The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter

Issue 53, Winter 2013, ISSN 1743-0976, £3

Season’s Greetings and a Prosperous New Year

Contents From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 Eton Conference Report … 3-5 AP & Patrick Leigh Fermor … 6-10 Cheltenham Festival Report … 11-12 Kaggsy’s Ramblings – KO … 13-15 Kaggsy’s Ramblings – VB … 15-17 Dates for Your Diary … 18-19 Society Notices … 19-21 REVIEW: The Windsor Faction … 22-24 REVIEW: Profiles in String … 25-26 Letters to the Editor … 27-30 Cuttings … 31-33 Merchandise & Membership … 34-36 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 Wow! So much has happened since I sat The Anthony Powell Society is a down to write my last column. charitable literary society devoted to the First of all we had a wonderful conference at life and works of the English author Eton College in late September. As you’ll Anthony Dymoke Powell, 1905-2000. see in Clemence Schultze’s report [page 3] the speakers were excellent, the events a Officers & Trustees delight, the food was super: all in all, Eton Patron: John MA Powell did us proud. I don’t yet have all the bills but the conference should break even thanks President: The Earl of Gowrie PC, FRSL to a grant from the Derek Hill Foundation Hon. Vice-Presidents: (which allowed us to keep prices within bounds) and the generosity of Eton College. Julian Allason We also owe much gratitude to Michael Patric Dickinson LVO Meredith for his enthusiasm and for Michael Meredith unlocking the recesses of the Eton machine. Dr Jeremy Warren FSA The feedback I’ve received from delegates is Society Trustees: that everyone had a great weekend and that Stephen Holden this was, as several said, our best conference Jeffrey Manley (USA) yet. David Ball who is organising the 2015 Dr Keith C Marshall (Hon. Secretary) conference has a lot to live up to! Dr Derek WJ Miles (Hon. Treasurer) Hot on the heels of the conference came the Harry Mount AGM on 19 October with the usual good Paul Nutley (Chairman) turnout of members. Unfortunately several Tony Robinson of our Trustees were missing – some due to Prof. John Roe illness; others because the trains picked that Elwin Taylor (Switzerland) day to stop running. Nonetheless all the required business was done; Patric Dickinson Membership & Merchandise Officer: was confirmed as a Vice-President for Dr Keith C Marshall another 5 years; and we welcome Harry Newsletter & Journal Editor: Mount (AP’s great-nephew) as a Trustee. Stephen Holden AGM minutes in the next Newsletter. Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall After the business part of the AGM we heard a very interesting talk from the Powells’ All correspondence should be sent to: grand-daughter, Georgia Powell (aided and Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society abetted by Harry Mount), on the life and the 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford work of Lady Violet. This highlighted both UB6 0JW, UK Lady Violet’s encyclopaedic memory – so Phone: +44 (0) 20 8864 4095 important to AP in writing Dance – and her Fax: +44 (0) 20 8020 1483 stature as a writer in her own right. Email: [email protected] By the time you read this the Annual Lecture and Powell Birthday celebrations will be Cover photograph © John S Monagan 1984 and reproduced by kind permission. upon us! Following which it remains only © The Anthony Powell Society, 2013. All rights reserved. for me to wish everyone best wishes for Published by The Anthony Powell Society. Christmas and the New Year. ■ Printed and distributed by Lonsdale Direct Solutions, Wellingborough, UK. 2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Seventh Anthony Powell Society Conference Eton College, Friday 27 & Saturday 28 September By Clemence Schultze

We knew we were back at school as Keith Peter Berthoud (self-described as ‘a Marshall tapped the gavel and told us London obsessive’ who was unavoidably sternly not to sit at the back. It was a absent due to serious illness) provided an science lecture auditorium – at least, so abundance of images of London in AP’s suggested the sinks and gas taps on the time which were presented by Keith podium’s bench – but the luxuriously Marshall. These reminded us how much upholstered seats befitted a comfortable the city has changed, not only through the studio theatre. Keith thanked Eton College losses of war but from redevelopment, and Michael Meredith, the Derek Hill population shifts, increasing wealth, traffic Foundation, and the Trustees of the and tourism. Most evocative were a Anthony Powell Society for supporting shabby secondhand shop in Charlotte this, the seventh conference. Street – one of a kind that simply no longer exists – and the actual coffee stall at Michael Meredith mused on AP as an Old Hyde Park Corner. Etonian. The writer was interested in the differences between OEs, and presents no Next came a new-old publication: Bernard stereotypical Etonians. He was also Stacey had ventured to think himself into concerned for the continuing history of the persona of X Trapnel and to ‘distil the alumni, as recorded in the school’s essence of Maida Vale canal water into a published register. Thanks to his ‘charm book’ [review, page 25]. Bernard sketched offensive’, 500 years’ worth of what we know of the writer’s life and computerised records will soon go online, career, and pointed out the appositeness of free to all for genealogical and historical his novel’s title to Dadaism, particularly researches. Patric Dickinson then the string collages of Picabia, evoked on welcomed us to the second Society the cover. There was a rush to buy copies conference to be held at Eton. of the work – and some lucky members acquired one of the few adorned by X’s In his keynote address, DJ Taylor very own signature. considered the literary politics of the 1930s, with its ideological divide between The evening reception was a delight: the Left-inclined and the lingering 1920s pianist and radio presenter Paul Guinery aesthetes, and asked where AP had stood. took us from Ted Jeavons’ wartime tunes Taste predominated over politics in via the Huntercombes’ ball to the song forming AP’s views: he might be described Sergeant Gwilt sang to Maureen: ‘Arm in (like TS Eliot) as a right-wing modernist, Arm – Just You and Me’. Some melodies and he combined an interest in Bohemia hovered at the fringes of memory; others with living a perfectly normal life. The were completely new to us. His wonderful books well reflect contemporary attitudes, playing and voice (which, with needless ranging from Quiggin’s fellow-travelling, modesty, he compared to Max Pilgrim’s via St John Clarke’s Hugh Walpole-ish ‘tremulous quavering’) presented many keeping up, to Hugo Tolland, who wished lost gems: ‘If you’re Going to Piccadilly, he had lived in the 1920s. Billy, pick a Nice Little One for Me’. He 3 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 elucidated some puzzling allusions: ‘Molly which Dance is composed. AP’s style, the Marchioness’ comes from the 1902 narrative voice and perspective are all musical ‘A Country Girl’, and a revue by transformed from the manner of his André Charlot at the end of World War I prewar modernist works. Sentences provided ‘Buzz Buzz’ – thus appropriately become long and clausular; only Nick is to be heard on the ‘Braddock alias Thorne’ allowed inner musings. Gossip is at the walk. The occasion was enhanced by the heart of the work, and claims to insight setting: the Election Hall with its beamed rely only on what characters say. The ceiling and huge bird’s-eye-view painting multiple perspectives entail an historical of Venice. And among the portraits of and all-embracing view of the present. Eton notables in the corridor hung one by ‘Dance is a thoroughly modern novel, Colin Spencer of AP. albeit one with a pre-Enlightenment world view’. Saturday’s first session was entitled ‘Aspects of Dance’. Constantine Sandis The second keynote speech was given by addressed manifestations of philosophy of Patric Dickinson on Varda, a woman well action in the work. In a paper which described as ‘strife-torn and causing touched briefly on writers from Homer to strife’. It is impossible to summarise all Wesley to Nietzsche, he identified that Patric has discovered about Dorothy Chaucer’s poetics of suffering as the Farrer Stewart: we await his account of his opposing pole to Spenser’s of action. In researches. A woman of striking beauty, the novel Widmerpool represents the will, actress, dancer, mannequin (for Chanel, no with Nick as the figure of passivity and less), she had aspirations as a writer and patiency. translator, and her High Holborn bookshop was a venue for the avant garde in the late Robin Bynoe used painting to illustrate the 1920s. Her three marriages were all meaning of naturalism: Frith’s ‘Derby troubled, and she died of an overdose. Day’, teeming with detail and ostensibly a Often mentioned in memoirs of the period, representation of an actual event, is in fact and appearing too in fiction, she just as selective and suggestive as a work nevertheless remains elusive: comments of by Manet or Renoir. He proposed that, ‘peevish’ and ‘dissatisfied’ suggest the unlike Thackeray and Trollope, AP just did difficulties of her personality; her wit, not ‘get’ business, and was unable to charm and funniness are harder to convey. represent it. Instead, he drew on specific AP’s allusions to her in his memoirs are details (the very small and specialised area discreet, but surviving letters reveal that of non-ferrous metal dealing) to evoke the Varda was the keener of the two on a business activities – and the power – of Sir relationship and perhaps wished to marry Magnus Donners and his associates. him. While this lack of verisimilitude regarding Donners Brebner was a blemish on the Lord Gowrie’s celebratory address began work, it was scarcely a serious one. with what he termed ‘the best depiction of Eton in literature’. He stressed the During World War II, AP was engaged on ‘counter-Brideshead-ism’ of the portrayal John Aubrey and his Friends. Ivan Hutnik of school and university, especially the regarded this as pivotal in his development eternities of boredom and melancholy to as a novelist. Aubrey’s sceptical and yet be endured: no Arcadia here, as Grey engaged presence affected the mode in Gowrie himself experienced in 1955. A 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 couple of years later, he met AP for the first time, and thereafter had a standing order at his bookseller for the novels of just two authors: AP and Ian Fleming. He recalled the incongruity of AP’s ‘huntin’, shootin’, fishin’’ mode of speech when applied to books: ‘Extraordinary thing, that feller Turgenev ...’ Dance, for him, is ‘suffused with poetry’, and the work repays many re-readings. It was his own regret that AP’s papers had gone to the British Library instead of Eton College Library; it was his hope that AP’s status as Eton College Science Schools one of Eton’s two great twentieth-century venue for the 2013 conference. writers would be celebrated by a statue at Photo: Jeanne Reed the College. that nineteenth-century officer class which In a session on ‘Powell’s People’, Jeff fascinated AP both in life and literature, Manley offered multiple perspectives on and certainly contributed to the portrait of Eton from the writings of John Heygate Kuno in the novel. The introduction to an and Henry Green, as well as the little- area influenced (but not dominated) by known Julian Henry Hall (The Senior Russian culture was one element in AP’s Commoner, 1933). He pointed out the complex awareness of Russia. differences in treatment of the school in From Baltic to Pacific: the final paper, by AP’s essay ‘The Wat’ry Glade’ (1934, Frank Peterson, sketched the Powells’ reprinted 1984) compared with Infants. 1937 visit to Hollywood. A career as a Overall, Heygate emerged as a complex scriptwriter did not eventuate, which AP character who deserves more attention. attributed to his own lack of histrionic Winston Churchill is not perhaps exactly a ability in putting over a proposal; another Widmerpudlian politician but Nick Birns factor (mentioned by John Powell in the made out a case for similarities in the question session) was the death of AP’s opportunism of the two careers, one of the agent. But some cocktails were drunk and Right, the other of the Left. He saw more some parties were visited in ‘a special two resemblance between Churchill and AP months’. (both British patriots, both unparochial, Patric Dickinson closed the proceedings, both celebrating the USA), though and Michael Meredith showed us the admitting that they differed in age, impressive Eton College Library, where he celebrity and style. For him, AP’s roman had mounted a Powell-related display. fleuve and Churchill’s war narrative The day concluded with an excellent sequence are ‘liberal epics’. dinner at Bekynton – all the meals and Jonathan Black demonstrated how refreshments were most enjoyable. Venusberg is a composite of Helsingfors This guest has nothing but praise for an and Reval, visited by AP as a young man. occasion where surroundings, company Finnish hero Baron Mannerheim and content combined to make a feast impressed as an authentic representative of indeed. ■ 5 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Fellow Travellers: Anthony Powell and Patrick Leigh Fermor By Jeffrey Manley

