, situated next to the in by their butlers. Even so Waugh’s The correct accessories were a silk waistcoats. Great Stables may best be described as “an achievement in rumpling his deserves handkerchief (not matching the tie) in the imposing pile”. It was built in the 1860s The Society was represented by Mr & Mrs salutation. coat’s outer breast pocket and a watch in the Victorian French Chateau style, with Robert Rollason, Dr & Mrs John Roe, The chain worn across the waistcoat, or, on a a profusion of marble pilasters, carved The pecking order in Saville Row remains Hon. Secretary and the Hon. Archivist, all single breasted suit descending from lapel alabaster (a local material) and sweeping little changed today: Huntsman, Henry of whom found themselves seated together into breast pocket. The bottom button of staircases, altogether a most suitable Poole, Anderson & Sheppard, then for the wedding breakfast – Christine had, the waistcoat was only buttoned by setting for a wedding. Kilgours, although Gieves are considered bounders and bank managers. Trouser we’re sure not accidentally as claimed, put to have lowered standards in a bid to turnups were the norm from about 1911- together a table of eight people connected The Palace has clearly always catered to appeal to New Labour. This is roughly 65, and in my childhood recollection, often by either Anthony Powell or the University the upper end of the trade: the top floor reflected in their prices which start at yielded a three-penny bit. Zippers were of York with at least three of the table bedrooms, although now refurbished to the around £2500 ($4800) for a two-piece considered “fast” until fairly recently. there in both capacities. same high standards as the other rooms, bespoke suit, less at Gieves. Although Powell appears to have been a button man. were clearly originally to accommodate Just to test everyone’s stamina, the softer fabrics, lighter in weight, are now the servants of the guests staying in the wedding breakfast sashayed into a ceilidh preferred by clients the internal For evening wear, white (bow) tie and tails larger rooms. And even in the past the in early evening and then at about construction retains the shape were usual until the Second World War, hotel has prided itself on offering the most midnight into a disco. Only the strongest characteristic of each house, and a degree with the dinner suit (tuxedo) or a velvet modern facilities: surely some of the survived this long, with, we’re told, the of crease resistance foreign to off-the-peg smoking jacket with braided trousers worn characters from Dance would have last guests leaving at around 3am! suits. The jacket is still referred to as the to dinner parties well into the 1980’s. It appreciated this from the hotel’s 1920s coat, a usage employed by Powell. was white tie that Widmerpool donned for The bride and groom spent a short brochure: the Huntercombes’ dance. The white or To this day Scottish tailors display bolts of cream tuxedo began as tropical wear, honeymoon in Venice. estate tweed worn only by employees of There is a sports salon containing the most occasionally appeared at county dances in up-to-date massage and percussion that estate. These have the consistency June, but was otherwise the province of The Hon. Archivist notes: machine, as well as the latest mechanical familiar to Powell and are capable of bandleaders. It is doubtful that Nick ever Buxton is a spa town set in the splendid imitation of a horse and a camel, for health- warding off rain, snow, brambles and low- owned one. Or Powell. landscape of Derbyshire’s Peak District giving exercises. and well known for the health-giving 5 6 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Mobility between the English Classes Explained By Keith Marshall

Congratulations to Christine Berberich and Ian Stefanuti on their marriage which took place at the Palace Hotel, Buxton on Saturday 26 March 2005. Photograph: Keith Marshall

7 8 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 These notes are intended to help elucidate 7. Remember too that we are talking and the workhouse. The Widmerpool Award and explain the diagram opposite. about the days when the working wife, 13. Again there is a cultural divide let alone the working mother, was a between the Middle Class (usually In 2003 the Society decided to inaugurate 1. This chart and these notes are not a great rarity. Working wives and upwardly mobile and self-made men) an annual Widmerpool Award, for that statement of the author’s personal mothers didn’t start becoming at all and the Upper Middle Class. However public figure who most embodies the belief; nor of how society should be commonplace until the 1970s. The good one’s profession someone of characteristics of . arranged. They are purely a reflection exception to this is the Working Class Middle Class will not get to be Upper The award takes the form of an engraved of how things are; a statement of in the towns and cities, where wives Middle Class unless he is also “wrong kind of overcoat”, purchased by history. and mothers often did work (from perceived to be “the right sort of the Society (at no small expense) from 2. The chart is somewhat simplified. The necessity), even if only as casual chap”, “one of us”. Or possibly by some local flea-market or charity shop. aim is to provide a broad overview of labour. And of course women worked making a good marriage into the the English classes and the mobility much more during times of war. Upper Middle Class. The first award, announced at the Balliol between them. Doubtless there are 8. If you are born into the Upper or 14. There is a very definite “glass ceiling” conference, went to Lord Irvine, the then other portals through some of the Upper Middle Classes you remain between the Upper Middle and Upper Lord Chancellor. The nominations boundaries, but they are either, in the there by birthright. It is effectively Classes. The only available portal referred to his “unabashed exercise of the author’s opinion, relatively minor or impossible to fall from them. through this “glass ceiling” is powers and privileges of his office without they are subsets of the portals shown. 9. If you are born Working Class, again marriage, and even then the portal is care of public opinion.” However no pretence is made that this you are kept there by your birthright. not always open – one still has to be The 2004 award went to the journalist Sir is a complete representation. However you can rise by being lucky perceived to be “the right sort of Max Hastings. The nominations were on 3. This chart has been drawn up and getting into the right profession chap”. the grounds “not only of physical traits predominantly considering class as it (eg. medicine, the church, the law, 15. In addition the Upper/Upper Middle (thick specks, booming manner) but for would have applied in the early novels academia) or by being a good and Upper Middle/Middle boundaries petty abuse of power” in using the medium of Anthony Powell’s 12-volume businessman. You can fall from grace, are unidirectional. If one manages to of a review of a new biography of Powell sequence A Dance to the Music of too, by being a bad businessman or traverse upwards across these as an excuse for personal score-settling Time, that is during the 1920s and having major health problems. boundaries, to attain the higher class, (Powell had been very mildly disparaging 1930s. 10. There is much more mobility between one keeps one’s new class – there is about Sir Max in his published Journals). 4. Even today the English have not the Middle and Lower Middle Classes. effectively no way down. Once one is Hastings certainly reveals a abolished the class system. Although Birthright is not enough to maintain accepted, one is accepted forever even Widmerpudlian lack of self-knowledge in mobility between the classes, at least one’s status; one remains there on if one falls upon extremely hard times referring to Powell as “priggish, the lower classes, is probably one’s own merit – by having the right and destitution. pretentious and pompous” and “a snob”. somewhat easier (thus smudging the profession, or being a sufficiently boundaries) a large part of this model astute, hard-working or wise For another view of the English classes of Both awards were widely reported in the is still true – just nowhere near so rigid businessman. Equally by getting these circa 1975, see Class by Jilly Cooper. UK press. as it was prior to World War II. The things wrong one can fall from grace. The Anthony Powell Society is now I am indebted to Noreen Marshall for some social exception to this is the Upper and 11. Interestingly one never seems to come formally inviting members to submit Upper Middle Classes where inter- across the Lower Middle Class falling historical insights, especially on the role of working women. nominations for 2005 for this prestigious class mobility remains, in the author’s to be Working Class. This is probably award. Nominees must be living figures view at least, rare. for two reasons: who are in the public eye. The deadline 5. At birth everyone takes on the class of (a) there is a cultural divide between for nominations is 1 August 2005 and their parents. Lower Middle and Working Classes should be made to the Editor of this 6. In theory, on marriage the woman (b) the Middle Classes all seem to Newsletter. takes on the class of her husband. have more support from family. However this is not always the case as 12. What can happen however is that if Once nominations are in, a cabal or Star an Upper Middle Class man marrying they come upon great misfortune Chamber will decide the “winner”. The an Upper Class wife may be accepted (especially in business) the Lower award will be presented at some suitably as Upper Class. Middle Class can fall into destitution Widmerpudlian location.

