The Society Newsletter

Issue 64, Autumn 2016, ISSN 1743-0976, £3

AGM & “Bring & Buy” Book Sale Saturday 22 October St James’s Church, Piccadilly, W1 Full details on page 24 AGM papers & Annual Report enclosed

London AP Birthday Lunch Saturday 3 December Details page 21

(L to R) Stephen Holden, Rob Tresman, Gerald Parsons and Ivan Hutnik pose outside The Wheatsheaf following the Saturday Stroll on 2 July. Note the plaques to George Orwell and Dylan hoto John Blaxter Thomas. Report on page 26. P

Contents Editorials ...... 2 The Social Climber as Hero ...... 3-7 Social Mobility in AP’s World ...... 8-12 Mavis W’s Commonplace Book ...... 13-14 We All have Our Own Norpois ...... 15-16 Who Are They? ...... 17-18 My First Time ...... 19 Dates for Your Diary ...... 20-21 Society News, Notices & AGM ..... 22-24 Local Group News ...... 25-27 Truth and Art ...... 28-29 Milly Andriadis’ Illegal Rave ...... 30-32 Controversy – the APLIST ...... 33 REVIEW: Adrian Tinniswood ...... 34-35 Uncle Giles’ Corner ...... 36 Cuttings ...... 37-38 Merchandise & Membership ...... 39-40 Newsletter #64

A Letter from the Editor From the Secretary’s Desk What would AP have Whenever I sit down to made of the write this column I transformation of the always do so with no country’s political idea what I’m going to landscape? Several say; but then the words pieces in this issue flow. This time is no provide some insight. different. What to say? Brexit happened in Well, I should probably large part because many tell you about the good people felt excluded. things happening in the Our new Prime Society. Minister has promised to tackle One piece of good news is that a few inequality and remove barriers to social months ago a couple of us provided some and occupational progression. Simon information and advice to an Edinburgh Barnes and Geoff Eagland examine social University student who was writing her mobility in Dance. Our Social final year Eng. Lit. dissertation on AP and Correspondent reports on a pre-Brexit Dance. This is part of what we are here party at Lady Molly’s and Uncle Giles to do. It was great to know that there are gives guidance on the EU and tea. students out there who value and enjoy Several readers have asked if they can AP – and who, in the process, are comment on issues raised in Newsletter. educating their lecturers. Even more Robin Bynoe explains and encourages satisfying was that, in a small way, we use of the APLIST. Leaving aside his helped this student get a good degree. unjustified aspersions about your Editor Also good news is that we are currently and the suppression of the fact that he is attracting a goodly number of new and also a lawyer, your Chairman’s call to returning members – almost 20 since the email is welcome. The scope and last Newsletter (see page 22). In part this enjoyment of this Newsletter can be is because we have recently offered two- enhanced by sampling the blogosphere. year-plus lapsed members (and Given AP’s journal habit he would supporters) an attractive membership doubtless have been a blogger and deal; but there is also an upturn in new tweeter. members we didn’t previously know. All We also cover more traditional Powellian are warmly welcomed to the Society. topics with two pieces on Proust by Nick And long may this continue! Birns and Michael Henle. Widmerpool We believe that AP’s collages, in The appears in his mother’s recently Chantry boiler room, should be recorded discovered “Commonplace Book” and in as an art work in their own right. While Geraint Dearman’s entertaining My First they themselves cannot be preserved in a Time. museum, our Chairman and the Hon. Finally, a new feature is trialled: Profiles Archivist are working on a project to in String will feature your Secretary’s have them professionally photographed. portraits of members’ phisogs. Get the Don’t forget the book sale at the AGM – pancake out. “Books” Bagshaw would be there. Stephen Walker Keith Marshall [email protected] [email protected]

2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 The Social Climber as Hero By Simon Barnes

We’re accustomed to think of the social life, especially in volumes two and four of climber in fiction as a fairly grotesque Dance. character: broadly comic, a bit pathetic, In A Buyer’s Market we find him in tails, fundamentally unsympathetic … and that’s fancying himself a standard “spare man” why we completely miss the social climber and backbone of the Season. But it’s clear when we run across him as hero. Perhaps that he’s nowhere near as successful as that’s because the reader identifies with Archie Gilbert. We learn later that such heroes. Perhaps that’s because the Widmerpool only ever gets an invitation author does as well. when a hostess is at her wit’s end for a So let’s look at three major post-war works spare man. of fiction: Dance, Brideshead Revisited Widmerpool has a passion for Barbara and Lucky Jim. Each of these works Goring, daughter of the peer who used to contains a social climber who can be buy liquid manure from his father – so it’s despised, mocked and laughed at: a a passion full of social aspiration, even if character who enhances the reader’s self- it’s not quite Mellors and Lady Chatterley. esteem (and that, Powellian readers should In At Lady Molly’s he is engaged to a note, is at least as helpful a trick in popular different peer’s daughter, responding fiction as self-pity). favourably to the urbane teasing of Each of these three characters is, in a Jenkins, banter that acknowledges different way, a work of genius. These Widmerpool’s coup in linking himself despicable social climbers are Widmerpool with the aristocracy. (of course), Rex Mottram and Bertrand In Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant we find Welch. We’ll look at them in a moment; that Widmerpool has still dizzier and after we’ve done so I’ll suggest that all aspirations. He’s moving in rather three members of this glorious trio conceal elevated circles – “not exactly royal – the fact that the heroes of these three that’s hardly the word yet … You works are also social climbers to a man. understand me?” It seems he’s become an The ultimately failed social-climbing of intimate of Mrs Simpson, but alas, the the first three sets off the gloriously Abdication spoils his hopes of becoming successful social climbing of the heroes: “the Beau Brummel of the new reign”. that is to say, Nick Jenkins, Charles Ryder This marks the end of Widmerpool’s social and Jim Dixon. But before we move on, I’d like to make it pedantically clear that these observations are not intended as destructive criticisms of three great works. I am not attempting any sort of attack on any of them or for that matter, their authors. I’m just enjoying the books. So let’s look at the social climbers who can be safely despised, starting with Widmerpool. Of course, Widmerpool is far more than a social climber: but social climbing is an aspect of his approach to