With the posthumous publication earlier this year of the third and final volume of the narrative of his walk from Hook of Holland to Constantinople, the career of Patrick Leigh Fermor and with it the generation of writers to which he and Anthony Powell belonged has come to a close. [Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Constantinople, John Murray, London, 12 September 2013, £25; New York Review Books Classics, New York, 4 March, 2014, $30] Leigh Fermor was born in 1915, ten years after Powell. But he associated himself with and wrote in the tradition of the writers of Powell’s generation such as Sacheverell Sitwell, Robert Byron, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh who turned their foreign travels into books Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor intended both to amuse and inform their readers. 2010/06/10/the-travellers-club-c-r-cockerell-and- a-tale-of-two-foxes/] Powell did not write travel narratives as such, but he did use his foreign travels to My War-time brother-in-arms, Xan provide material for his 1930s novels such Fielding, and I were put up for the as A&P, Venusberg and WBW. Although Club when we were in our twenties. there’s no record that Powell reviewed any Arthur EE Reade, our sponsor, was of Leigh Fermor’s books, he would have rather older, and a member of long been aware of them. They would have standing when the candidature was known each other as members of the set in motion on 1942. We were all Travelers’ Club (which Leigh Fermor three at the time SOE captains joined at the end of the war). dressed up as shepherds, deep in ash and lice, huddling cross-legged over Leigh Fermor recounted the history of his the embers and under the stalactites membership application in 2004 when the th of a cave in German-occupied Crete. club held an event celebrating the 60 Arthur sealed the envelope putting us anniversary of his joining. up. Obviously it would take some [More Tales from the Travellers, “In the Library time before it could be handed to the of the Travellers Club”, 2005; reproduced at next caique or submarine, longer still http://patrickleighfermor.wordpress.com/ to reach Pall Mall. To the south of us, on the other side of the

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Mediterranean, Rommel was that formed the basis for the three-volume hastening on to El Alamein. Our memoir that was just completed. After candidature might take a while … reaching his destination, he drifted around Arriving back to be demobbed at the Greece, Romania and England, spending end of our war, I made a bee-line for most of his time with Balasha Pall Mall. (Xan Fielding and I were Cantecuzene, a Romanian aristocrat 16 members now – Arthur Reade’s letter, years his senior whom he had met in three years in transit, had worked.) I Athens. He was in Romania with her dashed upstairs, barely touching when the war started, and he returned to Talleyrand’s ramp, and into the England immediately to sign up. Library, to gaze up at the battling When he lost a position in the Brigade of Amazons and Greeks and Lapiths and Guards due to a prolonged illness, he was centaurs that girdle this marvelous accepted in the less prestigious room. It was a great moment. Intelligence Corps on the strength of his As is explained in his recent biography knowledge of foreign languages. He was [219], Leigh Fermor’s relations with the sent to Crete after the British withdrawal club could be a bit rocky. For instance, to organize the activities of Cretan during the period after the war when he resistance fighters. He conceived and was moving around constantly, Leigh participated in a successful plan to kidnap Fermor at some point stored his a German General and take him to Egypt. belongings at the club, running up unpaid After the war Leigh Fermor hung about in charges of £100. How the matter was London, also working for a time with the resolved is not recorded. This is from the British Council in Athens but not fitting in recently published biography by Artemis very well to a desk job. He got his start as Cooper. Although written with Leigh a writer through a Greek friend who was Fermor’s authorization, Cooper doesn’t commissioned to write a photo book about hesitate to indicate where she may be in the Caribbean. Leigh Fermor was signed disagreement with her subject’s version of on to write the text. He had in the things. meantime found himself a lover in the [Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure, John person of Joan Rayner (née Eyre Monsell), Murray, London, 2012, £25 (h/b), £9.99 (p/b); later his wife, who shared his interest in New York Review Books, New York, 15 October travels and accompanied him on the trip to 2013, $30] the Caribbean to collect material for the Leigh Fermor’s education was somewhat book. When the commissioning publisher haphazard, with his parents in India much went bust, Leigh Fermor took it to John of the time. He never finished school, Murray. They accepted it and published after being expelled from King’s the rest of Leigh Fermor’s work up to and Canterbury for holding hands with a local including the final volume of his trip greengrocer’s daughter. In lieu of further memoir. schooling or university, he was allowed to make the trek to Constantinople in 1933- One thing Leigh Fermor learned from his 35. He received an allowance of £1 per travels in the 1930s was how to charm owners of country houses (mainly in week, payable monthly poste restante. It Austria, Hungary and Romania) where he was his diaries and memory of that trip was seeking accommodation. One 7 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Powell would probably have considered him a social climber in the same category as Rex Whistler, Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, Cecil Beaton and Adrian Daintry [J82-86, 199-209]. According to Powell, these artists all used their talents to attract the attention of, and gain recognition from, persons of a higher social rank than themselves. Leigh Fermor’s father was in the Indian civil service and his mother’s family derived its livelihood from quarries north of Calcutta. He probably acquired some degree of social ambition from his mother, but he doesn’t seem to have been a snob. He cultivated friendships with Sacheverell Sitwell, Deborah Devonshire, Ann Fleming, Diana Cooper and others of what Powell sometimes described as the beau monde. But he was equally keen to aristocratic owner would give him maintain his friendships with the Cretan references to other friends and relatives peasants with whom he had fought in the down the line. He quickly learned how to war and often went out of his way to do use these introductions to make himself favors for them even when that might have welcome. His biography makes clear that been inconvenient. He became a member his charm was not exclusively displayed in of White’s Club in 1965 (proposed by country houses. Wherever he was, Andrew Devonshire and Michael Astor) as whether a country house or hostel, he well as Pratt’s and the Beefsteak, while sought out other people. If a party was not maintaining his membership in the under way, he would start one with the Travellers. resources at hand. Nor was he ever at a loss for sung or spoken words so long as Powell doesn’t mention Leigh Fermor in there was an audience. He could break his memoirs but does describe an into song or poem in several languages – encounter with him in the Journals. This some from obscure Balkan tribes; could was at a London party given by recite poetry from his prodigious memory Evangeline Bruce that the Powells – once notably finishing a Horatian Ode attended. Also present were Nicholas begun by the kidnapped German General; Henderson and Peter Quennell who got and endlessly spin yarns based on his into an argument about what it took for a extensive travels or readings. His person to “make something” of himself: biographer also explains that sometimes he That roused Peter, who poured went on too long or too far, as when he contempt on such an ambitious mimicked a stutterer as a guest of concept. What does it mean? He Somerset Maugham and was told by his glanced around the table: “Of course host, also a notorious stutterer, to leave the a retired Ambassador [Henderson] … premises.