9 10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 later in the year. Its principal purpose is to Annual General Meeting 2005 Eton’s Powell Exhibition place Powell in the context of the artistic Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of The Anthony Powell By Patric Dickinson and literary figures he first met at Eton. Society will be held on Saturday 22 October 2005 at Bethnal Green Museum of But it includes much that will be of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA commencing at 1400 hrs. Every year Eton College famously commemorates King George III’s birthday general interest to Powell enthusiasts. Nominations for the three Executive Executive Committee must be ordinarily (the Fourth of June) with speeches, a This will be immediately apparent from Officers (Chairman, Hon. Secretary, Hon. resident in England and Wales. procession of boats and other junketings. the subject headings of the exhibition: Treasurer) and up to six Executive Motions for discussion at the AGM must By tradition the celebrations are normally Eton; ; Henry Yorke (aka Henry Committee Members must be received in also be submitted to the Hon. Secretary no held on the Wednesday nearest the actual Green); Eric Blair (aka George Orwell); writing by the Hon. Secretary no later than later than Friday 5 August 2005. They anniversary. This year they took place on Robert Byron; Harold Acton; Brian Friday 5 August 2005. must be clearly worded, proposed by at 1st June, and a notable element in the Howard; Philip Heseltine (aka Peter Nominations must bear the name & least two members and contain a statement proceedings was the opening of an Warlock); Constant Lambert; and Powell signature of two proposers, the signature in support of the motion which will be exhibition in the College Library entitled himself. In addition to material held at of the candidate and a short biographical published to members. Eton and After: Anthony Powell and His Eton, the exhibition contains a number of Contemporaries. statement about the candidate. Electronic The formal AGM agenda and proxy voting books, photographs and artefacts lent by signatures will be accepted by e-mail, post papers will be sent to all members with the The exhibition is the brainchild of the John Powell and others (including, or fax (preferably using the form below). Autumn Newsletter. Proxy votes must indefatigable Michael Meredith, College somewhat whimsically, Robert Byron’s Please note: The members of the reach the Hon. Secretary no later than Librarian and active member of the Tibetan banjo). There are several first Executive Committee (the three officers Monday 17 October 2005. Anthony Powell Society, who over the editions, original letters and early drafts of years has accumulated a remarkable novels and miscellaneous writings. and six committee members) are the The formal business of the AGM will be collection of manuscripts and printed Society’s legal trustees. Those elected followed at 1500 hrs by a talk. Details to Amongst the plums on show are: Powell’s works relating to Old Etonian writers. must not be barred from being trustees follow in the Autumn Newsletter. Old Etonian scarf (used to lower his friend under English law and a majority of the Hubert Duggan out of Balliol but breaking when Duggan was halfway down the The Anthony Powell Society – Officer/Committee Proposal Form Society Visit to Eton Exhibition wall); an early scrapbook kept by Powell; Saturday 23 July 2005 a 1928 letter from Henry Yorke; a rare

We the undersigned nominate ______for the post of Meet at Eton College Main Entrance copy of Caledonia; Powell’s own postcard of the eponymous Poussin painting; and ______. at 1430hrs Please contact the Hon. Secretary if you the typewriter used by Powell when

wish to come along writing Dance. There are some eye- Proposer:______Signed:______Date:______catching drawings done by Mark Boxer for the covers of the Fontana edition of Anthony Powell started presenting books Dance, annotated with Powell’s comments Seconder:______Signed:______Date:______to the College Library in 1971 and and including several that were never thereafter made numerous gifts of books used. Candidate’s Declaration: If elected I agree to serve as ______and manuscripts. Since 2000 the Powell and to act at all times in the best interests of the Society. I am not barred from acting as family have added further contributions. Altogether a perfect curtain-raiser to the the trustee of a charity under the laws of England & Wales. I am/am not (please delete as Although the final versions of the novels centenary celebrations. But it is more than appropriate) resident in England or Wales. were removed to the British Library last that; it is a fascinating exhibition in its year, the material that remains at Eton is a own right. Members of the Society are Name: ______Signed:______Date:______treasure trove for Powell scholars. therefore urged to go and see it. The exhibition runs till early September and is Candidate’s Biographical Statement: In his handlist of exhibited items, Michael open on weekdays only. Anyone planning Meredith explains that the display at Eton to go should ring Eton College Library has more limited aims than the exhibition (01753 671 221) to check opening times. being staged at the Wallace Collection 11 12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 “Father of the Society” made Local Group News Vice-President Centenary Corner By Keith Marshall