3 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 aspirations: from that point he seeks other routes to power. There is a hint, no more, that Widmerpool’s disappointments in society and in love play their part in his shift to the left. But there’s a neat twist to this. Widmerpool is a Lord by volume eleven, so in some ways, he has climbed to the top of the mountain. True, a recently ennobled Labour peer is not going to strike awe in the Duke of Norfolk. And there is certainly an implication that Widmerpool’s peerage is a bit like his famous overcoat: a traditionally ludicrous aspect of everyday life. Widmerpool may think he has won but those who matter know that he hasn’t – neither in snobbish terms nor in the deeper aspects of Dance in which art and power are forever opposed. Rex Mottram in Brideshead Revisited is a Canadian-born millionaire who comes to England demanding only the best. Naturally that includes the best wife, so he makes his alliance with Julia, daughter of Lord Marchmain. He is in business, he’s in politics, he’s in society, and he’s At the end Rex is secretly snobbed for staggeringly successful in everything, drinking the wrong sort of brandy. apart, that is, from everything that really Rex “couldn’t see the point of me” Julia matters. So he can be despised. says: but Charles of course does. So Rex His coarseness, vacuity and inability to is triumphantly cuckolded: a conspiracy of understand the sort of thing that we find two against the hatefulness of a changing important is what defines him. Even his world. Whatever Rex does is bad because good qualities – sorting out the mess when he lacks a soul. He’s not one of us: Sebastian is arrested for drink-driving – certainly not what St John Clarke would can be comfortably despised. This have called “a natural aristocrat”. prepares the way for one of the most In Lucky Jim Bertrand proclaims himself snobbish passages in the history of an artist, loud, garish and offensive. He literature when he and Charles go out to snubs Dixon at their first meeting, dinner in Paris. Charles chooses, Rex dismissing his socialist beliefs by crowing pays. about his love of wealthy people who Not even Ian Fleming has topped this patronise the arts. His girlfriend is a rich display of restaurant snobbery. Charles man’s niece; he is expecting her uncle, orders caviar at the last minute fearing that Gore-Urquhart, to give him a job – a Rex won’t appreciate the glorious sinecure that will give him all the time he “simplicity” of the rest of the meal. needs to paint great works. Bertrand creeps to the rich, shows off and scores I rejoiced in the Burgundy. It seemed a reminder that the world was an older and points against his equals, and behaves better place than Rex knew. dreadfully to those he considers beneath

4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 him. Naturally that’s mostly Dixon. lovely well-connected wife, and there is Bertrand is awful, and to Dixon’s intense Widmerpool in an overgrown cottage relief, it turns out that Bertrand is not stuffed full of weirdoes, and not even in much cop as a painter. charge. Three monsters, then. All social climbers. There is a whiff of just desserts in this, a They’re not entirely defined by their social hint of smugness. To make too much of climbing, but social climbing is an aspect this would be grotesque simplification of a of their monstrosity. Widmerpool is by far complex work of art, but Jenkins’ the most subtle of the three, being a successful social-climbing does set off the leading character who appears in a dozen ultimate failure of Widmerpool’s life and novels. Rex is a brilliant caricature: we values. are invited to pity him in a way that makes Social-climbing is a very different matter us slightly smug. Bertrand is a glorious in Brideshead. Charles’s passion for an hate-figure: “I happen to like the arts, you aristocratic family and for the place where sam”. (That being his affected and they live is portrayed as a yearning for the offensive pronunciation of “you see”.) divine: Et in arcadia ego is the title of But these despicable social climbers hide, Book One. Charles’ bedazzlement with at least in part, the fact that the heroes of Sebastian, with the great house, with the the works in which they appear are also entire family, and subsequently with social climbers: characters for whom Sebastian’s sister Julia reads like a social climbing is nothing less than a noble mystic’s longing for union with God. The quest (noblesse oblige, as Sillery would book is subtitled The Sacred and Profane say). We are invited to rejoice in their Memories of Captain Charles Ryder. social successes: to see them as fair The book is best remembered for its rewards for life’s endeavour. recollections of Arcadian times, so Like Widmerpool, Jenkins gets engaged to gloriously done that it comes as a shook to a peer’s daughter. Unlike Widmerpool he realise how few pages they take up. marries her: and their lifelong happiness is Oxford has the barest outline; the summer an obscure rebuke to Widmerpool. at Brideshead Castle is also shown with Jenkins, like Widmerpool, comes from an dazzling economy. “If only it could be unglamorous background, but unlike like this always”, says Sebastian. “Always Widmerpool he succeeds in marrying into summer, always alone, the fruit always the nobility. By the end, he’s set himself ripe and Aloysius in a good temper”. up as a country gent with a nice house and Aloysius being Sebastian’s Teddy, of enough land to put up a caravan and two course. horses without worry. It’s not social climbing in any Much of the Dance opposes the values of straightforward and bestial sense of the Jenkins and of Widmerpool. (In the war term. Charles still yearns for Brideshead trilogy we can see the value of and its family after marrying into the Widmerpool even as he becomes aristocracy, taking Celia, the sister of increasingly unsympathetic.) Sometimes Viscount “Boy” Mulcaster, as his wife. this comes down to a straight contest But she means nothing. It’s Brideshead between the two men. They compete for that Charles longs for and it is to the affections of Barbara, for the favours Brideshead that he returns, meeting Julia of Gipsy, for the hand of a Hon. There is a by glorious chance on his voyage home faint hint that Jenkins’ social success is a from America. In another bravura judgment on Widmerpool: and at the last, passage, the two come together when a there is Jenkins in his big house with his storm has prostrated almost everybody else

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Brideshead Castle: and to be banished from the place for the second time is banishment from Eden. This is one of the most heroic social- climbs in literature: and the tragedy is not that Charles finds his achievement empty – not in the least – but that it must end. A war and a rotten unfeeling begrudging world must destroy everything that matters. Jim Dixon is every bit as successful a social climber as Charles, and as with Charles his social-climbing has elements of a noble quest: for fulfilment, conquest and – above all – revenge. The Bastille of class is well and truly stormed. Dixon starts and finishes much lower than Charles, but he has managed at least as much in terms of vertical ascent. Jim is out of his depth socially and academically at the university where he is a probationary lecturer. He is dependent on Professor Welch’s goodwill for advancement but he loathes Welch and all he stands for. So he creeps and toadies to Welch while fancying himself a martyr for doing so. on board: two whole people in a world of the sick. Though a little inclined to play the rough diamond and working-class hero, Dixon is Julia eventually takes Charles to her bed: a lower-middle-class boy trying to be an and this provides one of the oddest upper-middle-class boy. But he reserves moments of a book not without its his right to despise the upper-middle oddness. classes as he does so: it’s a kind of win- It was as though a deed of conveyance double. of her narrow loins had been drawn and sealed. I was making my first entry as a He also despises all forms of high culture freeholder of a property I would enjoy (“filthy Mozart”) and believes every and develop at leisure. attempt to reach it is pretension. He has The two go straight to Brideshead Castle, no interest in history, even though he’s a Charles abandoning wife and children history lecturer. He got the job because he without a backward glance. And so specialised in medieval history – Welch’s Charles takes ownership, as it were, of passion – but he only did that because the Brideshead, at least for a while, and we are medieval course was a soft option when he invited to share his sense of tragedy – of was an undergraduate. the meaninglessness of all subsequent life Like his enemy Bertrand, Jim had designs – when things go terribly wrong. Truth, on the well-connected Christine, even religion, meaning, joy and God Himself though Margaret, his not-quite girlfriend, are all present under the great dome of tells him frankly that she’s out of his class.