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a famous novelist [Powell] …’ His was based on actual memory of events eyes reached Paddy. Definition then over 50 years distant. The understandably eluded him, Paddy experienced interviewer, Melvyn Bragg, being in any case quieter than usual went right to that point: … When this difference of opinion as ‘One is struck again by detail to the Meaning of Life subsided, remembered thirty or forty [sic] years Paddy and Peter deplored to each before. However extensive your other the sort of people becoming notes, you can’t have remembered members of White’s Club these days. everything …’ I was glad to have lived to hear this ‘Yes’, said Paddy. conversation, wonderful Max This was not a helpful answer, so Beerbohm Young Self and Old Self, Bragg suggested that in the course of Quennell Cartoon, which would the long walk, books and solitude had certainly have included the ghosts of built up the ‘muscles’ of his memory. former White’s members Evelyn Gratefully clutching at the straw, Waugh and Cyril Connolly in the Paddy replied, ‘Do you know, I’ve background as deceased bohemians never thought of it – I think perhaps who had also made the White’s Club they might have – I hope so’. grade. [J82-86, 156] Then he described the deliberate act On another occasion, Powell’s son of remembering in terms of an old Tristram told him that David Cheshire and and dusty mosaic, that cannot be seen Melvyn Bragg were doing a TV film about until water is poured over it … Leigh Fermor to which Powell responded, ‘And then one can corroborate it with “That should produce a good clash of all sorts of other things like a few old egos” [J87-89, 98]. He certainly got that letters, you know, one’s old diaries right. come in handy, a few things scribbled Powell’s reference is probably to the South Bank Show segment that is described in Leigh-Fermor’s biography. (Powell’s Journal entry about the discussion with his son is dated 10 April 1988. The South Bank Show programme was transmitted on 22 January 1989.) His biographer mentions that this documentary was commissioned after publication of volume two of Leigh Fermor’s book about his walk to Constantinople, Between the Woods and the Water. She describes this period as “the peak of his fame”. The crew went out to Leigh Fermor’s villa in Kardamyli, Greece to film an interview. Leigh Fermor was usually nervous about being interviewed because he didn’t like being asked how much of what he wrote

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down which one couldn’t really put adventure and are, on the whole, up to the into place …’ [Cooper, 376-77] standards of the first two books. Bragg then went on to another touchy However disappointing minor bits of the topic – the question of how Leigh Fermor last volume may be, its publication is a was getting on with volume three. Leigh welcome event for Leigh Fermor’s readers. Fermor admitted that the success of the It will relieve their anxiety that they might first two was making him “a bit nervy” never know how the story ended. Sadly, it about the third. But that was an is now clear from his biography that its understatement. As his biographer publication was delayed unnecessarily for describes it, Leigh Fermor never seriously 25 years. These pages were already in got down to any sustained work on volume existence when the first volumes were three. What has been published now is in published, and publication was delayed fact something that he wrote in 1963 that only to provide Leigh Fermor with the started out as an article for Holiday opportunity to improve them magazine. As it turns out, it’s not as bad systematically. His biographer makes it as its editors suggest, although it is clear that this was never going to happen.■ different from the earlier volumes. It deals mainly with his travels through Bulgaria where he doesn’t have introductions to aristocrats in their country houses. Instead, he makes contacts with students ‘Cohabitation with antipathetic and British expats and diplomats who put beings is torment,’ said Dr him up. He also detours through Romania Trelawney. ‘Has that never struck to visit Bucharest where he does have the you, my dear friend?’ usual introductions, affording him ‘Time and again,’ said Duport, opportunities, at least for a few weeks, similar to those enjoyed in his glory days laughing loudly. ‘Perfect hell. I’ve in Budapest and Transylvania described in done quite a bit of it in my day. volume two. Would you like to hear some of my experiences?’ The last portion of the book is largely taken up with his visit to Mount Athos ‘Why should we wish to ruminate on after he left Constantinople. This section your most secret orgies?’ said Dr was apparently taken directly from his Trelawney. ‘What profit for us to diary and could have used some revision. muse on your nights in the lupanar, For example, clichés uncharacteristically your diabolical couplings with the creep in which would certainly not have brides of debauch, more culpable escaped Leigh Fermor’s critical editorial than those phantasms of the incubi eye. Moreover, unlike his long walk to that rack the dreams of young girls, Constantinople, the trek around Mount or the libidinous gymnastics of the Athos (where walking and donkeys are the goat-god whose ice-cold sperm only form of transportation) has been fathers monsters on writhing witches written of dozens of times before. The in coven?’ portions about Bulgaria and the Bucharest section, however, describe a unique The Kindly Ones

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Cheltenham Festival Report By Allan Lloyd On Friday 11 October the Cheltenham Literary Festival included a panel discussion about Dance, chaired by Society Vice-President, Patric Dickinson. Our Special Correspondent was there.

I was lucky enough to attend the talk on Taylor and Spurling were less than Dance at Cheltenham last week and have enthusiastic at first. Hilary Spurling said been patiently waiting for some comment that she read the first few pages of A [on the APLIST] from someone with more Question of Upbringing and gave up, not literary ability than I have, but as none understanding why anyone would want to seems to be appearing I thought that I read about unpleasant Eton boys, and would give my impressions of the Taylor was put off by Powell’s prose discussion. I am counting on a fairly which he first considered “clotted” but unreliable memory, so quotes are only later learned to love. Spurling’s first real approximate, but I wanted to give a report reading was Casanova’s Chinese of a very enjoyable hour of talk about Restaurant and she worked her way back Powell. from there. The day did not start well, with the start Hilary Spurling is writing a biography of delayed for 15 minutes because the Powell, which she understandably did not historian Richard Davenport-Hines was want to talk about, but I found her entangled in the train system between relationship with Powell fascinating. She Gloucester and Cheltenham, but we did first met him when she was a young have “time added” at the end to journalist working for the Spectator and a compensate. The panel were Hilary friendship developed from there. She said Spurling, DJ Taylor and Richard that he actually bullied her into writing her Davenport-Hines (Tariq Ali had been “Dance Companion”, and she absolutely announced but had to withdraw), chaired hated it. It almost destroyed her love of by the Anthony Powell Society’s Patric his work, because the area that she was Dickinson. I felt the panel was a little most interested in was the plotting and the unbalanced, with Taylor and Spurling complex development of the books and the having an obvious rapport, while concentration on the more obscure Davenport-Hines was not a natural speaker characters was not really her interest. and tended to lead the discussion into When she had finished Powell remarked to some very obscure areas. He spent some her that it would have saved him so much time comparing Powell to an 18th century time if she had written it before he wrote Italian writer whose name I failed to catch, the books. who seemed to me to have very marginal This brought up the question of how much connection to Powell. Powell re-read the previous books when Patric started the talks with asking each working on the series. Spurling gave a panellist about the first encounter with fascinating picture of how Powell worked. Powell’s work. I was surprised that both He had a very uncomfortable small folding

11 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 chair and table in one of the bedrooms at them. I wonder how early in the series he the Chantry, and a stack of all the previous did this? books on the floor. As work (and the Spurling then made what I thought was the series) progressed the books grew best remark of the afternoon. She said that increasingly tatty, and he had an we all know authors who started writing arrangement with his publisher to replace and did not build a big enough drawer, but the whole stack when they became kept using it. unusable. I wonder what happened to those tatty old books, possibly with hand- There were questions at the end, including written notes? a particularly dumb one. “I’m a busy man. I haven’t read any of the books and don’t Another interesting talking point was how have time to read all twelve. Which one much of the plot was done at the beginning should I read?”. This was dealt with very of the series, such as Stringham’s remark tactfully and no-one asked why he was about Widmerpool “being the death of me” there. foreshadowing his actual death. Spurling said that Powell had told her that the secret I had a very enjoyable afternoon, very of the development of the plot was to build capably chaired by Patric, who gave a a sufficiently deep drawer full of mention of the Anthony Powell Society at characters and incidents, into which you the end, a membership of which I am could keep dipping. I know he was hoping for this Christmas. On the way speaking metaphorically, but what a back to the car park I followed a group of wonderful picture this conjures up of three people discussing Proust and why Powell putting his hand into the drawer they hadn’t read him, which was an and pulling out Widmerpool and Pamela, unusual bonus to the day. ■ and having to work out a way to connect

Dorney Church, visited as part of the conference tour of Dorney Court. Photo: Keith Marshall 12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings – 7 The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell Book blogger Karen Langley has set herself the task of reading a book of Dance a month during 2013 and to write about the experience volume by volume on her weblog. Here are her reviews of volumes six and seven of Dance.