London Group Spring Meeting Five years ago, on 1 June 2000, a group of By Stephen Holden miscellaneous persons met in the light and comfy first-floor rooms of 7 Ormonde Anthony Powell Centenary Conference The 14 May London Group meeting was Gate, Chelsea. The group had been held at the Audley, a pub round the corner gathered together by Julian Allason and is to be held on from the US embassy in Grosvenor myself to discuss the possibility of Square. Those present were Keith & organising an Anthony Powell conference: Friday 2 & Saturday 3 December 2005 Noreen Marshall, Col PE Taylor, Elwin an idea which Julian had suggested to me, Taylor, Mike Jay, Emma Jay, Patric at shortly after AP’s death a couple of Dickinson, John Roe (from the University months before, as a suitable memorial to of York – formerly Christine Berberich’s our hero. The Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London, W1 supervisor), Tom Morris (BBC Radio 4 producer), Victor Spouge, David Butler Under the gaze of Tsar Peter the Great, and Stephen Holden. whose portrait hung on the wall, we Centenary Conference an informal Sunday lunch in a suitable quickly realised that an organisation was The conference is taking shape, as can be London pub. As usual the conversation ranged over required to “sponsor” the conference; and seen from the Centenary Events listing on many subjects, some Powell-related, some realising that big names like the Daily pages 16-17. The 27 submitted papers Hopefully by the time this Newsletter not. At my end of the table we talked Telegraph and Orange were unlikely to have now been reviewed and the arrives the conference booking leaflet will about Proust: Col Taylor recommended not bite, it was agreed at 7.30pm that we Organising Committee has reluctantly had be with the printers … so fuller details of starting with the first novel in the A La should form the Anthony Powell Society. to whittle them down to just 17 – sadly it the conference, together with booking Recherche sequence but with a novel such Somehow we got the Eton conference off isn’t possible to fit more into the information, are not now very far away. as The Guermantes Way. Comparisons the ground in just 9 months and the rest, as programme. In addition we now have five The booking information will contain (unfavourable in some cases) were they say, is history. keynote speakers with Powell’s long-time details of the recommended Hotel Booking discussed between the Dance war trilogy friend Anthony Hobson joining Alan Judd, Agency – so members do not need to and Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy. Since then although Julian Allason has Ian Rankin, John Saumarez Smith and harass around looking for hotel rooms. never formally been an officer of the Hilary Spurling. Also talked about were the novels of Society he has continued to work for us Wallace Collection Exhibition Patrick Hamilton, about whom Powell had behind the scenes: both in spreading the Plans are also well under way for a pre- The Wallace Collection have had to mixed feelings. In the Journals Powell word and, more importantly, by his work conference buffet reception, rather than a change the dates of their exhibition, says that Hamilton’s novel Hangover with our Editor, Stephen Holden, to ensure dinner, as at previous conferences. This Dancing to the Music of Time: The Life Square “holds up well of its kind”, but that the press are regularly drip-fed with change is in recognition of the fact that and Work of Anthony Powell. The goes on to say that Hamilton’s Marxism stories of the Society’s activities and conference delegates have consistently exhibition will now open on Thursday 3 added a sentimental side to his novels snippets about Powell. asked us for more time to be available for November 2005 and close on Sunday 5 which prevented him from being a “pretty networking. February 2006. The Wallace Collection’s good writer”. In recognition of both his work and his information release on the exhibition is on role as the “Father of the Society”, I was Patric Dickinson is arranging a rehearsed page 19. Elsewhere there were discussions of delighted to be able to announce at the reading of The Garden God, one of Powell’s military medals; Picasso, Braque Society’s 5th Birthday Curry Evening on 1 Powell’s two plays, on the Friday evening Other Centenary Events and the cubist painters; Anne Boleyn and, June that the Executive had appointed of the conference. Walks of areas of Nick Birns and Christine Berberich made a of course, the previous weekend’s visit to Julian as a Vice-President of the Society. Powell’s London are being planned for the proposal for an Anthony Powell panel at The Chantry. Julian’s acceptance speech will be printed Sunday morning following the conference the MLA conference (America’s premier in a future edition of the Newsletter. – the idea being to round off events with literary gathering) in late December. 13 14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19

Exhibition Centenary Year Events Calendar Dancing to the Music of Time: The events listed are those which we know about. Please contact the Hon. Secretary if The Life and Work of Anthony Powell you know of other Anthony Powell related events happening over the coming months. To the best of our knowledge the information given is correct at the time of publication but The Wallace Collection the Society takes no responsibility for the accuracy of such information. You are advised Manchester Square, London, W1 to check event details before travelling.

3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 Anthony Powell Centenary Conference Events Full details of conference events and costs will be available in the conference booking leaflet due to be mailed to members during June. All conference events are open to members and non-members on payment of the appropriate delegate fee. Sadly the MLA decided not to accept our arts as well as of prints, drawings and proposal. However there will be a number photographs. The exhibition is scheduled Thursday 1 December 2005 Friday 2 December 2005 of Powell centenary events in the USA, to run from 22 March to 24 May 2006. Pre-Conference Evening Buffet The Garden God including both an exhibition and a The Grolier Club is located at 47 East 60th Reception A rehearsed reading of Powell’s play symposium at Georgetown University, Street. Further details of the exhibition, Imperial College Rector’s House, College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, Washington, DC (home of “The including opening hours, will be 170 Queen’s Gate, London, SW7 London, EC4 Congressman’s” Powell archive). Dates announced nearer the date. Curtain up: 1930 hrs are not yet finalised. Friday 2 & Saturday 3 December 2005 Before that on Powell’s actual 100th Anthony Powell Centenary Sunday 4 December 2005 In addition, to celebrate Powell’s birthday, 21 December 2005, there will be Conference Post-Conference Social Walks & centennial, Bill Warren is mounting an a drinks party at the College of Arms in Registration from 0900 hrs Lunch exhibition of works from his and other London. Details will be announced in the Conference: 0945 to 1630 hrs A leisurely, guided, Sunday morning north-eastern US collections of works by next Newsletter. Once again we are The Wallace Collection, Manchester walk around parts of Powell’s London AP and his friends at the Grolier Club of indebted to Patric Dickinson and the Square, London, W1 and ending at a pub for lunch New York – America’s oldest club for College for allowing us to visit one of the book collectors and devotees of the book premier genealogical centres in Britain.

Contributions to the Newsletter are always welcome and should be sent to:

Newsletter Editor, Stephen Holden, Anthony Powell Society 76 Ennismore Avenue Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK

Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 Conference venue: Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection, Email: [email protected] and their state of the art lecture theatre Photographs by courtesy The Wallace Collection