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He behaves appallingly at the Welchs’ arty weekend, sneaking off to the pub, getting Do you care about the pissed, topping up with most of a bottle of sherry on his return and then setting his English language? bedroom on fire. His social-climbing looks set for disaster. But he succeeds where Bertrand failed, in ingratiating himself with Gore-Urquhart, Christine’s rich and powerful uncle: I’m the boredom detector. I’m a finely tuned instrument, if only I could get hold of a millionaire I’d be worth a bag of money to him. And so, after his disastrous public lecture, one of the great comic set-pieces in literature, he finds that he rather than Bertrand has got the Gore-Urquhart job. If so, come and join us at the Then, after his bus-journey to try and catch Queen’s English Society Christine at the train station, another of the great comic set-pieces in literature, he For full details, finds that he’s got the girl as well. see our website The social climber as hero recreates the www.queens-english- ancient Rags to Riches story, in the society.org manner of Cinderella or Jane Eyre or Leicester City FC. It’s an archetypal theme, celebrated in Christopher Booker’s exceptional book The Seven Basic Plots. of the underdog, and we’re all underdogs Booker lists among many other examples in an unforgiving world. It’s the dream of of Rags to Riches, Joseph and his coat of X Trapnel many colours, King Arthur, the ugly [to be] immune to the ordinary duckling, Great Expectations, Moll vengeances of life … beat the book, Flanders and Superman: and we can lob romp home a winner at a million to one. in the more recent Harry Potter, escaping Rags to Riches remains a universal theme, from the cupboard under the stairs in but in the English novel this is frequently Privet Drive to save the world. We can expressed as social climbing. Nick also add the three works under discussion Jenkins marries an earl’s daughter and here. moves into a house with a drive, Charles The theme of social climber as hero is Ryder wins, at least for a while, the heart open to legitimate political criticism, for it of Brideshead and Jim Dixon has a fancy reinforces rather than questions the social job in London and a fancy London structure: after all, there can’t be anything girlfriend. wrong with the system if it produces our Three triumphs. Three heroes. Three hero. Amis himself made the transition social climbers who scale their Everests. from post-war Angry to a self-caricaturing Three great novelists who invite readers to right-wing blowhard. But the theme is share the joy and meaning and power and deeper than politics: it’s about the victory glory of a successful social ascent. ■

7 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Slow Ahead – Social Mobility in Powell’s World By Geoff Eagland

I’m sure Anthony Powell would have The movement of individuals, families, hated the thought of Dance as a source of households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a commentary on social mobility, not so society. much the concept as the term itself, but its assumed teleology of ‘progress’, its I prefer this descriptive approach as it frees modishness, its modernity. I’m with him up analysis from political evaluation and on the first two of these, if not the third. treats it as a cultural effect amenable to And yet I hold it to be an effective prism to any mediation, in this case, literary. examine the spectrum of social strata of One characteristic of social mobility is its AP’s and his Dance’s world: the characters assumed unidirectionality. It is not exactly and their interactions; and their response to a one-way street, as we shall see, but the the historic tides that wash them in and movement is definitely more upwards than out. Widmerpool’s inexorable rise and downwards. Why is this? It seems to me Stringham’s decline and fall are the most that it reflects the trend in society to obvious examples that we shall come to. capital accumulation and complexity. Their stories contrast starkly, but there are And capital here includes cultural and others more nuanced that show AP’s social capital as well as economic capital, subtlety and sureness of cultural touch and (the three principal constituents of Social I shall come to them too. Meanwhile, let Class in 2016 according to Mike Savage’s us look at what social mobility is and how recent book). it operates. Once accumulated capital decays slowly, Naming of parts certainly more slowly than it accumulates; things cannot easily be unbuilt and Inequality, if current politicians of any knowledge cannot be unlearned; social stripe are to be believed, is a grievous sin; networks persist through personal and it is obligatory to be against it. And like family connections. And so social sin it has a wide remit and inconsistent mobility is ratcheted upwards. Scientific meaning. Social mobility, the supposed knowledge famously stands on earlier means of mitigating or even eradicating shoulders, creating new technology and inequality, is, on the other hand, lauded by social complexity by requiring new skills all, but almost equally misconstrued. It and swelling the ranks of more elevated has recently come largely to mean social strata to manage the complexity: the adapting schools’ curricula and testing to proletariat recruited from the countryside create, as far as possible, equal access to in the early years of the industrial higher education for pupils, regardless of revolution; the new bourgeoisie that arose their economic or social background. With to administer the new wealth a little later; an only slightly broader focus, the House the service industry that expanded in the of Lords (without any sense of irony, given late industrial age to support industry and its eponymous elitism) established a Social encourage and entertain its attendant Mobility Committee in 2015 consumer society. to consider social mobility in the transition from school to work. However, social mobility is not a smooth upwards path; the gradient varies; it has Wikipedia takes a less prescriptive stance, plateaux and high gradient periods, but it defining social mobility as: rarely goes down. The highest gradients in 20th century Britain coincided with

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Dance’s period, the Thirties to Sixties But there are signs. The primogeniture when particular events drove increased that leads the younger scions of social mobility: the Great War, World War aristocratic landownership to soldiery and Two and the 1944 Education Act. clergy is a mild form of downward social Before looking at how social mobility mobility. So a minor character like Angus features in Dance as driven by these Collins, a step-Tolland, has become an general historic trends, it is worth industrial journalist by Dance’s considering how social strata generally conclusion. Jenkins’ bohemian set have figure in Dance. mostly come from a distinctly modest hinterland. Mark Members and JG All the world’s a stage? Quiggin, Maclintick, Hugh Moreland, Bagshaw and X Trapnel are all arrivistes The real social world is triangular with of sorts. Even Dr Trelawney and his deep, wide base layers, a tiny apex and a avowed disciple Scorpio Murtlock are the flexible middle; it is in constant motion as products of a background far less grand or the forces that drive social mobility exotic than their followers assume. change its strata and blur their borders. Uncertain periods before and after the This is not AP’s world as depicted in Great War have allowed the ambitious and Dance. Dance’s world does indeed have a fleet of foot to advance under cover. But rich cast from all social strata, military and soldiery can also lead upwards for some, civilian: from bombardiers to brigadiers; especially when mass conscription sucks from parlour-maids to princesses. But a in vast new numbers requiring a dilated brief assessment of its characters’ social command structure: Gwatkin, Edward, class shows it to be quite different. Only a Lintot, McFadden, Pumphrey and Odo quarter of the cast is working class, Stevens would not have been so warmly (largely servants of some sort, never welcomed in the officers’ mess in more productively economically active) more fastidious times. than a third is of the elite (aristocracy, military field rank or equivalent) and over Like ‘Di, Di in her collar and tie’, AP casts ten percent foreign (often military). The his ‘quizzical eye’ over all their bulk is middle-class, often bohemian, circumstances, largely without judgment. mainly academics, journalists (but not But AP is more than a flâneur. His Dance reporters), artists, writers and entertainers. exemplifies what John Stuart Mill is Commerce scarcely figures, save where getting at when he says, proprietors’ (such as Sir Magnus Donners) A stationary condition of capital and wealth is deployed to sponsor part of the population implies no stationary state of performance. This is hardly a human improvement. There could be as much scope as ever for all kinds of representative sample from which to draw mental culture, and moral and social conclusions on social mobility; as another progress. Powell, AP’s contemporary, film director Michael Powell said, “What do they know And regress! of England who only the West End It’s the economy, stupid know?” And unlike the real world, Dance’s world seems largely static; the Members, Quiggin et al. are all the social strata are the strata of Dorset’s children of parents ‘in trade’, newly Jurassic coast and the players are fossils enriched by commercial development in th th frozen in the strata. Time passes and the late-19 and early-20 centuries. They historic upheavals seem to make little are the beneficiaries of social mobility on impact on their relative position. an industrial scale. They have used their parentally acquired economic capital to