Well, I’m relieved to say that I did manage During this first chapter, we meet the to get my June Powell read before the end rather wonderful religious quack Dr of the month, although the review is a little Trelawney and his followers, and he will late – life getting in the way of blogging recur throughout the book. The second again! However, this was a thoroughly chapter jumps forward to 1938 where we enjoyable, entertaining and involving read meet once again Moreland and his wife so though late, very welcome! Matilda, now living in the country near Stourwater, Sir Magnus Donners’ country The Kindly Ones is about the coming of place. Nick goes for a visit to the war, and Powell wrong-foots us instantly Morelands and they are taken off for by whisking us back to a time before the dinner at Stourwater, bizarrely being first book in the series A Question of chauffeured by Templer. The night at Upbringing, to his life as a boy, living in a Donner’s mansion is also bizarre, ending country house called Stonehurst. Once up with the somewhat risqué-sounding we’ve re-adjusted to the new setting Seven Deadly Sins tableaux. Bearing in (getting into a Powell book is never mind the constant hints about Donner’s entirely straightforward!), we meet a whole dodgy private life I guess we should not be new set of characters from Nick’s surprised, but this is all too much for childhood – his parents, nurse and various Templer’s highly strung second wife who very entertaining servants including the also has a bit of a nervous breakdown – soldier Bracey, cook Albert and maid nerves being something of a recurring Billson. This eternal triangle provides one theme here. of the funniest sections of the series so far, when poor Billson has a nervous We then move on to 1939 and one of the breakdown and appears naked at dinner. main regular characters in the sequence so General Conyers, making an appearance in far, Uncle Giles, makes his final bow. younger form, rescues the situation Although Nick claims not to have been admirably but things are destined to close to his uncle, Giles turned up on a change as on the same day news reaches regular basis, and it is rather sad to see him Stonehurst of the assassination of Franz go. Poor Nick has to travel off to the Ferdinand and the First World War is seaside, where his departed relative has signalled. The title, incidentally, refers to a been staying in a seedy hotel nickname given to The Furies, presumably coincidentally run by Albert, the ex-cook. in attempt to placate them! Here he re-encounters Dr Trelawney and Mrs Erdleigh – the constant, wonderful, One of the worst things about life is unexpected juxtapositions of characters are not how nasty the nasty people are. just fabulous! Nick also runs into Bob You know that already. It is how Duport, who was married to his first love nasty the nice people can be.

13 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 Jean Templer, and there are a number of of WWI it might be thought that he would painful and surprising revelations. be keen to avoid military action, particularly with Isobel expecting a baby, One passes through the world but not so. Powell is fair enough to knowing few, if any, of the important acknowledge that there is an opposing things about even the people with view, allowing a memorable appearance whom one has been from time to time by Gypsy Jones, campaigning against in the closest intimacy. mobilisation; but his terminology when By the final chapter war has arrived, describing the protestors makes it clear although it has not yet brought chaos, where his loyalties lie. more a strange kind of calm. Nick is Of course, this wouldn’t be a Dance novel knocking about a somewhat deserted without Widmerpool. And it’s fascinating London, trying to gain access to the army to note how as the series develops the as an officer, and tries to enlist reader is able to look back over the Widmerpool’s help (to no avail). Our characters whom Powell has portrayed so Kenneth has become even more consistently, and see how early insufferable and pompous – he was characteristics (such as Widmerpool’s obviously made for army life and is really driven nature) develop as humans come to becoming more and more unbearable as maturity. Kenneth is obviously a man who the books go on! But we are soon steered will flourish during the conflict. We see back to familiar territory, at Lady Molly’s, much of Moreland and Matilda, and also where a number of characters reappear, the wonderful Erridge! there are more revelations and Ted Jeavons’ brother proves to be of great help Erridge, a rebel whose life had been to Nick. exasperatingly lacking in persecution, had enjoyed independence of parental This volume in the Dance series really control, plenty of money, assured shows an author who has complete social position, early in life. Since mastery of his material. The strand and leaving school he had been deprived complexities of everyday life are reflected of all the typical grudges within the here, with some characters making just grasp of most young men. Some of cameo appearances (Quiggin and co), these grudges, it was true, he had while others dominate the story. I was later developed with fair success by really pleased to see something of Nick’s artificial means, grudges being, in a childhood and family, and some of the measure, part and parcel of his sequences in this chapter were a hoot – political approach. particularly the appearances of Dr Trelawney (as well as his later Powell is as always concerned with chance manifestations in the novel!) and destiny and the Dance. It is an apparently random meeting with Jeavons’ This is a very atmospheric book – almost brother which will enable Nick to finally elegiac in places – as Jenkins and his circle get into the army. Powell’s feeling is that face up to the forthcoming fighting. The there is an external fate which always two pre-war periods are contrasted in the takes a hand in life; and I often feel these early and later parts of the story, and I books should be subtitled “the-seemingly- found it very surprising that Nick was so random-but-actually-not-random-at-all keen to enlist. Having seen the aftermath

14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 memoirs of Nick Jenkins”! This volume was one of the most moving and entertaining of the series so far, peopled with wonderful characters and marvellous writing – I can’t wait for the next, although I fear there may be sadness ahead. First published at http:// kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/0 7/04/recent-reads-the-kindly-ones-by-anthony- powell/ on 4 July 2013 and reprinted with kind permission. ■

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings – 8 The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell

And so to July’s Anthony Powell – The exercises going wrong. Gwatkin proves to Valley of Bones, book 7 in the Dance to the be very erratic, and prone to take out his Music of Time sequence, and the first failures on others. volume in my collection titled “Autumn”. Romantic ideas about the way life is It’s perhaps a little scary to realise that lived are often to be found in persons Nick is being considered in the autumn of themselves fairly coarse-grained. his life while still so young, but I suppose This was to some extent true of we need to remind ourselves that life Gwatkin. His coarseness of texture expectation has changed somewhat! Or took the form of having to find a maybe it is just the autumn section of the scapegoat after he himself had been stories – whatever! in trouble. I’ve now begun to expect that the start of Before long, Nick becomes the scapegoat any new Powell will throw me straight in on one the troop’s first military exercises, at the deep end, into an unfamiliar although Gwatkin tries to make it up later. situation with a set of new characters. However, the beginning of VB does this Nick is then shipped off from Wales to with a vengeance, as Nick is in the army Aldershot to some kind of pointless- and posted to a regiment who it quickly sounding training course where he becomes clear are Welsh! The first two befriends David Pennistone (whom he had chapters are darkly humorous as we meet run into a long time ago at a party). And Nick’s CO, Gwatkin, prone to quite then, after the two excellent chapters of dramatic mood swings, plus a number of Nick in the army, Powell hits us with a other officers and ordinary soldiers. There cracker of a chapter with the weekend is also Bithel, whose (false) reputation gathering from hell as our hero visits his precedes him and who turns out to be a bit sister-in-law’s, where Isobel his wife is of a strange alcoholic. The regiment get staying. He’s met with old faces, new shipped off to Ireland and there is much faces, characters we’ve only heard fumbling about with orders and military mentioned before, sworn enemies, sexual

15 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 undertones – it really has it all and ends I have to say that I did find myself having with Nick having to go back to camp while recourse to Wikipedia at times, though, to Isobel faces labour! sort out some of the more complex military ranks! Back in Ireland, Gwatkin is going to pieces, having fallen in love with a local The writing is superb as always, and barmaid, and drifting off into dreams at Powell’s normally labyrinthine sentences inappropriate moments. Things continue are often reduced to shorter, almost to crumble in the regiment until Gwatkin is staccato phrases in places, reflecting the replaced and Nick is hauled off to HQ to change in the world around him and the meet the DAAG (Deputy Assistant necessity for often quick-fire decisions and Adjutant General apparently!) who turns actions. In particular, he shows a genius out to be an old friend. for reproducing dialect, and the lilting, sing-song intonations of the Welsh This is quite a switch in style and material language are beautifully reflected in the for Powell, as we are dealing with war speech of the soldiers. which is obviously a serious matter. However, this doesn’t stop him taking his Now, see it you must, Gareth … In usual humorous look at things and I did time of peace, in the mine, you are find myself laughing out loud at several above me, Gareth, and above points. He is particularly good on pointing Sergeant Pendry. Here, that is not. out the boringness and futility of much of No longer is it the mine. army life, and this is evident from the Having visited Wales almost annually for beginning when it is revealed that many of many years, I can testify to the accuracy! the men in charge in the regiment were once bankers – obviously a profession that An interesting underlying theme in VB was well prepared them for fighting! (ahem!). the effect of the war and army life on He also captures brilliantly the gulf relationships between men and women, between the remote, somewhat dippy and also the changing attitudes of women. officers and the lower ranks of the From early on, it seems that it is OK for soldiers, particularly in the sequence soldiers, even married ones, to lust after, where the General makes a spot inspection and liaise with, any women they come and seems more concerned about the across; but when Sgt Pendry’s wife is troops’ breakfast habits than anything else: reported to be having an affair he falls to pieces, and has to go home to try to sort The General stood in silence, as if in things out. So should she wait faithfully at great distress of mind, holding his home while the soldiers take their chances long staff at arm’s length from him, with local girls where they can? Powell’s while he ground it deep into the (and his characters’) attitude to women are earthy surface of the barnhouse floor. ambivalent – some of the soldiers seem He appeared to be trying to happy with a quick shag under a hedge, contemplate as objectively as possible others envisage much more noble affairs the concept of being so totally and Nick in places seems to defend the excluded from the human family as to fact that women are being just as dislike porridge. promiscuous as men – he is slightly more open-minded than many of his colleagues.