15 16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 1 June to 4 September 2005 Saturday 22 October 2005 Exhibition – Eton and Beyond: Anthony Anthony Powell Society AGM Society Notices Powell and His Contemporaries Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, Eton College Library, Eton, Berkshire Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 Open weekdays, 0930-1300 & 1400-1700 AGM at 1400 hrs open to members only; Local Groups details p 11. AGM followed by a talk Centenary Year Thursday 7 July 2005 (open to non-members); details to follow London Group Dancing to the Music of His Time Subscription BBC Radio 4; 1130 hrs 15 November 2005 to 27 January 2006 Special Offer Area: London & SE England Radio documentary, presented by Prof. Anthony Powell Exhibition Contact: Keith Marshall Steve Jones, on Powell and Dance. Cambridge University Library, UK Available to Email: [email protected] Repeated on night of Sunday 10 July. Exhibition open to CUL readers; others by new & existing members special arrangement with Dr Emily all grades of membership North East USA Group Saturday 23 July Mitchell on +44 01223 333122 until 31 December 2005 Area: NY & CT area, USA Visit to Eton’s Powell Exhibition Contact: Leatrice Fountain Meet at Eton College Main Entrance; 1430 Saturday 12 November 2005 Pay for 4 years Email: [email protected] hrs. Please contact the Hon. Sec. if you London Group Pub Meet get the 5th year free are coming along. More on page 12. Details as for 13 August Great Lakes Group Topic: Venusberg Area: Chicago area, USA Mid-July to mid-October 2005 Subscriptions Reminder Contact: Stephen Pyskoty-Olle Anthony Powell Exhibition Monday 28 November 2005 Email: [email protected] Georgetown University, Washington, DC Bumper Powell Centenary, Conference Members are reminded that subscriptions Details and dates tbc and Christmas Newsletter Published Swedish Group Members will automatically receive one were due for renewal on 1 April and Area: Sweden Saturday 13 August 2005 copy free; additional copies will be renewal notices have been sent to those Contact: Regina Rehbinder London Group Meeting available for a small charge; details tbc whose membership expired this year. The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1 Sadly some 50 members have yet to Email: [email protected] 1230 to 1530 hrs Wednesday 30 November 2005 renew; second reminders will be sent to Regular quarterly meeting. Good beer, The Garden God them in the next couple of weeks. Failure Please contact the Hon. Secretary if you good food, good company, good A rehearsed reading of Powell’s play to renew will mean removal from the wish to make contact with a group and conversation in a Victorian pub AP would College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, membership register, and in centenary year don’t have email. have known. Members & non-members London, EC4 that means you won’t be eligible for welcome; further details from Hon. Sec. Curtain up: 1930 hrs. Admission: tbc. discounts on conference delegate fees. Joint meeting with Bar Theatrical Society; Newsletter Copy Deadlines September 2005 prior booking essential; details to follow We are now able to accept subscription Anthony Powell Symposium payments by Standing Order (UK The deadlines for receipt of articles and Georgetown University, Washington, DC Wednesday 21 December 2005 advertisements for forthcoming issues of th members only) and recurring credit card Speakers to include Dr Nicholas Birns and Anthony Powell 100 Birthday Party transaction; appropriate forms will be sent the Newsletter are: Rosemary Colt; details and dates tbc College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, with your reminder notice. Payment may London, EC4 Issue 20, Autumn 2005 3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 also be made in UK funds by cheque, Visa Time: evening Cost: tba Copy Deadline: 12 August 2005 Exhibition – Dancing to the Music of or Mastercard. Unfortunately we are Celebrate Powell’s actual 100th birthday; Publication Date: 2 September 2005 Time: The Life and Work of Anthony unable to accept payment by Direct Debit. open to all; prior booking essential; full Powell details in the next Newsletter Issue 21, Winter 2005 The Wallace Collection, Manchester Members who are UK taxpayers are asked Square, London, W1 22 March to 24 May 2006 to GiftAid their subscriptions, enabling the Bumper Powell Centenary, Details, opening hours, etc. at Anthony Powell Exhibition Society to reclaim basic rate income tax Conference and Christmas Issue www.wallacecollection.org or call Grolier Club, New York, USA already paid on the subscription; currently Copy Deadline: 7 November 2005 +44 (0)20 7563 9500 Details tbc this is 28p for every £1 paid to the Society. Publication Date: 28 November 2005 17 18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 The Wallace Collection Powell Sickert, Vuillard and Picasso. There will Character Models: Odo Stevens were eventually liberated by advancing Centenary Exhibition also be many associated events, including By Julian Allason and Doug Russell American troops in April 1945. Sergeant lectures, readings and the Anthony Powell Smith was repatriated from an RAF camp. Dancing to the Music of Time: The Life Centenary Conference which will take Edmund Frank ‘Trotsky’ Davies was so and Work of Anthony Powell place at the Wallace Collection, 2-3 called for having displayed “a kind of In addition to the fit between Davies and 3 November 2005 – 5 February 2006 December 2005. Admission to the disciplined bolshevism” as a Sandhurst Stevens’ Balkan exploits, the two are said exhibition is free. cadet. Reported to hail from the West to have been alike in character, Davies Anthony Powell (1905-2000) was one of Midlands – Odo’s point of origin – and being described by colleagues as the most important English novelists of the Text by courtesy of The Wallace Collection. studied mining engineering before being “undiplomatic” – armyspeak for “blunt to twentieth century and a key member of a commissioned as an officer in the the point of rudeness”. To whit, ‘Trotsky’ group of writers, among them Cyril Manchester Regiment. He led the British had this to say of the entire Albanian Connolly, George Orwell and Evelyn Military Mission to enemy-occupied resistance: “. . . incredibly narrow-minded, Waugh, who came to prominence in the Albania for SOE [Special Operations bigoted, biased, stupid and touchy”. As to late 1920s and early 1930s. He is best Executive], was wounded, decorated, and Odo’s swank and swagger, nothing has known for his twelve-novel sequence A later wrote a book, Illyrian Venture, about been unearthed – thus far – to suggest Dance to the Music of Time which took its his escapades with the partisans resisting Davies was a model for Stevens’ exploits title from Nicolas Poussin’s great painting the Germans, but which revealed little between the sheets. in the Wallace Collection. Even the about himself. extraordinary cyclical and balletic quality Sources: of the novels took its cue from this This may be the missing episode in Obituary: Jim Chesshire; Daily Telegraph; painting. Anthony Powell loved the Stevens’ military life. In the summer of 14 October 2000. Wallace Collection and was a close friend 1943 Davies, by then promoted Brigadier, Nigel West; Secret War: The Story of SOE, of Sir Francis Watson who was a curator at accompanied by a sapper major named Britain’s Wartime Sabotage Organisation; the Collection from 1937 and Director Chesshire, and a wireless operator, Hodder & Stoughton (London); 1992; 1963-74. Sergeant Smith, had boarded a Halifax ISBN 0340518707. bomber in the North African desert. The The exhibition will focus on Powell’s life, aircraft was bound for Albania where the his friends and contemporaries, and his BBC Radio 4 Documentary on three men parachuted into the Chermenika career as a novelist and art collector. Powell and Dance mountains. There Davies organised a Among the objects on display will be reasonably effective campaign of sabotage portraits of Powell and his friends and Dancing to the Music of His Time despite divisions between the partisans. many original manuscripts and BBC Radio 4 illustrations relating to A Dance to the Thursday 7 July 2005; 1130 hrs However his luck ran out in January 1944, Music of Time. These will include (repeated on night of Sunday 10 July) when he and his comrades unexpectedly typescripts of the novels, his manuscript came under a torrent of enemy fire. With notebook and drawings for book covers by Produced by Tom Morris and presented by Davies and Chessire wounded, the three Misha Black, Osbert Lancaster and Mark geneticist and Powell fan Prof. Steve Jones Englishmen were quickly overwhelmed Boxer. Powell’s acute sense of humour this half-hour documentary will celebrate and captured by their attackers: will be evident in his scrapbooks and a Powell and in particular Dance. We were bandoliered Albanians, who had sided with Halifax Bomber photo album documenting a spoof pleased to be able to welcome Tom Morris the Germans. Chesshire and Davies were detective mystery ‘The Tranby Croft Case’ at the last London Pub Meet, so hopefully placed on makeshift stretchers for a acted out by Powell and his wife, together we may even have influenced the terrible journey through mountains and icy with Francis Watson and Gerald Reitlinger programme. Full details are not available streams. They eventually reached a Society Visit to Eton Exhibition during a weekend in 1937. Works of art at the time of going to press, so we will hospital in Tirana where they were seen by Saturday 23 July 2005 from Powell’s own collection will include have to watch the BBC Radio listings for German doctors. Davies later joined See page 12 drawings and paintings by JF Lewis, more information. Chesshire at Colditz, from where they