9 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 increase their cultural and social capital. War, what is it good for? In Dance they have become the new Well it was good for Odo Stevens for one. establishment. Stevens is a Brummagem, an unjustifiably And then there is Kenneth Widmerpool, unstylish provenance then as now, an AP’s monster created with as much apprentice, who, by nothing other than his deliberation as Victor Frankenstein, the wits, self-confidence and personal bravery, modern Prometheus, created his monster. finds war to be a vocation, and rises to Kenneth’s life is carried by the full tidal Major, MC and bar. On the way he builds movement of social mobility. His father’s social and cultural capital and enters the commercial success in new industry upper middle class where he plateaus propels Kenneth’s transition to ‘school’, a comfortably. higher social stratum than that of his If it was good for Stevens and parents, where his unique overcoat Widmerpool, it was far less good for distinguishes him from his only slightly Stringham. By war’s outbreak, his slide less arriviste peers. A fortiori, liquid into alcoholism has been arrested by Miss fertiliser, his father’s trade, whilst chosen Weedon, but knowing a commission is by AP to be humorously contemptible, beyond his capabilities, he enlists initially epitomises how new, urban, industrial into the ranks of the technically vital but processes, in this case chemical unfashionable Ordnance Corps, before he engineering, have transformed established confirms for himself that his degeneration practice, encroaching even on rural life. is near completion and broadcasts it to the The war presents the ambitious Kenneth world by becoming a lowly Mess Waiter. opportunities galore to ‘network’ and His death as a POW in Singapore at the extend his social capital while the postwar even lower level of the mobile laundry, settlement allows his further rise to enter although hardly heroic, is as close as he the governing elite. He has surfed two can get to redemption and atonement for successive waves of social mobility; only class betrayal. his own personal demons prevent his final triumph. As it is, he crashes on the rocks The war episodes of Dance are where at the hands of Scorpio Murtlock and his social mobility is most vividly drawn, in acolytes, the only ones young enough to be the real world. The throwing together of the beneficiaries of the third wave of social men (mainly men) from all strata and their mobility heralded by ‘Rab’ Butler’s 1944 enforced intimacy gave AP’s class a Education Act, which brought in, inter alia, deeper understanding of, and even respect grammar schools, and institutionalised for, hitherto unfamiliar social groups. meritocracy in higher education so that And, propelled by the services’ exigency, clever boys from all social classes (sadly, talent like Stevens’ was allowed to it was almost exclusively boys in the early blossom. AP’s own wartime service years) could gain a university education would have broadened his own social hitherto reserved to the public school circle and although he maintained his educated. The historic tidal forces that customary detachment his understanding lifted Widmerpool arguably then cast him and sympathy benefited him and Dance. down. As Frankenstein’s monstrous The Butler Act’s subsequent impact on creation himself says, social mobility in the UK was profound Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and long lasting. However, only the last and by slight ligaments are we bound to three instalments of Dance are set in the prosperity and ruin. period when feasibly some of its characters could have taken the advantage. In this quarter of the series, few new

10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 characters who are not related in some way Ted makes a match of Lady Molly to those we know already make their Jamieson, who has nursed him as a debut. Some of Scorpio Murtlock’s wartime casualty. Outwardly a mismatch, followers could conceivably be amongst their mutual affection has a warmth, the newly educationally advantaged but permanency and depth that overcomes Dance’s cohort is not them. This is not their different backgrounds and is of a AP’s world. It is the earlier historic forces quality that mere history cannot disturb. that have driven their successes and They honour social mobility. failures. What goes around, comes around Widmerpool’s and Stevens’ stories show that social mobility is a real transformative Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time (to force in society. But they also show that it be seen in London’s Wallace Collection), is only a context. Personal qualities are AP’s inspiration for the title of his epic, essential to recognise opportunities and to depicts Poverty, Labour, Wealth and grasp them or let them slip. As is chance: Pleasure circulating endlessly. The in Dance’s game of snakes and ladders, implication seems evident, at least to the Stringham’s slide down the snake is about Art Historian, Richard Beresford: the worst, until Widmerpool’s final Through Labour man acquires Wealth, demise. But there are others: Uncle Giles Wealth permits Pleasure, and Pleasure is dogged by misfortune; the odious Bob indulged to excess ends in Poverty. And Duport has mixed economic fortunes but so the dance expresses a perpetual cycle. retains his social capital; and X Trapnel, This interpretation is at odds with most with little economic capital to lose, loses (mine included) opinions on social his cultural and social capital. Dance mobility as a social phenomenon and, as I observes their individual downwards hope I have demonstrated, how it is motion as meticulously as it does other manifested in AP’s Dance. Paradoxically, characters’ upwards motion. Dance is it probably conforms more closely to AP’s Mass Observation of social mobility. own views, which are at heart quietly conservative. AP acknowledges historic What’s love got to do with it? change, including social mobility, but, It is egregiously trite to observe that despite his own upwards move by society is merely individual people in the marriage into the aristocracy, seems wary collective, and history merely their of it as he does about much of the modern reaction to events. But as in all things in world. Although I doubt if their paths ever human affairs, as much as it no doubt crossed, I see him as having a lot in troubled Marx, the most powerful historic common with John Osborne, another forces have occasionally to give way to detached observer with conservative views individual human agency, especially at odds with his own bohemian milieu. In human affection. Look Back in Anger, Jimmy Porter’s girlfriend, whose social mobility is Love conquers all. Ted Jeavons’ story decidedly downwards, tries in vain to shows that love is as powerful a means of reconcile Jimmy’s views with her father’s social mobility on an individual level as and concludes bleakly, any historic or social force. Having risen Daddy’s unhappy because everything from an enlisted man to a commission in has changed; Jimmy’s unhappy because the Great War, benefitting from the nothing has changed. continuous pruning of the Officer Corps of that awful conflict, and gaining for his For AP social mobility is a background to pains both a MC and chronic ill health, be painted, not challenged, and he has no

11 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 sympathy for those that do. He is an Upward social mobility for the lower observer, and, like Osborne and many ranks of society is a splendid aspiration, but it is not one that will be realised until conservative bohemians, has little time for the élite rediscovers its lost sense of politicians. Their motivations, whether noblesse oblige. reactionary or radical, are not ones he can In the end, social mobility is like the share, nor even fully understand; his market, gravity, evolution, and all other theory of mind does not encompass their forces of nature. It comes with the world minds. His conservatism does not extend and us. Marx was wrong: the point is not to public service except as obligated by to change the world but to interpret it, as it major historic events like war: not for him changes under its own steam. I suspect AP the view of when it said knew that. ■ recently,

It’s Worth a Footnote Whitehall from Trafalgar Square, London, 1839. Daguerreotype by M de St Croix. This is one of the earliest daguerreotype photographs of England, taken when Frenchman M de St Croix was in London demonstrating Louis Daguerre's pioneering photographic process during September and December 1839. The statue in the foreground is Le Sueur's statue of Charles I on horseback (much admired by AP); in the distance is Inigo Jones' Banqueting House. Practically everything else shown in the image has subsequently disappeared. Image © National Media Museum.