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The War caused a large shift in attitudes to from Nick’s former life and contacts; and women, and indeed of women’s in fact, Isobel does have her baby although expectations, and this is reflected a little remotely, at a distance, which is how here, though is to be found much more in Powell deals with Nick’s marriage! He women’s writing of the period (many of brilliantly captures the boredom and the reprinted Persephone books come to banality of the army and as Nick says: mind). A French writer who’d been a regular But always in the background is the officer said the whole point of knowledge that War is a matter of life and soldiering was its bloody boring side. death. There are casualties here – Sgt The glamour, such as it was, was just Pendry is one of them, although not a bit of exceptional luck if it came through seeing action, and Nick loses a your way. family member, albeit a remote one. We I’m simultaneously looking forward to and are aware that there are likely to be more. dreading the next book, as I’m not sure The potential biographies of those what the DAAG has in store for Nick, and who die young possess the mystical I am afraid that there will be more dignity of a headless statue, the casualties. poetry of enigmatic passages in an (NB – Yes, the appalling Widmerpool does unfinished or mutilated manuscript, make a fleeting appearance – but I’m not unburdened with contrived or banal saying where!) ending. First published at http:// Once again, this is a marvellous piece of kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/0 writing by Powell. Although much of the 7/31/recent-reads-the-valley-of-bones-by-anthony book takes place in camps around the -powell/ on 31 July 2013 and reprinted with kind country, we are not completely cut off permission. ■

Conference delegates gather outside Dorney Court on Sunday 30 September. Photo: Keith Marshall 17 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Dates for Your Diary

Anthony Powell Lecture London Group in collaboration with Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch The Wallace Collection Saturday 7 December 2013 1200 for 1230 hrs Anthony Powell Da Corradi and Sculpture 20-22 Shepherd Market, London W1 to be given by Join us at a small, friendly Italian restaurant which is just round the corner Alastair Laing from Powell’s 1920s lodgings. The Wallace Collection Afterwards visit the boutiques of Manchester Square, London W1 Shepherd Market or Heywood Hill bookshop for those Christmas presents. Friday 6 December 2013 This is a pay on the day event, but please 1830 hrs book with the Hon. Secretary so we Tickets £14 ensure we have a large enough table! includes a glass of wine Non-members will be welcome. ■ following the lecture Tickets from the Hon. Secretary New York & NE USA Group on 020 8864 4095 Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch [email protected] Friday 13 December 2013 or the usual address on page 2 Details from Ed Bock, [email protected] Art historian Alastair Laing recently retired as Curator of Pictures & Sculpture at the National Trust, having for almost 27 years looked after the many works of art in the Secretary’s New Year Brunch Trust’s care. He was responsible for Saturday 18 January 2014 organising the 1995 centenary exhibition In 1000 to 1200 hrs Trust for the Nation at the National Gallery. His particular interest is François Da Corradi Boucher, exhibitions of whose work he 20-22 Shepherd Market, London W1 helped mount in America and France. He is Want a late New Year celebration? Or currently preparing a catalogue raisonné of just something to enliven the dull days Boucher’s drawings. In his lecture he will take stock of Anthony Powell’s interest in of winter? Whichever it is why not join sculpture as revealed in the pages of Dance, the Hon. Secretary for Saturday brunch in his memoirs and in his writings on the just round the corner from Powell’s visual arts. 1920s lodgings. ****** This is a pay on the day event, but The Wallace’s restaurant will be open please book with the Hon. Secretary so following the lecture for those wishing to we ensure we have a large enough table. dine. Table booking on 020 7563 9505. ■ Non-members will be welcome. ■

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Dates for Your Diary OBITUARY Jean Rollason 1931-2013 London Quarterly Pub Meets It was with great sadness that we learnt Saturday 8 February 2014 of the sudden recent death of Jean Saturday 10 May 2014 Rollason. Many will remember both Saturday 9 August 2014 Jean and her late husband Bob as Saturday 1 November 2014 stalwart members of the Anthony The Audley Powell Society and attendees of its 41-43 Mount Street, London W1 AGMs, Conferences and Pub Meets over the years – indeed, Jean’s last full 1230 to 1530 hrs Saturday was enjoyably spent at the Good beer, good pub food and informal Society’s 2013 Conference in Eton with conversation in a Victorian pub AP her younger son John, also a member. would have known. Why not bring Jean and Bob made their home in the something AP-related to interest us? Chilterns, where they were great Non-members always welcome. supporters of the local community and Further details from the Hon. Secretary. much involved in campaigning for educational standards. Venice Study “Weekend” A keen student of the ancient world 9-11 October 2014 from her schooldays, when her teachers arranged lessons in ancient Greek At long last we are able to offer that specially for her, Jean read Classics at much requested Venice event. It will University of London, going on to teach include: the subject at Wycombe Abbey School. ♦ 2 nights (Thursday & Friday) bed & She never lost her great love of the breakfast accommodation at the Cini subject and like all good teachers she Foundation, where AP attended the was also a lifelong learner. conference which inspired TK (extra nights may be available) Her other enthusiasms included ♦ 3 or 4 speakers architecture, politics, travel and all ♦ Visit to the Tiepolo frescoes at Palazzo things French; but one of the greatest of Labia, inspiration for the Candaules & them was undoubtedly her tremendous Gyges ceiling love of books, especially English ♦ Visit to the Arsenale area literature. She was not only a ♦ Reception and dinner particularly avid reader of Anthony Powell but also of John Betjeman, and The group will be limited to 30. was a member of the Council of the Delegates will be responsible for Betjeman Society until her death. arranging their own travel to/from Jean will be much missed by a great Venice and any additional nights. many people, and our deepest Full details and pricing will be sympathies go to her children announced around Easter 2014 when Christopher, Jane and John and her booking will open. other family and friends. ■

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Society Notices

Welcome to New Members Local Group Contacts We would like to extend a warm London Group welcome to the following who have Area: London & SE England joined the Society in recent months: Contact: Keith Marshall Stuart Chamberlain, Oakham Email: [email protected] Andrew Clarke, Gordon, Australia New York & NE USA Group Gail Cleveland, Independence, USA Area: New York & NE USA Alfred Ellis, Shrewsbury Contacts: Nick Birns Susan Green, Stratford upon Avon Email: [email protected] John & Leela Hardy, London Great Lakes Group Charles Meeres, Norwich Area: Chicago area, USA Christopher Nelson, Tuscon, USA Contact: Joanne Edmonds Suzanne Posner, Plymouth Email: [email protected] Prof. Constantine Sandis, Oxford Nordic Group Jason White, Mamaroneck, USA ■ Area: Sweden & Finland Contact: Regina Rehbinder Email: [email protected] Toronto Group Area: Toronto, Canada Contact: Joan Williams Email: [email protected] Please contact the Hon. Secretary if you wish to make contact with a group and Subscriptions don’t have email. If you wish to start a Members are reminded that local group the Hon. Secretary can advise subscriptions are due annually on on the number of members in your area. ■ 1 April (for rates see back page). Reminders are sent during March to those whose membership is about to expire. Anyone whose membership is expired will be removed from the membership list at the end of June. Newsletter Copy Deadlines As we will be using email wherever Newsletter #54, Spring 2014 possible, please keep a look-out for Copy Deadline: 14 February 2014 emails from the Society. Publication Date: 7 March 2014 Subscriptions should be sent to the Newsletter #55, Summer 2014 Hon. Secretary, address on page 2. ■ Copy Deadline: 16 May 2014 Publication Date: 6 June 2014

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Postcards of NE W Anthony Powell’s NE W Ancestral Lands Thanks to member John Blaxter we now have four colour photographic postcards of the Powell ancestral lands in and around Radnorshire. The images are from the many delightful views John showed during his 2012 AGM talk Anthony Powell’s Ancestral Lands. Packs of four cards, with envelopes, are available through the Society shop (see page 35) at £2.50 (UK members), £3.50 (overseas members). Stock is limited, although if there is sufficient demand we may produce a second edition.