19 20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 person than he had been in years. We From Robert Beasecker don’t witness any of his life as a prisoner Stringham didn’t drown when the transport From the APLIST of war. What is unsaid is that if he were carrying POWs was torpedoed. He died in Recent Discussions on the Society’s Email Discussion Group being transferred from a POW camp to the POW camp at Singapore. See Japan at the end of the war after almost Temporary Kings, chapter 4. In the five years in conversation Nick has with Cheesman, the From Adam Bohnet From John Gilks Widmerpool horrible latter says: “Stringham died in the camp. I thought, for some reason, that Hong I think you are right that the official line confinement it He behaved very well there.” Kong was bound to fall (and the Canadian was that Singapore could be defended and acted out of would only be soldiers guarding it were really being it certainly could have been defended more embarrassment because he Nick must also bear some of the thrown to the wolves, all to better preserve vigorously and skilfully than it was. I retained enough responsibility (blame?) for Stringham’s imperial prestige) but that Singapore was have always assumed that the reactions to/ at Stringham’s health and posting to the Far East with the Mobile by no means certain. I remember a vague, motives for sending Stringham to presence in the strength to still Laundry. Nick approached Widmerpool to no doubt apocryphal description of the Singapore were based on the likely impact mess be of use to the ask if he (Widmerpool) couldn’t find a Japanese army running out of bullets on a man in his physical condition of any Japanese. He more “suitable” billet for Stringham. That immediately before the British surrender. posting to the Far East. died in one of request seems to have put the thought Should sending someone to the mobile war’s tragic ironies when the POW ship he originally into Widmerpool’s head. laundry in Singapore necessarily be Casualties on D-Day were actually quite was on was sunk as a troop ship by the –––––– considered murder? light except at Omaha Beach. In the West Allies. the real “death sentence” job was serving From Jim Scott It has always puzzled me a bit that in German U boats. The riskiest on the If Jenkins considered this as homicide on Adam Bohnet poses the question, “Should Nicholas thinks of it this way. (Templer’s Allied side would have been Airborne Widmerpool’s part that is an emotional sending someone to the mobile laundry in case I understand). After all, people were troops and even then casualty rates were response. Singapore necessarily be considered being sent to their deaths all around, some quite low compared to WW1. murder?” Bohnet adds that “it has always –––––– puzzled [him] a bit that Nicholas thinks of of them more certain than Stringham’s. –––––– Jenkins’ wanted a more active role, after From Mark Hall it this way.” all, and a more active role would have From Joe Trenn I was under the impression that Singapore increased the likelihood of being killed. Singapore was the fortress of Asia. The was (erroneously) considered impregnable So far as I can If Jenkins Someone must have been choosing who expectation was that the British would because of its heavy fortifications. recall, Jenkins considered this as Nobody expected Yamashita to approach never says would be the first on the beach in hold the city against the Japanese. Instead homicide on Normandy; those chosen received a death 85,000 British and colonial troops from land (through thick jungle) and out- anything that sentence, I expect, or pretty nearly so. surrendered to 30,000 Japanese. A new flank the heavy guns (which could not be suggests to me Widmerpool’s (My grandfather’s job was to run between book on the subject, Forgotten Armies: turned inland to meet the new threat). that he thinks part that is an the tanks on the way to Stalingrad – The Fall of British Asia 1941-1945 by Thus, Widmerpool was being callous but Widmerpool sounds rather like a death sentence to me, Christopher Bayley and Tim Harper was was probably not consciously sentencing committed emotional although he didn’t die on the assault but reviewed in the NY Times on April 17. Stringham to death. murder by response during the retreat. It would not surprise –––––– pulling strings me if it was the least favoured position in Widmerpool acted out of embarrassment at to get Stringham’s presence in the mess but I From John Gilks Stringham sent to Singapore. Jenkins says the army, since he wasn’t quite German. Actually they [the heavy guns] were In any case, I know very little about the don’t see it as rising to the level of that, “This was certainly arbitrary homicide. traversable but nobody had thought to treatment of an old acquaintance.” And he subject.) supply HE rounds and AP isn’t much use adds that he felt “annoyed, even disgusted, There is much bravado on Stringham’s against ground troops. Any way, by the by Widmerpool’s attitude towards Please feel free to correct my boys-book- time the Japanese got anywhere near of-battles understanding of the subject. part while describing his development and Stringham, this utter disregard for what aspirations as a soldier but in fact he was Singapore Island, British morale was so might happen to him, posted away to God becoming a stronger and more capable thoroughly shattered that it wouldn’t have knows where” (at this point, Jenkins only made any difference. 21 22 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 knows that Stringham is being posted to “When found, make a note of…” Dickensian’s pages a vast amount of facts the Far East – he doesn’t know the exact Robert 100 Years of The Dickensian – not only verbal facts, but also visual, for Browning destination). To me, Jenkins’s comments the magazine was illustrated from the start. fall far short of accusing Widmerpool of An exhibition at the Charles Dickens murder. Museum, London By the 1950s, Dickens was firmly on the –––––– educational curriculum, and there was a 5 May – 31 October 2005 surge of critical interest in his writings. So From Adam Bohnet university scholars, from both England and I agree absolutely. It is possible that I The international Dickens Fellowship was America, were glad to find an outlet for have gone so long without reading the founded in 1902, and three years later their work in the Dickensian. Nowadays, books that the Dance growing in my mind started its own magazine, The Dickensian the magazine reflects all aspects of has become a completely independent – which is still going strong, and “Dickens culture” – from critical theory to entity from the Dance in the books. discussing Browning’s “Childe Roland to celebrates its centenary with this musicals, from freshly discovered Dickens the Dark Tower came.” This is how the exhibition. letters to reports on how the graves of In any case, I smile ingratiatingly as a well poem ends: Dickens’s descendants are tended in aimed fruit smashes into my face. I did Like many literary societies, the Dickens distant climes. enjoy the discussion of Singapore, which XXXII Fellowship today provides a pleasant and will no doubt enrich my re-reading of the Not see? because of night perhaps? – why day profitable arena for encounters between The exhibition, besides offering an array war books. Came back again for that! before it left The dying sunset kindled through a cleft: academics and “common readers”. In its of pages from the magazine, and a history –––––– The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay, early days, there were no English literature of its evolution, will focus on its editors Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay, - and principal contributors, and will salute From Colin Donald academics, but there were Dickens ‘Now stab and end the creature – to the heft!’ other journals, both popular and academic, I just wanted to second earlier scholars, home-bred within the which can be regarded as its friends and recommendation of the book Forgotten Fellowship. They poured into The XXXIII competitors. Armies by Christopher Bayley and Tim Not hear? When noise was everywhere! it tolled