12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Mavis Widmerpool’s Commonplace Book By Stephen Hoare

A few months ago, a slim ruled notebook June 5 1940, Rose Cottage, near with entries in pen and ink entitled “My Stourwater, Glos Diary and Commonplace Book” found its Kenneth has sent me a telegram saying way into my possession. The document that the Adjutant General of his regiment was discovered tucked inside a copy of has managed to spare him for the Cooking in Wartime by Ambrose Heath weekend and that he and a young lady (Faber and Faber, 1942) by an antiquarian friend, a Miss Jones, intend to motor bookseller who had bought the book at an down from London and will call on me on auction in Gloucestershire. Saturday night. Knowing how fond my son is of a square meal, I have decided to Closer examination reveals the author of bake him a Woolton Pie. Our Minister of the “Commonplace Book” as one Mavis Food, Lord Woolton, insists that the Widmerpool. Whether or not she is the vegetable and gravy filling for the pastry mother of Kenneth Widmerpool, I leave pie case offers an acceptable substitute you to form your own opinion. As an for meat. I have adapted the official historic document of wartime austerity on recipe to tempt Kenneth’s palate. the home front it may serve to shed some –––––– light on the domestic and dietary arrangements of the aspiring middle Receipt for Mrs Widmerpool’s classes. As such, your humble servant lays “Woolton Pie” before you the secrets of the Ingredients Widmerpudlian kitchen. For the Filling 1 lb of diced potato –––––– 1 lb of cauliflower June 4 1940, Rose Cottage, near 1 lb of diced carrot or any root vegetable Stourwater, Glos 2 Oxo cubes How good it is to exchange the nightly 1 tablespoon oatmeal terror of German bombing raids on our 1 good handful of chopped parsley beloved Capital City and the wail of the Salt and pepper air raid siren for the fresh air and bird For the Potato Pastry song of the Cotswolds. How kind it was 4 oz mashed potato – powdered if no of Lady Donners to arrange to fresh potatoes available accommodate me in an empty cottage on 2 oz lard (Hugon’s Atora) her husband’s estate. I am sure that my 1 oz grated “mousetrap” cheese ever-attentive son Kenneth (who used to 8 oz plain sieved flour work for Sir Magnus before being called 2 tablespoons of Borwick’s baking upon to serve King and Country as a powder commissioned officer) had some hand in Cooking Instructions facilitating this happy arrangement. For the Filling Kenneth is not the only person of mark to Place all the ingredients into a large pot. make significant sacrifices in order to help Add just enough water to cover. Cook win this war. I have had to exchange my over a medium heat for about twenty hygienic gas cooker which was the pride minutes, stirring from time to time to of my Westminster apartment block for a prevent the vegetables sticking to the smoky cast iron kitchen range, which pot. Agatha our part-time domestic keeps Set the pot aside and add chopped fired up with Welsh nuts from our coal parsley and seasoning. bunker outside the back door. 13 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

For the Crust While my noble son observed the dictum Combine flour, salt and baking powder. “waste not, want not”, using a slice of Rub lard into the flour mixture before bread to soak up the gravy, his gently mixing in the mashed potato. Add companion left her pastry piled up on the a little water; knead the potato pastry mix side of the plate along with the and roll it out onto a floured board or cauliflower. I was seething but managed your deal kitchen table. to confine myself to simply remarking. Place the pie filling into a deep pie dish, “So our fresh country air and plain cover with potato pastry and put in the cooking doesn’t agree with you, Miss oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400°F. Jones? I expect you’re more used to Serve with Gravy. dining at the Savoy!” Result. Kenneth leapt to the young lady’s defence. “Why Woolton Pie is exactly –––––– what they do serve at the Savoy I was delighted to see that my dear nowadays. It was created by its chef de Kenneth polished off his Woolton Pie in cuisine M. Latry!” Gypsy pulled a face and double quick time, talking all the while in defiance of polite manners made her between mouthfuls to his friend. The feelings clear by stubbing out her young lady, who it transpires by the by is cigarette theatrically on Lord Woolton’s called “Gypsy”, is an anaemic looking rejected pastry! Kenneth burbled some slattern who insists on chain smoking feeble excuse and the pair fled into the Turkish cigarettes even at the dinner night to a waiting motor car, arguing table! loudly the while. ■ Mrs Widmerpool’s Diaries and Cook Book are copyright Stephen Hoare 2016.

Lord Woolton, above, and the original recipe for his eponymous pie from The Times, 26 April 1941 14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

We All Have Our Own Norpois: Powell and Proust By Nicholas Birns It is clear to the reader of Dance who has especially, the artists are not nearly as also read Proust that specific characters are deeply portrayed or portrayed as deep. based on their Proustian counterparts. I Whereas Bergotte and Elstir are portrayed will argue in turn that this is because as people who have thought seriously Proust has tapped into something close to about their art, Jenkins’ elder artist friends an ‘archetype’, the kind of person that or acquaintances are seen as artists people growing up in a certain sort of manqué. Now, it must be said that society will inevitably meet in their lives, Jenkins’ peers and younger and play a minor but important role in contemporaries, such as Trapnel and their odyssey. The Marquis de Norpois, Moreland, are portrayed, if not with the for instance, as an eminent but also limited idealist aura with which Proust endows his and establishment-oriented diplomat, artists, certainly as admirable. But participating in the fringes of the artistic Powell’s approach to art, although world (as evinced by his encouraging ruminative and thoughtful, is not as Marcel to see Berma in Phèdre), is a clear philosophical as Proust’s, although inspiration for Sir Gavin Walpole-Wilson. Trapnel and Moreland certainly utter Elstir, as a visual artist older than the credos and evince practices of narrator who appears in the second book as craftsmanship. a signal of the narrator’s perceptual Powell is responding to Proust, but not just awakening, is a clear precedent for Mr passively imitating him. Certainly Dance Deacon. And Bergotte, as the eminent, was inspired by Proust, but also by the much-laurelled novelist who is an Forsyte Saga and more traditional French exemplar for the tentative artistic self- examples of the roman fleuve such as consciousness of Marcel, is a basis for E – those of Duhamel and Martin du Gard and people always forget the E – St John above all Balzac. We may note Balzac is Clarke. named in the sequence earlier than Proust: This is in my view not just contrivance on one book before. Both are important in the the part of Powell, finding British literary genealogy of Dance, not just in analogues for the French originals, but a terms of recurring character and extended testimony that Proust tapped into physical worlds but because for Powell something archetypal, that if one lives a reaching out to these writers is reaching certain sort of life – responsive, urban, out to an idea of Europe. artistic – one will meet artists and writers Although Powell seems, from the evidence and hommes d’affaires that will play these of his 1992 journal entries, to have been minor, advisory, but in some way less than rhapsodic about the European revelatory role in your life. I certainly can Union in an institutional sense, there is a picture in my mind my own Norpois, my deep connection to an idea of Europe in own Elstir, and my own Bergotte. his works; indeed, as an American, I have Powell is not just imitating Proust but often talked of the links to American recognizing this universality, and putting literature and culture in Powell’s works, his own Powellian spin on it. What is but obviously the links with European, and obvious in comparison to Proust is that the especially French, culture are much visual artist is far dodgier; the diplomat greater. just slightly more of a buffoon; the writer Powell enjoyed writers like Kingsley Amis quite a bit less of a paragon; that, and PG Wodehouse who did not seem to