At the convenient age of twenty-one Philip Powell (1746-1819) became heir to his uncle or great-uncle by marriage, the Revd Philip Lewis, who left him Tyncoed (The House in the Wood) at Disserth, about twelve miles from Clyro, where it still stands in its clump of trees. The extent of the inheritance is hard to assess, but, in land deals transacted later on, a parcel of about eight or nine hundred acres changed hands, apparently about half the property. [Infants ]

From top to bottom: The Church of St Meillig, Llowes – looking towards the Powell corner of the churchyard. Crûgeryr: late afternoon in winter, looking west. The Church at St Cewydd, Disserth, Powys. Tyncoed (The House in the Wood) at Disserth. 21 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

BOOK REVIEW DJ Taylor The Windsor Faction Chatto & Windus, 2013, £14.99, 384pp Reviewed by Bernard Stacey

Do not be deceived. Whilst the title might characters rather than the overt drama of presage the latest Robert Ludlam or Len the latter. Deighton, The Windsor Faction is nothing We follow the fortunes of Cynthia, of the kind. For this is no thriller. DJ daughter of the solid middle class Taylor’s latest novel enters the intricate Kirkpatricks recently returned to England genre of alternate history. Neither should from Ceylon, who works at the newly one be intimidated by the sinister cover created literary magazine Duration, run by design of the swastika and eagle the wealthy and well-connected Peter dominating a murky silhouette of the Wildgoose; we meet Rodney, a seedy London skyline [UK edition – Ed.]. There young man (not unlike James Ross in are essential elements in this ‘what-if’ Taylor’s previous two novels) who Second World War tale that guides us ostensibly works in a Deaconesque antique through an alternate Sliding Doors reality shop but also runs mysterious errands for in which the inconvenient interloper and the American cypher clerk, Tyler Kent. In captor of Edward VIII’s heart, Wallis each of the three parts of the book we are Simpson, had – Diana-like – conveniently introduced to Beverley Nichols – a well- died before the outbreak of hostilities, connected homosexual journalist and leaving the now unabdicated anti-war king based on the real life figure – through his on the throne to help the process of incisive staccato diary entries as he is appeasement. enlisted to help the King write his Mr Taylor avoids the most obvious risk of Christmas speech – these entries being by such a tale – namely of having the new far the most compelling parts of the fictitious Establishment become a polar narrative. opposite – a violently pro-Nazi fascist There are several subplots that, it state – for this is no black-and-white, yes- transpires, seem to serve little purpose or-no relocation of the sands of history but other than to highlight a particular aspect more of a subtle journey through varying of a character. For instance, Rodney’s shades of grey. Emphases are delicately affair with the wife of the proprietor of the shifted, nuances of outlook gently nudge antique shop leads nowhere – indeed both the course of events along a parallel, but characters treat their liaisons with a not diametrically opposed, path. dismissive carelessness that suggests they Nonetheless, the subject is not a new one know it does not matter. Cynthia’s for literature or film alike: one is reminded Belgravia flatmate, Lucy, acquires no role a little of The Remains of the Day and, whatever for herself in the book’s events. more recently, the 2009 film Glorious 39, By contrast, Anthea, second cousin to the although this book has at its core more of Prime Minister and a sort of even more the former’s subdued interplay of the upmarket Tuffy Weedon, is constantly in

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and an attempt is made to steal a book listing all the supporters of the pro-peace and somewhat anti-Semitic Windsor Faction by the other. After this, the plot gears up towards its climax. The lacklustre Cynthia returns to the centre of proceedings and experiences her own personal phoney war in the midst of some action before events reach an unexpectedly explosive conclusion. It is however rather late in the book that this flurry of espionage-related activity rears its head and, although one is grateful that the seemingly directionless gatherings of different permutations of characters has crystallised into substance, this unexpected jolt from the narrative of the grey monotony of the early days of the war jars a little. Perhaps indeed that was Mr Taylor’s intent. Nevertheless, the concluding scenes, for all the build up, tend to feel more like an episode of a very attenuated Modesty Blaise trying to outwit evidence but ultimately appears to be there an exceptionally inept Bond villain and so for no other reason than to send Cynthia the denouement, when it comes, neither on her ill-fated mission towards the end. startles nor shocks. The story drifts from Ceylon to England At the same time as this finale comes the and into a cycle of country house parties, German assault on the Maginot Line and clubs and residences in London, and to the histories realigns themselves. We realise offices of Duration. It is however not until that our journey into speculation is over the King, aided and advised by Beverley and has lasted little more than six months Nichols and to the horror of his aides, during which, subversive mutterings from delivers his duplicitous pro-peace Fifth Columnists and appeasniks aside, Christmas speech that events gather pace, nothing new has happened apart from a as though the ‘in limbo’ lives of the tactically ill-advised speech from the King. characters in the Phoney War were waiting The Windsor Faction is disbanded – for a catalyst to galvanise them into interned or worse – and the machinery of pushing the plot forward. Clandestine war rumbles on. meetings with the politically uncertain Quite aside from Mr Taylor being a dyed- king and the various persons who wish in-the-wool Powellian, another reason for either to help or use him, are arranged but reviewing this book in the pages of the this is the last we see of Edward VIII. Newsletter is the multiple references that There is a tactical mugging by one side, recall Powell and Dance that appear – by

23 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53 coincidence or design one is never quite sure – mostly during the first half of the novel. Thus, amidst the narrative, one glimpses the memory of a young man having sugar poured over his head at a dance; sees Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy being read incongruously by a character; catches passing mention of the Maida Vale canal and Gainsborough; comes across an anti-war pamphlet called War Never Pays; one even reads a chapter titled ‘From a View to a Death’. There is something of the ghost of Trapnel hanging in invisible wreaths around the talented yet down-at-heel, advance-scrounging writer Sylvester Del Mar. Desmond’s desperation to have parties and his bemoaning their scarcity even in wartime has strong echoes of Dickie Umfraville’s similar gripe at Foppa’s. There is even a little sideswipe at Evelyn Waugh for good measure. And all throughout, as though in homage to MacClintick, bobs up again and DJ Taylor, who took a break from promoting The again what appears to be Mr Taylor’s Windsor Faction to speak at the Eton conference. favourite word – ‘counterpoint’. For a professionally edited and produced the Second World War set in an alternate book there are a surprising number of version of history, the Houses of typographical errors, some of which even Parliament would not have been situated in break the flow and cause one to have to Westminster Square. read the relevant sentence again to make sense of the narrative. And even during Whilst there are some flashes of originality and compelling passages, especially in Nichols’ diary, the whole is something of a disappointment. It neither delivers a startling or thought-provoking alternative outcome to the war, nor provides characters that will long linger in the memory, nor yet give an events-packed romp through 1939-40 Britain. The few twists are visible from far off. Derby Day this is not. The King’s Speech might have been a better title – but of course that had already been taken. ■

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BOOK REVIEW X Trapnel Profiles in String [As recreated by Bernard Stacey] Reviewed by Keith Marshall

Dance provides us with many mysteries, there is very little evidence to go on. We with a substantial number of the larger know who the author is, that he had written ones seeming to congregate around X a previous novel Camel Ride to the Tomb, Trapnel. And one of those is his lost novel a little about his background, the Profiles in String: never finished because peripatetic nature of a life spent largely in of its watery demise in the Maida Vale London, roughly when the book was being Canal some 50-odd years ago. That is written and that he believed in Naturalism. until now. The use of the words “profiles” and “string” perhaps suggest a connection with Bernard Stacey has undertaken the the Dadaist art of Francis Picabia. Having mammoth task of recreating Trapnel’s said that you have outlined most of what novel. As Stacey himself said at the recent there is to know. Conference, this was no mean feat for Yet, here we have a more than plausible recreation, not just because the style is right but also because the plot is right and the details are right. And unlike Dance, which AN Wilson in last year’s Annual Anthony Powell Lecture described as “anecdote papered over with passe- partout”, Profiles in String does have a discernable plot – although this is far from clear until the unexpected twist at the very end. As one might expect of a Trapnel novel the story revolves around a slightly seedy pub and an equally slightly seedy group of middlebrow friends – literary and art world hacks and hangers on; often short of a few bob; and often being secretive about their affairs (in all senses of the word). In the words of the cover blurb: Set in early 1950s London, we follow the progress of Thelonius Chatham – painter, philosopher and social revolutionary – on his decline and fall from wealthy,

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amiable amateur artist, through down – partly through wanting to know the eyes of Soho habitué and what happened next and partly because I writer, Hector O’Farhee. couldn’t see what on earth was happening now, or why. In short exactly the sort of environment in which Trapnel flourished and in which How much of what is here is genuine Powell equally seems to have been at Trapnel which Stacey has managed to home both before and immediately after unearth, and how much is the grouting the last war. and passe-partout which he has used to fill the cracks only Stacey himself will What Trapnel has written is a short-ish probably ever know. But the whole novel. But what sort of novel is it? Is it rings true as a novel of the late 1940s/ crime fiction? Mmmm … yes, in part. Is early 1950s and as a very plausible piece it a thriller? Mmmm … yes in part. Is it a of Trapnel. roman fleuve? Mmmm … yes, probably, at least in part. Is it Naturalistic? I found this an enjoyable read and I think Certainly – even down to the curious and most Dance fans will too. intriguing alternative twisted endings. Profiles in String by X Trapnel can be ordered Whatever genre one likes to assign to the from print on demand supplier Lulu at http:// work, it is certainly captivating. It kept me bit.ly/17qXgNh for the princely sum of £10, with all royalties going to the Society. ■ turning the pages and not wanting to put it

Visiting the current Daumier exhibition in London, member John Blaxter reminds us of the following from VB: At first it was not easy to discern what lay about us in a Daumier world of threatening, fiercely slanted shadows, in the midst of which two feeble jets of bluish gas, from which the pungent smell came, gave irregular, ever- changing contours to an amorphous mass of foggy cubes and pyramids. “Daumier: Visions of Paris” is on at the Royal Academy until 26 January 2014. ■

Francis Picabia, Etapa figurativa. 26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Letters to the Editor

A Character Model for Farebrother?