Harper, about the fall of Singapore and end Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears Of particular interest will be a “browsing of Empire in the East. Fantastically Of all the lost adventurers, my peers - How such a one was strong, and such was bold, station” where visitors can look at scores colourful and scholarly book, that And such was fortunate, yet each of old of other little magazines produced by the demolishes some myths about Singapore Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years. many literary societies which flourish in (eg. that the guns were pointing the wrong England today – and to which the Anthony way). It even manages to find some XXXIV Powell Society has contributed a number sympathy for Stringham’s captors There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met of back issues of the Newsletter. (especially those fighting in Burma). To view the last of me, a living frame For one more picture! In a sheet of flame

I saw them and I knew them all. And yet The Charles Dickens Museum (which is in As some may be tired of hearing, I always Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, a quiet Bloomsbury terrace) is at 48 thought that Stringham’s “behaviour” in And blew. ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LX. Changi or Kanchanaburi or wherever he came.’ Open: Mon-Sat 1000-1630, Sun 1100- was is the epicentre of Dance’s moral 1630. Admission £5 (and concessions). universe (wooo – steady on etc.) Here, the theme of Fortune – “the Dance” – and the horn motif – a call to action – Further information on +44 (0)20 7405 –––––– coincide, albeit at one remove and by 2127 or www.dickensmuseum.com From Andrew Clarke allusion. As Roland accepted the last fatal What I think is of paramount importance is battle, Stringham “accepts” that Fortune “When found make a note of” is one of the that conversation between Nick and that will send him to a good death catch phrases of the Dickens’s character Stringham in Belfast, where the former somewhere in a Japanese POW camp. For Captain Cuttle in the novel Little Dorrit. tries to dissuade the latter from going to him, the one possibility of action is to The Dickensian has always had a section entitled “When Found”. Singapore and the latter insists on accept what is to be. Charles Dickens 23 24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Bohemians in Dance Military Glossary for A Dance to By Jeanne V Reed the Music of Time Society Visit to Eton Exhibition Provided by Col PE Taylor Saturday 23 July 2005 I’ve finally finished Among the Bohemians See page 12 and the Dance certainly chronicles social Until comparatively recently the Army history. I guess Powell was part of “haute Staffs were divided into ‘A’, ‘G’, and ‘Q’, bohemia” and could weave in and out. with a subsidiary branch ‘SD’. Bohemia was an inter-generational coterie whose “club house” was one cafe or ‘G’ branch General Staff (Ops) Anthony Powell Resides Here another, and Powell and his generation ‘A’ branch Adjutant General, Personnel, Courts Martial etc. CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS seeks could have known and socialized with and sells early editions of Anthony Arthur Ransome’s generation (his dates ‘Q’ branch Quartermaster General, Powell’s works together with those of are 1884-1967). The older group’s stories Equipment other distinguished British authors such of their mad escapades at the turn of the as Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and century would have become folk lore At the Dance period those affected are: James Lees-Milne. In addition to rare among that crowd (hence young Nick’s books, we offer a complete collection of probably very truthful portrayal of Dr At Divisional Level: new books in our store near the Trelawney and his followers; in fact, GSO1 General Staff Officer Grade 1 Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs issued didn’t Trelawney himself live to a ripe old upon request. age, so his doings would have become GSO2 General Staff Officer Grade 2 1082 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10028 Open seven days per week general knowledge, although he belonged GSO3 General Staff Officer Grade 3 Telephone: 212 289 2345 to an older generation). (one or more) [email protected] AA&QMG Assistant Adjutant & Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Thinking of Dance as bohemian social Welch Regiment bi-metal cap badge, circa WWII Association of America, Inc. Quartermaster General (AQ) history explains so much! Those DAAG Deputy Assistant Adjutant Other Abbreviations bohemians were artists and “moral General pioneers” whose personal expression of DAQMG Deputy Assistant CSM Company Sergeant Major their manifesto of freedom, self- Quartermaster General CO Commanding Officer expression, and “intensity” took many Staff Captains ‘Q’ (one or more) NCO Non-Commissioned Officer Why Not Advertise Here? forms, and there are many characters in CB Confined to Barracks *** Dance who come under that umbrella. I At Brigade Level: RVs Rendezvous Display Advert Rates see now that although it seems that Nick ties them together as he goes among them BM Brigade Major – Ops RTO Regimental Transport Officer Full Page: £30 as a friend, those characters already were GSO3 (one or more) RAOC Royal Army Ordnance Corps ½ page or full column: £20 loosely connected as bohemians. AQMG Assistant Adjutant & RTU Returned to Unit (of origin) 1/3 page (horizontal): £15 Quartermaster General ITC Infantry Training Centre ¼ page (½ column): £10 The Bloomsbury Group stands out among the larger bohemian society because of Staff Captains ‘A’ or ‘Q’ (one or more) CQMS Company Quartermaster 1/6 page (1/3 column): £8 their discipline and direction, which was Sergeant Flyer inserts: £10 per A5 sheet unusual in that milieu, and their dedication At Battalion Level: DAPM Deputy Assistant Provost B&W artwork only to each other, perhaps to the exclusion of Marshal *** others. Adjutant ‘G’ and ‘A’ duties CRASC Commander Royal Army Small Ads Quartermaster Barracks, Quarters, (QM) Equipment etc. Service Corps Free to Society members Society Visit to Eton Exhibition ADMS Assistant Director of Medical Others 10p/word, minimum £3 See page 12 Services (at Division)

25 26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Our Former Defence told a friend that the thing that most embarrassed him about his past was … Cuttings … Cuttings … Cuttings … Cuttings … Correspondent Turned Pagan Priest Dies that he had worn a tie-pin.