15 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

and the imperative of the composition of A la Recherche, Dance was completed with twenty-five years of its author’s life to spare. Importantly, Powell’s sequence, unlike Proust’s, does not end with war, as Powell was almost ten years younger than Proust at the outbreak of their respective wars. It would have been hard for his sequence to end with war anyway, but Powell’s long lifespan meant the war was further back from the ending. And thus the generalisations that can be made, even if crudely, about both works – that they are about social transition and the decline of Marcel Proust the aristocracy in modernity – bear out even less well for Powell than for Proust. need this idea of Europe in their writing, The last three books of Dance are in a but he was very different from them. For sense Powell’s’ declaration of artistic and Powell, a European and especially French structural independence from Proust. It is aesthetic connection was crucial, as he no accident that Proust is acknowledged in makes clear in his introduction to his the ninth volume. The next three take us second book of collected criticism, Under into a post-war world of late middle and Review where he says that the section old age, which Proust had, in his devoted to Europe “includes, I think masterwork, the tragic knowledge to know justifiably, a good many French he would never see. Powell’s knowledge names” [UR, 3]. was different – one of endurance, resilience, and, as he once put it, of living Notably, though, Powell’s response to long enough to know how the story would Proust explodes a customary turn out. ■ generalization: that French is more lucid than English, English more turgid and complicated. English, it is said, is a sphere; French a mirror. Yet Powell, for Let us be grateful to people who all his superb cognizance of what the make us happy, they are the American critic Lionel Trilling called “the charming gardeners who make our hum and buzz of implication”, is a far souls blossom. more direct writer than Proust (one might Marcel Proust ‘blame’ the influence of Hardy, Ruskin, and Wordsworth on Proust for this). Indeed, it might be said Powell is trying to tug Proust in the direction, not of an I am sure you will agree with me, English comic muse – though that is Lady Warminster, in thinking, so far present – but the earlier French severity as company is concerned, enough is and austerity of Stendhal and Flaubert. as bad as a feast, and half a loaf in many ways preferable to the The biggest difference, though, between alternative of a whole one or the the two writers is something mostly out of traditional no bread. How enjoyable, Powell’s control: his long life, forty-three therefore, to be just as we are. years longer than Proust’s. Whereas Proust’s illness constitutes both the frame Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant

16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Who Are They? By Michael Henle

The description below fits a character in Who are they? Dance and a character in Proust’s A la Widmerpool, of course, and the narrator M Recherche. of A la Recherche. Description One might object that Widmerpool marries He doesn’t talk about his father much, but Pamela but M doesn’t marry Albertine. emerges from childhood with a profound Still, Albertine comes to live with M and attachment to his mother. He has health he attempts to control her with persistence problems and may be a bit of a equal to Widmerpool’s efforts to control hypochondriac. He wants very much to Pamela. A second objection might be that succeed in life and has ambitions which Albertine’s infidelities are never proven. the reader initially suspects are beyond his But it is equally unclear to what extent reach. Widmerpool knows about Pamela’s infidelities or, whatever he may suspect, In his twenties, he sets himself a series of whether he accepts them. Widmerpool goals whose achievement he hopes will seems to believe Pamela will always come win him the acceptance he craves. He has back to him. a fixed strategy for success that he invariably employs. He works hard What about the disillusionment? Is towards a goal, pushing himself forward Widmerpool truly as disappointed with his aggressively yet in a carefully planned, sly, success as M demonstrably is with his? and somewhat surreptitious way. He Recall General Conyers’ words, schemes; he suffers humiliations; he faces “It seems to me”, said the General, “that the possibility of failure; but repeatedly he he is a typical intuitive extrovert – classical case, almost. Cold-blooded. rises to new heights which, however, Keen on a thing for a moment, but invariably disappoint him so that he soon never satisfied. Wants to get on to seeks a new objective. something else.” [LM, 230] In middle age, he falls in love. He has The remaining items – the mother fixation, been involved with women before – with fixed life strategy, constant striving, mixed results. He is known, for example, scheming for success, probable to visit prostitutes. He is something of a hypochondria, commerce with prostitutes, voyeur. This particular woman presumed impotence, obsession with the mysteriously succumbs to his advances, great love of his life who dies shortly after though grave doubt is cast whether their she absconds – all apply equally to M and relationship is ever consummated. to Widmerpool. Whether deliberately or Regardless, he is devoted to her, even by happenstance, Widmerpool has ended becoming dependent on her. He is, up with a number of salient qualities of the perhaps, trying to replace his mother, all narrator of A la Recherche. the while striving to dominate and control, Widmerpool, as it happens, is paired with as he controls his mother. He only another character from Proust’s novel, partially succeeds. Meanwhile what he Charlus. learns suggests she has committed a multitude of shocking infidelities. In the That association is of function, not end she escapes his clutches only to die personality. Widmerpool and Charlus help soon afterwards. He never recovers from unify their respective novels by their her loss. frequent reappearance and the way they

17 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 fascinate their narrators. That is their With unexpectedly delicate function. As people they are profoundly movements of the hands, the Field- different. Charlus has no need to climb Marshal began to explain what had socially; he was born at the top of the been happening. We were in an area heap. Social climbing: that’s where M and … immemorially campaigned over. In Widmerpool excel. fact the map was no less than a great What does all this tell us? slice of history. As the eye travelled northward, it fell on Zutphen, where It sheds some light on the frustrating Sir Philip Sidney had stopped a bullet process of finding sources for Powell’s in that charge against the Albanian characters. Widmerpool participates, to a cavalry. One wondered why Albanians certain extent, in the traits of two should be involved in this part of the characters from Proust as well as a number world at such a time. Presumably they of real people with whom he seems to were some auxiliary unit of the share traits. At the same time, he remains Spanish Command, similar to those uniquely himself, not true to any of these exotic corps of which one heard sources and certainly not merely the sum rumours in the current war … The of an ‘M’ plus a ‘Charlus’. ■ thought of Sidney, a sympathetic figure, distracted attention from the But anyway, it takes a bit of time to Field-Marshal's talk. One felt him realize that all of the odds and ends essentially the kind of soldier Vigny milling about round one are the had in mind when writing of the man process of living. who, like a monk, submitted himself to Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant the military way of life, because he thought it right, rather than because it appealed to him. Le Grand Hôtel, Cabourg (Proust’s Balbec) on a The Military Philosophers postcard from around the time of Proust

18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

My First Time In which members tell us of their first encounters with the Powellian world