From Mr James Scott Farebrother would have been in his early fifties when Jenkins encountered him in After reading John Powell’s “Anthony SA. On that encounter, Farebrother “fixed Powell at MI(L)” in the Society’s Spring his very honest blue eyes” on Jenkins 2013 Newsletter (issue 50), I wanted to (197). And Farebrother, like Carlisle learn more about Lt-Col Jack Carlisle. At “indulged in a good deal of intrigue”. the time, I assumed that AP had modelled Lt-Col Lysander Finn (the head of MI(L) 2. Faces, 288: in Dance) after Carlisle, and I was Carlisle did his job uncommonly well interested in pinpointing what Powell had … At the same time, his changed and what he had left intact. obsequiousness to superiors (he However, my research led me to conclude would enrage Dru by the grotesque that Carlisle was a model for a different, habit of addressing senior civil but equally interesting character – Sunny servants as “sir”) … Farebrother. MP, 48 (Pennistone – Dru’s counterpart in Admittedly, I am not the first to come to Dance – is the speaker): this conclusion – both Michael Barber and Ellen Jordan came there before me. Farebrother will get right up the arse However, it appears that no one has of anyone he things likely to help him submitted an argument to the Society for on. including Carlisle in the Society’s table of character models. I will try to do so Second, we have a comparison between below. what John Powell says about Carlisle in “Anthony Powell at MI(L)” and what First, we have a couple of comparisons Jenkins says about Farebrother. between Carlisle as described in Faces in My Time and Farebrother as described in John Powell, 8: Dance: A message had been transmitted from 1. Faces, 283: the Prime Minister (in itself calculated to make Carlisle assume Jack Carlisle, in his early fifties, tall, what Dru called ‘his religious face’) slim, good looking, with candid blue to the effect … eyes that looked straight at you, possessed a charm of manner of Compare with MP, 114: which he was himself not at all Farebrother said the last words in unaware. He worked immensely what Pennistone called his religious hard, found delegation of duties voice. difficult, indulged in a good deal of intrigue, especially as to his own longed-for promotion.

27 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

And with MP, 124: blue eyes’ and immense charm ‘of which he was not at all unaware’. He He [Odo Stevens] had quite changed was hard-working, devious and his tone of voice from the moment resilient, but obsequious beyond the before, at the same time assuming an call of duty to his superiors. He expression reminiscent of would also, when appropriate, Farebrother’s ‘religious face’. assume his ‘religious face’. Sound Third: we have Michael Barber’s familiar? argument, which includes some of the [Anthony Powell: A Life, 134] above woven together with new material Indeed, it does “sound familiar”. Offhand, (re. Carlisle’s life before the Second World the only difference I can detect between War): Carlisle and Farebrother is that Carlisle I wonder what Carlisle made of that earned a DSO and an MC, while ‘downy old bird’ Sunny Farebrother, Farebrother earned a DSO and an OBE. since it seems to me that they have In regard to Powell’s decision not to use enough in common for the Carlisle as a model for Finn, Barber says resemblance to be more than the following: coincidental. Powell says that in peacetime Carlisle was a City … he is at pains to explain that for banker and businessman who had technical reasons to do with the served with distinction (DSO, MC) balance of the novel he based the with a London Territorial unit in the character of Finn, the Commanding Great War. This is almost identical to Officer of MIL, on the second-in- Farebrother’s CV. Powell describes command, Major Ker, rather than the Carlisle as tall, slim, and well actual CO, Lieutenant-Colonel preserved for his age, with candid Carlisle. [134]

Not quite Eton suits: a motley gang of Society members at the Eton Conference. L to R: Jeff Manley, Jonathan Kooperstein, Nick Birns, John Trotter, John Blaxter, Jonathan Black, Robin Bynoe. Photo: Mike Jay 28 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

In a message to APLIST dated 13 me exactly as I visualise Farebrother. Is a November 2006, Ellen Jordan offered a photograph of Capel-Dunn available plausible explanation of those “technical anywhere?” [See below left, the only reasons”: photograph of which we know – Ed.] I also find it interesting that AP could Perhaps it might be appropriate to close use this brief association [with Capel with a passage from Barber [134]: -Dunn] as the inspiration for so Of course, there are things about significant a character in Dance Farebrother that may owe nothing to [Widmerpool]. It seems to me that Carlisle. His parsimony, for instance, something similar is true of Sunny and his wish to put women on a Farebrother. My impression is that pedestal. But all fictional characters he embodies a number of the are composites and I am sure from characteristics of the head of MIL, Lt the evidence that without Colonel -Colonel Carlisle. AP says there are Carlisle there would have been no “several reasons” why he didn’t want Sunny Farebrother. to base the character holding this position in Dance on Carlisle. The only one he gives is that it would be identified with a real person, but he has no problems in giving his fictional character all the characteristics of the second-in- command Major Ker. He says somewhere (can’t find the place now) that he and Dru used to discuss Carlisle’s character interminably (as indeed they seem to have discussed Capel-Dunn) and it seems to me Anthony Powell Resides Here that the main reason he had to find an CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS alternative model for the head of MIL was seeks and sells early editions of because he had already introduced Carlisle Anthony Powell’s works together with into Dance in a different role. The those of other distinguished British authors such as Evelyn Waugh, PG photograph of Carlisle in Faces looks to Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and James Lees-Milne. In addition to rare books, we offer a complete collection of new books in our store near the Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs upon request. 1082 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10028 Open seven days per week Telephone: 212 289 2345 Email: [email protected] Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, Inc.

Lt-Col Dennis Capel-Dunn 29 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Letters to the Editor

Rex Whistler and Evelyn Waugh

From Mr Jonathan Kooperstein edition of Gulliver’s Travels (1930), a rococo design in which the frame In his review of Hugh and Mirabel Cecil’s overshadows the incident depicted inside. In Search of Rex Whistler in the Autumn Newsletter, Jeffrey Manley discusses the In view of this echo on Waugh’s part of coincidental parallels between Whistler’s Whistler’s attention to the illustration of life and the character Charles Ryder in Gray’s Elegy, one has to wonder if Waugh Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. was not more attuned to Whistler’s career than at first seems likely. McDonnell What neither authors nor reviewer mention observes that Waugh may have seen is that Waugh did base a character in one Whistler as a rival for Lady Diana’s of his novels on Whistler: the (silent) artist friendship – and he may also have envied Arthur in the first chapter of Scoop (1938). Whistler’s apparent, if misleading, ease of Arthur is “painting ruined castles on the manner, when it came to dealing with life ceiling” of Mrs Stitch’s bedroom (as (what AP calls “his overwhelming Whistler had painted grisaille mural smoothness”). decorations in the Gower Street drawing room of Lady Diana Cooper, the model for Mrs Stitch, a few years earlier). Mrs Stitch, who is simultaneously conducting Why Not Advertise Here? her morning levée from her bed, helpfully *** provides Arthur with constructive criticism Display Advert Rates as he paints (“You’re putting too much ivy Full Page: £30 on the turret, Arthur; the owl won’t show ½ page or full column: £20 up unless you have him on the bare stone ¼ page (½ column): £12 and I’m particularly attached to the owl”.) B&W artwork only This comment, as Lady Diana astutely *** pointed out to Jacqueline McDonnell Flyer Inserts [Waugh on Women (1985), 184], indicates £30 per A4 sheet that the literary source for Arthur’s painting is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written £15 per A5 sheet in a Country Churchyard (1751). (The plus printing costs identification of Arthur with Rex Whistler *** is also Lady Diana’s.) Small Ads Free to Society members It was Richard Bentley’s Gothick illustration for Gray’s Elegy (1753), as it Others 10p/word, minimum £3 was reproduced in Kenneth Clark’s The *** Gothic Revival (1928), that provided Births, Deaths & Marriages Whistler with the starting point for his full- Free to Society members page illustrations to the Cresset Press Others 25p/word, minimum £5

30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

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A follow-up to the wonderful In the latest Wm Reese Co. catalogue conference (London Evening (No. 306: Literary Miscellany), the Standard, 30 September 2013): following appears: Former Arts Minister Grey 401. Powell, Anthony. Venusberg. Gowrie gave a talk at an London: Duckworth, 1932 … Anthony Powell conference on Saturday at Eton College. He First edition of the author’s second described his first meeting with [sic] book … This copy bears his early the author of the novel sequence presentation inscription: “For Hans Martin, from the author Anthony A Dance to the Music of Time th when he was 18 . Powell asked Powell June 8 1933. In memory of a Lord Gowrie who were his delightful visit to Holland and in favourite new young novelists. admiration of the K.L.M. – and its “Trying to be sophisticated, I chief”. $4500. said I didn’t really like any of For viewing the complete entry (and them – too much about their love the entire catalogue for that matter), lives,” said Gowrie. “Tony said, use the following link to download a ‘If I was on a bus and the person pdf version: http:// sitting next to me started telling www.williamreesecompany.com/ me about their love life, I’d be reeseco/images/pdfs/cat306.pdf. riveted!’” Spotted by Robert Beasecker ■ Spotted by Nick Birns. ■