Patric Dickenson has sent us a copy of an There is no indication that Greenfield and article under this headline from the Daily Powell ever met each other (though as Dr John Roe of the University of In putting together the Newsletter both worked for the Telegraph newspapers York has sent us a copy of the there are occasionally pieces which Telegraph of 13 March 2005 from which the following are extracts: this is not unlikely) but what a wonderful photograph from the front page of “miss the cut”. One such, last time, character model Greenfield would have The Times of 3 January 1978. The was a letter from our Patron, John Harry Greenfield, the former defence made for a protagonist in Dance! picture, of the Prince of Wales on Powell, to the Hon. Secretary which correspondent of The Sunday horseback, is captioned: The Prince included: Telegraph, eccentric and one-time of Wales with the hounds of the … news about my mother’s literary owner of a notoriously fierce Jack Quorn Hunt [sic] at Widmerpool, activities. She had for some years Russell terrier, has died at the age of Dance and Spurling Republished Nottinghamshire during its new year been trying to have the novel about 71. for Centenary Year meet yesterday. John wonders if this the Indian Mutiny On the Face of the His real name was Richard Hilary is perhaps of any significance? We would like to remind our readers that Waters by Flora Annie Steel (first Greenfield and his newspaper byline Random House are republishing Dance in published in 1896) reprinted. This was the formal RH Greenfield. After paperback, in its original 12 volume has now happened in a volume he left the newspaper in 1988 he format, for Powell’s centenary year. entitled The Raj Collection together became deeply interested in paganism Our correspondent William with three other novels also out of and acquired the new title “third Wleklinski of Chicago reports that The programme is to publish 3 volumes print: Siri Ram – Revolutionist by degree high priest” … the May issue of Chronicles: A Edmund Candler; Indigo by every two months: the first three trilogies Magazine of American Culture Christine Weston and The Wild Sweet He joined The Sunday Telegraph in are already available (published in contains a review by Derek Turner of Witch by Philip Mason. 1965 and soon became the defence January, March and May), with the final Michael Barber’s Anthony Powell: A trilogy to follow in early July. As the biographer of Flora Annie correspondent. He was a genial man Life and Nick Birns’s Understanding Steel, Violet Powell’s preface is with a bushy beard and had a tweedy, Anthony Powell. The redesigned covers are again based on included in this new edition. Oxford shambolic air … the Mark Boxer cartoons, now almost as University Press in Delhi is the He had two Jack Russell terriers, synonymous with Dance as are the publisher. The editor with whom named Chindit and Sherpa. After the original Broom-Lynne dust jackets. VGP collaborated is called Prof. Continuing the Limerick theme from death of Sherpa, he often brought Saros Cowasjee from the University last year, Noreen Marshall has Chindit to the office where he would Random House have also reissued Hilary of Regina in Canada. The ISBN is suggested: sit on Greenfield’s lap as he worked. Spurling’s Invitation to the Dance, again 019566500-7 … VGP would have If anybody approached, Chindit in paperback, this May. What is especially A writer called Anthony Powell been delighted at this new edition of would go for them. Chindit never pleasing is that this reissue was done at the Had a genealogical goal On the Face of the Waters for which had his owner’s impeccable good suggestion of the Society. So please prove To prove without error she had worked since her biography manners and had Greenfield banned us right in saying there is a demand for Descent from Crugerir of Flora Annie Steel appeared in from most of the pubs in Clapham, Spurling and buy a copy! Instead of the mythic King Cowell. 1981. south London … After his departure from the All the volumes are available for ordering newspaper, Greenfield became now via Amazon or your local bookseller. O ur congratulations once again to contributor to the Oxford Encyclopaedia involved in paganism and his former If ordering from Amazon.co.uk or Executive Committee Member Dr of British Literature. Needless to say her colleagues heard tales of him dancing Amazon.com, please access Amazon via Christine Berberich, of the University of first submission is a 2500 word entry on naked at stone circles. He was 65 the links of the AP website and benefit the Derby, who has been invited to become a Anthony Powell. before he had his first tattoos and he Society at the same time.

27 28 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Loughborough and whose husbands all Letters to the Editor finished their lives in mental hospitals. It’s The Quotable Powell arguable that Mrs Widmerpool Senior is Moreland’s Fame feet of daylight still persisted, occasioning even more terrifying, and I suspect that in … Bloom himself remains a somewhat the immortal lines: this case we are bound to ask ourselves confused conception. We are told the From: Robert Rollason most intimate details about him, but at Magic Power, do not clown, just what exactly had gone wrong between Who he? Is Moreland already more Anthony Powell and his own mother? the end of it he is not such a graphic famous than Lambert? This quotation Bring the darkness three feet down. figure as Fagin or Monsieur Nissim Some infantile trauma perhaps, or was he Bernard: nor does one feel that a fuller from a recent book suggests he might be: to which the heavens replied: – like the rest of his social class –

physiological account of either of the two The writer Ernest Dudley worked with essentially gynophobic? It’s no use yelling or getting tough, latter would have resulted in more some of the major personalities of the 20’s The blind just isn’t long enough ... photographic portraits. The fact is that and 30’s – Noël Coward, Stanley Spencer, I dare say, however, that we could salvage

Elsa Lanchester, Erich von Stroheim, Rex enough from Dance to produce something the presentation of Bloom suffers from From what I remember of A Dance to the Harrison … Forgotten names, too, figure in the size of an airport novel (which so the usual difficulties of attempting to Music of Time I can only assume that the his thoughts: the playwright William much of the original closely resembles). If record in great detail the mental youthful Anthony Powell was also a closet Freshman, whom he knew in the writers’ we cut out all that embarrassing stuff about processes of a character other than the pool at British International Films … Eille Beano Annual reader, at his preparatory Mrs E and the doodle-bugs and author’s projection of himself – in this Norwood, the Sherlock Holmes of the silent school perhaps. Maybe like Erridge he Stringham’s maunderings about Victorian case Stephen. screen … Constant Lambert, the composer had a bound set in his study at The who, at a royal gala night at the Lyric, poetry and that cringe-making passage Chantry. Hammersmith, bowed drunkenly to the about the death of Auntie Molly we could As Bloom’s thoughts are, in fact, Joyce’s

wrong box. get a fairly accurate picture of life in thoughts (even though at the remove of You see, I haven’t actually read Dance for Britain in the Second World War, maybe being Joyce’s thoughts of what Bloom’s From Shepperton Babylon: the Lost twenty years, nor do I have any intention the basis for one of those BBC thoughts might be) Bloom ends by giving Worlds of British Cinema by Matthew of ever reading it again, but I remember docudramas in which the men all look the impression of being more like Joyce Sweet; Faber & Faber; 2005. how appalled I was to find the author of surly and the women all look oppressed. than the romantically conceived Stephen, such ground-breaking fictions as The homophobic stuff about Edgar Deacon who is always treated as if he necessarily Afternoon Men and From A View To A would have to go – quite unacceptable belonged to a higher plane than those Death churning out twelve unreadable Powell’s Beano these days – but Eleanor Walpole-Wilson who surround him. After seven hundred novels about the awful Dr Trelawney and could be developed quite sympathetically pages we do not have a sense of knowing the equally embarrassing Mrs Erdleigh. From: Andrew Clarke as a counterbalance to those wickedly- Stephen better than, say, Benjamin