Widmerpool Revealed By Geraint Dearman

Bristol. 1982? 1983? My friend J told trench coat. Too hot for an overcoat. And me about Powell and about Dance. An glasses. Thick, dark, horn-rimmed. enthusiast (perhaps he had also listened to J said “Look – that’s Widmerpool.” the BBC Radio production a few years Indeed he was. In the flesh. Although I earlier?) he urged me to read it. had not read Dance – I had not, I think, Looming finals precluded much reading even seen Marc’s caricatures – but I knew; for leisure, although I was at that time it was him. rather keen on Graham Greene. We giggled. J said “Shush – he might hear However, J’s reflections and remarks us”. familiarised me with Dance and the awful concept of “Widmerpool”. We did not speak to “Widmerpool”, nor did he acknowledge us. J had a car. Rare in those days for an undergraduate to own such a thing. I scoffed at J’s remark, but his assumption seemed to be that all right thinking people Sometime, I suppose the Spring or were naturally familiar with Dance and Summer of 1983, we went to a party. therefore Widmerpool, and the man Somewhere in Gloucestershire. North of overhearing us, might take the comparison Cheltenham perhaps. It could even have amiss. been further – Herefordshire? A large modern detached house out of the town. I took it as a given therefore, that one must “Posh” friends of J. read Dance. I don’t remember the party itself, but the I did not in fact, actually read a page of following morning, several of the guests Powell until 1990. But I had already seen – perhaps half a dozen of us – decided to Widmerpool. ■ go for a walk. We walked for maybe an hour or so, in the late morning, around tarmacked lanes, with plenty of greenery and large- gardened houses. Urbe in rus rather than rus in urbe. We might have been in Surrey rather than the Cotswolds. I cannot recall actually going over fences, upon footpaths or through fields. One of the other walkers was a young man – probably no more than thirty, although to us, at no more than twenty- two, he seemed middle aged. Not too tall, he was wearing a coat. A dark blue macintosh – a Burberry perhaps. Not a

19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Dates for Your Diary

A Day Out in Oxford William Shakespeare AP and His Chums A Midsummer Night’s Saturday 3 September 2016 Dream Meet: Jesus College Tuesday 6 September 2016 Time: 1015 for 1030 hrs 1930 hrs performance Cost: £25 (payable in advance) Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre In celebration of AP’s Welsh ancestry Join us for an evening at the Globe we meet at Jesus College for coffee and Theatre to see Shakespeare’s A a short introductory talk. We will then Midsummer Night’s Dream – a play Powell clearly enjoyed – and celebrate visit Balliol College, AP’s college, th returning to Jesus for a buffet lunch at the 400 anniversary of the bard’s about 1300 hrs. death. After lunch we plan to walk by Hertford We have booked a small number of College, visit Wadham College (home tickets which are available to members to Maurice Bowra) then Magdalen (first come first served) at the face College (Henry Yorke’s college), ending value of £45. with afternoon tea. Before sending money, please contact Non-members welcome. the Hon. Secretary to ensure tickets are Group limited to 20. still available. Please book with the Hon. Secretary. Tickets and further information from the Hon. Secretary. Annual General Meeting and London Group Pub Meets “Bring & Buy” Book Sale Saturday 5 November 2016 Saturday 22 October 2016 Saturday 4 February 2017 Saturday 6 May 2017 St James’s Church Saturday 5 August 2017 Piccadilly, London W1 Saturday 4 November 2017 1400 hrs prompt The Audley Details on page 24 41-43 Mount Street, London W1 1230 to 1530 hrs A pint, a pie and informal conversation in a Victorian pub AP would have known. Why not bring something AP related to interest us? Non-members always welcome. No need to book but further details from the Hon. Secretary.

20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Dates for Your Diary

London Group Hon. Secretary’s New AP Birthday Lunch Year Brunch Saturday 3 December 2016 Saturday 21 January 2017 1200 for 1215 hrs 1000 to 1200 hrs Malabar Junction Central London venue tbc 107 Great Russell Street Do you find the dull days of London WC1 January depressing or just boring? This year, something different: we Whichever it is come along to our are returning to the venue of our now traditional brunch and liven up 2014 commemoration lunch for your winter – you can even work in the centenary of WWI and the the sales or a museum afterwards. flashback in The Kindly Ones, the This is a pay on the day event, but Malabar Junction South Indian please book so we can ensure we restaurant – just 200m from the have reserved a large enough table! and almost Non-members always welcome. opposite the TUC. Bookings and further information This is a pay on the day event, but when available from the please book so we ensure we have Hon. Secretary. ■ reserved a large enough table! To book, or for further details, please contact the Hon. Secretary, [email protected]. Non-members welcome. ■

Malabar Junction, venue for the London Group AP Birthday Lunch on 3 December 21 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Society News & Notices

Membership Updates Subscriptions New Members Subscriptions are due annually We extend a warm welcome to the on 1 April (for rates see back page) following new and returning Reminders will be sent out (by email members: where possible) during March each Rose Aidin, London year to those whose membership is Cynthia Anderson, Riverside, USA about to expire Kate Berridge, London Tim Birt, London Why not save time and money David Bomford, London with our Octavia Carr, Carlisle 5 years for the price of 4 NPH Dewes, Pontefract membership offer? James Doyle, Brookline, USA To keep costs down we will be Laurie Adams Frost, Asheville, USA using email wherever possible Prof. Didier Girard, Tours, France so please look out for emails from Carol Grey, Darien, USA the Society Karen Handal, Old Greenwich, USA Christopher Heywood, Skipton Anyone whose membership is expired Bill Jerdee, Irving, USA will be removed from the membership Howard Llewellyn, Dundee list at the end of June Christopher Long, Biddenden Subscriptions should be sent to the Edward McGowan, Brooklyn, USA Hon. Secretary, at the usual address Derek Pasquill, London Please help us to keep costs down Bernard Spilsbury, Clacton-on-Sea by renewing promptly Yu Tzong-Chen, Taipei, Taiwan

Gerald Parsons reads during Ivan Hutnik’s Summer Stroll on Saturday 2 July hoto John Blaxter (Report on page 26) P 22 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Society News & Notices

Local Group Contacts Newsletter Copy Deadlines London Group Newsletter #65, Winter 2016 Area: London & SE England Copy Deadline: 7 November 2016 Contact: Keith Marshall Publication Date: 2 December 2016 Email: [email protected] Newsletter #66, Spring 2017 New York & NE USA Group Copy Deadline: 10 February 2017 Area: New York & NE USA Publication Date: 3 March 2017 Contact: Nick Birns Email: [email protected] Great Lakes Group Area: Chicago area, USA Contact: Joanne Edmonds Email: [email protected] Nordic Group Area: Sweden & Finland Contact: Regina Rehbinder Email: reginarehbinder @hotmail.com 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 don’t have email. If you wish to start a local group the Hon. Secretary can advise on the number of members in your area.

Contributions to the Newsletter and journal Secret Harmonies are always welcome and should be sent to: Newsletter & Journal Editor, Anthony Powell Society 76 Ennismore Avenue Greenford, UB6 0JW, UK [email protected] We are always especially grateful for reports or notices of Powell-related events and relevant photographs

23 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Annual General Meeting and Book Sale