AP gets a mention in a cod account of The Society’s new Trustee, Harry AS Byatt`s Summer Reading in Mount, writing in the Daily Mail, 29 Private Eye. The Byatt supposed October 2013 about his and UK choice is the autobiography of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s footballer ‘Lee Fredge (with Barry schooldays at Westminster: Gherkin)’ whose life, it is claimed, My maths teacher, Michael Anthony Powell would have readily Hugill, taught statistics by understood: a personal myth at once comparing the length of words rueful, hieratic and contested. used by the novelists Anthony Spotted by James Tucker. ■ Powell and Evelyn Waugh in 100 word extracts from their books. Spotted by, inter alia, the Hon. Secretary. ■

31 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

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The narrator of All That Is, a novel by From Harry Eyres’s column in James Salter (Knopf, New York, Financial Times, 15 September 2013: 2013), describes Berggren, the Goodbye, my good companions Swedish publisher he meets on a tour The clearing of my parents’ home of European publishers, with the head has made me think about the of the New York publishing firm importance, even centrality where he is an editor, thusly [from of books to the house’s life and chapter 8]: soul. It may sound trite, but the The Swedish publisher was an house, and our lives in it, would not urbane man who had brought have been the same without books. Gide, Dreiser, and Anthony The force of the statement comes Powell to the house, as well as home to me (in a rather unhomely Proust and Genet. He published way) as I see what happens when the Russians, Bunin and Babel, shelves are emptied. The rooms and later the great émigrés. He suddenly look diminished, denuded, had been to Russia, it was a uncomfortably bare. terrible place, he said, like a vast Books Do Furnish a Room is the prison, a prison where all hope oddly memorable title of one of the had to be abandoned, and yet the volumes in Anthony Powell’s Dance Russians themselves were the to the Music of Time, a sequence of most wonderful people he had novels about the goings-on among ever met. a group of toffs, literati and others Spotted by Philip Holm. ■ before and after the second world war. The statement (made in the novel by a character called Bagshaw, the editor of a post-war literary journal) has an undertone Contributions to the Newsletter and of surprise: how can books furnish journal Secret Harmonies are always a room, when they have no welcome and should be sent to: obviously practical value, in the Newsletter & Journal Editor, way that chairs and tables and Anthony Powell Society sofas and curtains do? 76 Ennismore Avenue I always rather took it for granted Greenford, UB6 0JW, UK that books furnished a room. The Fax: +44 (0)20 8020 1483 only rooms in our house without Email: [email protected] books were the dining-room and the bathrooms. Otherwise there were We are always especially grateful for books everywhere ... reports or notices of Powell-related events and relevant photographs. Spotted by Jeanne Reed. ■

32 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

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AP rates a mention in Larry Rohter’s review in “Books of the Times” (New Neil McComick reviews a Brian Ferry York Times, 20 August 2013) of concert at London’s Royal Albert George Orwell: A Life in Letters: Hall, Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2013: The literary friendships Orwell cultivated may also indicate In a sleek, floral smoking jacket, something about his taste, which Bryan Ferry croons and twirls, was catholic, and his nature, raising one arm in a gesture akin which was tolerant of opinions to a royal wave while tipping his that diverged from his but not of head in bashful grin … Royal cant. The aristocratic Anthony Albert Hall playing host to a 12- Powell, author of the novel cycle piece band of consummate A Dance to the Music of Time, musicians, all decorously attired and Henry Miller, whose Tropic in dinner jackets and diaphanous of Cancer was considered dresses, playing music deeply obscene when first published in rooted in the past and yet the 1930’s, inhabit very different daringly modern in its borderless literary universes, but Orwell merging of genres. corresponded enthusiastically Singing Reason Or Rhyme from with both. 2010’s Olympia album, Ferry Spotted by Jeanne Reed. ■ alighted on a repeated lyrical motif filched from novelist Anthony Powell, by way of 17th Century painter Nicholas Andrea Broomfield wrote in a review: Poussin: “Dance to the music of As I read Stranger’s Child (by time”. Behind him, trombones, Alan Hollinghurst) I was trumpets, clarinets and reminded of Anthony Powell’s saxophones weaved in and out of Dance to the Music of Time and the mesmerising groove set up by The Glittering Prizes by Frederic a thumping rock drummer and Raphael. At times with such elderly jazz percussionist, as the novels, plot takes a back seat to wild lead guitar of long-haired characterization and characters’ firebrand Oliver Thompson sent interior lives, but it is within notes scattering over delicate those interiors that the essence of pianos and swimming shimmers the art resides, not in drama or of keyboard textures in a giddy, conflict or even resolution. cinematic flush of sound. Spotted by Jeanne Reed on 21 August Spotted by Brian Back. ■ 2013. [Source not provided – Ed.] ■

33 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Society Merchandise

SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS OTHER PUBLICATIONS 2011 Conference Proceedings. Violet Powell; A Stone in the Shade. Collected papers from sixth Fourth & final volume of Lady NEW biennial conference at the Naval Violet’s autobiography covering NEW & Military Club, London. mostly the 1960s. Includes many UK: £8, Overseas: £14 of Lady Violet’s coloured travel Jeff Manley et al.; Dance Music. sketches. Hardback. 150-page guide to the musical references UK: £24, Overseas: £29 in Dance; compiled in the style of The Acceptance of Absurdity: Anthony Spurling’s Handbook. Powell – Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952 UK: £7, Overseas: £10.50 -1963; John Saumarez Smith & Jonathan Centenary Conference Proceedings. Kooperstein (editors); 2011. Collected papers from the (third, 2005) Fascinating letters between Powell and his centenary conference at The Wallace first American publisher and friend Robert Collection, London. Vanderbilt. UK: £11, Overseas: £17 Paperback: UK £16, Overseas £19.50 Hardback: UK £26, Overseas £32 Oxford Conference Proceedings. Collected papers from the second (2003) Anthony Powell, Caledonia, A Fragment. conference at Balliol College, Oxford. The 2011 Greville Press reprint of this rare UK: £7, Overseas: £13 Powell spoof. Now publicly available in its own right for the first time. Eton 2001 Conference Proceedings. UK: £8, Overseas: £10.50 Papers from the first (2001) conference. Copies signed by the Society’s Patron. John Gould; Dance Class. UK: £6.50, Overseas: £10.50 American High School student essays from John’s two teachings of Dance at Writing about Anthony Powell. Philips Academy. Many fresh and Talks given at the 2004 AGM by George perceptive insights. Lilley, Michael Barber and Nick Birns; UK: £12, Overseas: £17 introduced by Christine Berberich. UK: £4, Overseas: £7 JOURNAL & NEWSLETTER The Master and The Congressman. Secret Harmonies: Journal of the 40-page monograph by John Monagan Anthony Powell Society. Back numbers describing his meetings with Powell. of issues 1 to 4/5 available. UK: £4, Overseas: £7 UK: £5.50, Overseas: £9 each Newsletter Centenary Issue. 120-page celebratory Centenary Newsletter (issue 21; December 2005). UK: £5.50, Overseas: £9

Society Merchandise

34 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #53

Society Merchandise

AUDIO ORDERING BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance. The prices shown are the Society Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 members’ prices as of October 2013 and between 1979-82. 26 one-hour episodes. are inclusive of postage and packing. Single CD containing 26 MP3 files. For Please note the different UK and copyright reasons available to Society overseas prices which reflect the members only. additional cost of overseas postage. Non- UK & Overseas: £10 (£5 + minimum £5 members will be charged the Donation) appropriate member’s price shown plus postage & packing at cost. POSTCARDS & POSTERS Please send your order to: Anthony Powell’s Ancestral Lands Postcards. Anthony Powell Society Merchandise, NEW Set of four colour postcards from 76 Ennismore Avenue, photos by John Blaxter of the Greenford, UB6 0JW, UK Powell ancestral lands on the Welsh Phone: +44 (0) 20 8864 4095 borders. Pictures on page 21. Fax: +44 (0) 20 8020 1483 UK: £2.50, Overseas: £3.50 Email: [email protected] Society Postcard. Payment may be by cheque, Visa, B&W postcard of Powell with his cat Mastercard or PayPal. If paying by credit Trelawney. Pack of 5. Picture below. card please include the card number, UK: £2, Overseas: £3.50 expiry date, 3-digit secure code, and the Wallace Collection Poussin Postcard. billing name & address. Cheques must be The Wallace Collection’s postcard of payable to the Anthony Powell Society, for Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time. UK funds and drawn on a UK bank. Pack of 5. Picture on page 24. PayPal payment should be sent to UK: £3, Overseas: £4 [email protected]. You may also order through the Society’s online shop at www.anthonypowell.org. ■

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