Round about the time Mr Gilbert Harding drawn society bimbos Barbara Goring and Constant’s Adolph after fifty. Joyce was I dare say Mr Powell received good advice was publicly reduced to tears by Mr John Lady Anne Stepney. A bit like Vile Bodies not a writer with the imaginative potency from his American agents, about how to Freeman, I was diverting myself with an perhaps. of Dickens and Kipling on the one hand; bump up his flagging sales figures: as we amusing if unsophisticated publication or James and Proust on the other; and he called the Beano Annual. This included know, Americans will simply lap up does not, perhaps, set out to create anything about magic and the occult. comic strips which had long disappeared character in the sense in which this Maybe sales were flagging by the time he from the weekly comic, and the one that phrase is often used; but all novelists are got to the 12th (and mercifully last) remains engraved on my memory is to some extent to be judged by the volume, when he was obliged to update “Wuzzy Wiz (Magic Is His Biz)” in which vitality of their creatures, and in this Trelawney into Scorpio Mortlock to sell the Wiz has to bluff his way through a visit direction his abilities are not seen at their his stuff to the Woodstock generation. from an inspector. One of the tasks the most outstanding; though minor figures Wiz had to perform was to turn night into like Mr Deasy suddenly emerge with I’m afraid that Mrs Erdleigh is all too day, which he intended to do with the help vividness. reminiscent of my great-aunt Beryl who of a young assistant lowering a roller blind British used to preside over the Church of St Anthony Powell, Times Literary Supplement, 20 over the appropriate window from the childrens’ October 1948, reviewing The Essential James Eliphas Levi from a semi-detached in weekly comic upper story. Unfortunately, a couple of Joyce by Harry Levin The Beano 29 30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #19 Society Merchandise The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 Oxford Conference Proceedings Wallace Collection Postcard The collected papers from the 2003 The Wallace Collection’s luxurious conference at Balliol College, Oxford. postcard of Poussin’s A Dance to the Membership Form Price: £7.50 (post free to all members) Music of Time. Picture on page 15. Member Information Payment Information Price: £2 for 5 (postage rate B) Eton Conference Proceedings Type of membership (please tick): Total amount payable: £ ______Limited edition of 250 numbered copies Wallace Collection Poster ¨ Ordinary Member – £20 a year. (No. of years x membership rate) each signed by the Society’s Patron. The Wallace Collection’s 48.5 x 67.5 cm ¨ Joint Membership – £30 a year. Any two Price: £15 (post free to all members) (half life-size) poster of Poussin’s A Dance persons at the same address. ¨ I enclose a sterling cheque drawn on a UK to the Music of Time. Mailed in a poster ¨ Gold Member – £30 minimum a year. bank. Please make cheques payable to The ¨ Student Member – £12 a year. Please send Anthony Powell Society. Oxford Conference Delegates Book tube. Picture on page 15. a copy of your student card. As given to delegates at the conference. Price: £5.75 (postage rate D) ¨ Organisation – £100 minimum a year. ¨ Please debit my Visa / MasterCard Price: £1.50 (postage rate C) 4 Society Bookmarks Subscriptions are due on 1 April annually. If I authorize you, until further notice, to chargef r The Master and The Congressman Price: £1 for 5 (postage rate A) joining on or after 1 January, membership my Visa / MasterCarde account for the osum of f e A 40 page monograph by John Monagan includes following full subscription year. £ ______on, for immediately cafter 1 April each yearO. I will advise youi in writing describing his meetings with Anthony Newsletter Back Issues r Full Name: immrediately the card p becomes lost or stolen, Powell. A small treasure for all collectors Back numbers of Newsletter issues 1, 6 a r Yeif I close theo account or I wish to cancel this of Powelliana. and 8 to 18 are still available. Address: y author itfy. ** Price: £5 (post free to all members) Price: 50p per copy (postage rate B) ar i p n sh Card No.: e r BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance Postage. All Society merchandise is post free to t e members in the UK. Regrettably we have to ask Postcode/Zip: n b Valid from: Expires: Available to members only. e Single CD of 26 MP3 files. Price: £2.50 overseas members to contribute to airmail postage C m using the following rates: Country: e Name & address of cardholder (if different + Donation: £7.50 minimum (Total £10; s m from above): post free) Rate UK Europe World Email: r 26 Audio CDs. Price: £20 + Donation: ea £40 minimum (Total £60; post free) A free 25p 60p N uymber of years membership being paid: I am a UK taxpayer and I want all donations I’ve 5 B free 40p £1 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / more (please state): made since 6 April 2000 and all donations in the Audio Tapes of Dance future to be Gift Aid until I notify you otherwise. Copies of the following audio tapes of C free 60p £1.50 ** Simon Callow reading (abridged) volumes D free 80p £1.75 of Dance: Gift Membership I agree to the Society holding my information on

· A Question of Upbringing computer. Non-members will be charged postage & packing If this is a gift membership please attach the name · The Kindly Ones at cost. & address of the recipient plus any special Signed: · The Valley of Bones message on a separate sheet of paper. · The Soldier’s Art Gold and Founder members of the Society receive Date: a 10% discount on the cost of all merchandise Where shall we send the membership? Price: £2.50 each (postage rate C) (but not on postage charges). ¨ Direct to the recipient ** Delete if not applicable. ¨ To you to give to the recipient personally Society Postcard Ordering. Post, phone or fax your order to the B&W postcard of Powell with his cat Hon. Secretary at the address on page 2. Payment Please send the completed form and payment to: Trelawney. Picture on page 19. by cheque (UK funds drawn on a UK bank), Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 Price: £1.75 for 5 (postage rate B) credit card (Visa or Mastercard) or cash. 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109

31