Annual General Meeting “Bring and Buy” Book Sale Notice is hereby given that the 16th Instead of a speaker there will be a “Bring Annual General Meeting of the and Buy” Book Sale at this year’s AGM – as Anthony Powell Society will be we did at the 2013 Conference. held on Saturday 22 October 2016 The idea is that you bring your surplus at 1400 hrs in the Conference books (CDs are OK, too) to be sold, and you Room of St James’s Church, buy other books/CDs in the sale. The seller and the Society split the sale price so that Piccadilly, London W1 everyone benefits. –––––– Book Registration: 1300-1400 hrs The Annual Report & Accounts and AGM agenda & voting papers are included with Book Sale: this Newsletter. Proxy votes must reach the 1330-1400 hrs & 1500-1630 hrs Hon. Secretary by Monday 17 October Please bring along your surplus books/CDs. 2016. Powell-related items would be good but anything in decent condition is acceptable. The more interesting the item the more likely it is to sell. You say how much your book/CD should be sold for. Please be realistic and don’t overprice – we want to sell things! You also say what percentage of the sale price is to go to the Society (we suggest 50% but it’s your choice); you receive the remainder. Book Sale Terms & Conditions: 1. By entering a book or CD for sale you are We will run the book stall, so all you have to agreeing that you have the right to sell it. do is bring books/CDs and buy others! 2. You will be paid your proceeds within 30 Sales slips will be available on the day, or days following the sale. can be sent to you in advance. You must 3. The Society may accept a reasonable complete a slip for each item and put it offer of less than the Asking Price at its inside the front cover. This slip will be our sole discretion if it is not possible to refer record of the sale so is essential if you want to you quickly. to be paid! 4. Title to the book transfers on receipt of money from the purchaser. Afterwards we will work out how much you 5. Unsold books not collected within 30 are owed. You will be paid in the days minutes of the end of the sale will following the AGM – there will not be time become the property of the Anthony on the day! Unsold books should be taken Powell Society and may be used as the away promptly after the sale. Society sees fit. Full sale terms & conditions to the left.

24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Local Group News

Fascinating Footnotes London Pub Meet, 6 August 2016 By Stephen Walker

Who are these women in flip-flops and All this scuttlebutt and scurrility was fascinators? Just one of the fascinating relieved by serious discussions on the questions that a record 16 members changing nature of curatorship and, pondered in The Audley. Even for Mount naturally, books. The Blitz by Constantine Street, their dress sense was outré. Fitzgibbon was introduced by Noreen Some members were also sartorially Marshall as a source for many novelists of innovative with scarlet Nike trainers that period. Members commented on how jostling with pink linen trousers teamed they were only now fully realising how with a dark burgundy T-shirt. All worn by autobiographical Dance is. two of the 11 male members present. Adrian Daintrey made an appearance. One What would AP have said? of his water colours – a view of old St Two Australian members, David and Thomas’s Hospital across the River Catherine Barker from Sydney joined us. Thames from the Houses of Parliament – Powellian connections through work, was displayed by your Secretary who university and London Hospital colleagues invited guesses on what he paid for it at rapidly emerged. They enlivened the auction. A wide range was essayed – one discussions and the London members were was bang on the money, and won the lucky delighted to see them – as we are always member a year’s membership (at the Hon. pleased to welcome visiting members. Secretary’s expense!). Erudition, defamation, whimsy were The food for thought was much better than deployed. As the chatter ranged over the the food for eating. The slight appropriateness of the new Home improvement in the standard of the fish Secretary’s name for a dominatrix, the joy and chips was countered by a decline in of reading cookery books, Dr Keith’s (as the level of service. Delays, absence of he is known at the Audley) barnet, and cutlery and profusion of dirty crockery did how orchestras exact revenge on not create an agreeably louche and unpopular conductors, energy and laughter amusing ambience. But the conversation levels rose. did. Alcohol released confessions. How many PS. In contrast to the proliferation of knew that your Chairman had been sandals and un-socked feet, the tie count accused of being a pervert and voyeur? was down to two. Uncle Giles may need Admittedly only for using a ladies/disabled to reissue his advice. lavatory when nursing a plastered ankle Present were: David & Catherine Barker, Robin under his trouser leg. But still. Which Bynoe, Jill Chalmers, Geraint Dearman, Geoff trustee spent a summer in Antibes on the Eagland, Stephen Holden, Clive Gwatkin Jenkins, Keith & Noreen Marshall, Gerald Parsons, Prue same pontoon at the Plage de Keller as Raper, Guy Robinson, Rob Tresman, Stephen & Jean-Paul Belmondo and Gwynneth Alison Walker. ■ Paltrow?

25 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Local Group News

A Saturday Stroll in Fitzrovia By Prue Raper

Ivan Hutnik gave the latest of his London moving again to Brunswick Square. (It walks the title of “The Morning After in was in Tavistock Square that on 7 July Fitzrovia”. This presumably referred to 2005, a terrorist bomb destroyed a bus, the usual state of the Dance characters who causing many deaths and casualties.) frequented the area. Luckily the members Our next port of call was Gordon Square, of the society who gathered outside where we paused to look at the remarkable Russell Square tube station appeared on architecture of the Church of Christ the the whole bright-eyed and not noticeably King. The church was built in the Early hung-over. English Neo-Gothic style by Raphael Ten of us stood alertly when Ivan called us Brandon between 1850 and 1854 for the to order and pointed out – though it was Victorian church movement, the Catholic not actually visible – the location of Great Apostolic Church, also known as Ormond Street where, to number 47, AP “Irvingites” – its web-site is well worth a and Lady Violet moved early in 1935, look. The church’s structure is based on shortly after their marriage in December that of Westminster Abbey, though 1934. In To Keep the Ball Rolling Powell incomplete. Nevertheless it is a large and remarks that he took the flat as the result striking building. Its English Chapel is of an introduction at a sitting of the described as “a gem of architectural Society for Psychical Research, and that delight”. their flat faced the Children’s Hospital – “a On the way to our next stop we crossed red-brick building of unmatched Gower Street into Torrington Place; then, hideousness”. after turning off Tottenham Court Road, In search of greater architectural loveliness we paused for our first reading, from The we moved on to Russell Square, “Russell” Kindly Ones [75-8]. This was the passage being the family name of the Dukes of where Jenkins introduces us to Moreland’s Bedford, who developed the area in the philosophy of life – one remarkably 17th and 18th centuries as part of the family’s London landholdings. Their London home was Bedford House, and the square and its surrounding streets were formed from the house’s gardens when the area was developed. From there we walked to Tavistock Square, where AP lived at number 33 after leaving Shepherd Market in 1929, later

Stephen Holden (in hat) reads from hoto John Blaxter

Dance during Ivan’s Summer Stroll P 26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 similar to Constant Lambert’s. Stephen Also in Charlotte Street is the Fitzroy Holden gave us this reading. Tavern, currently undergoing restoration. On then to Fitzroy Square, where the That, too, was much frequented in the oldest buildings date from the late 18th 1930s and 1940s by AP, as well as by century, and there are a number of blue Dylan Thomas, Julian Maclaren Ross, plaques. The one at No. 29 marks the , Nina Hamnett, Constant house where , and Lambert and many other notable figures in later Virginia Stephen (Woolf), once lived. the arts world. This might well have been the place where AP met Constant Lambert, Today’s Fitzroy Street lacks the shabbiness as he mentions in Messengers of Day that and faintly disreputable air that it bore in they met fairly regularly: “drinking in Dance, but one can still sense the pale pubs, going for walks and attending ghosts of Gypsy Jones and Howard Craggs parties”. without too much difficulty. Nearby, in Charlotte Street, we looked (sadly, in vain) The Fitzroy Tavern owns a painting by for the “narrow by-street” where Mr Augustus John and some important Deacon’s shop was situated. Here we photographs of its other famous regulars. paused for our second reading, again by And the Charlotte Street Hotel nearby has Stephen, from A Buyer’s Market [162-4]. paintings in the drawing room by some of the Bloomsbury generation (whom AP Bertorelli’s restaurant was once a well- disliked): Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and known feature of Charlotte Street, and AP Duncan Grant. lunched there regularly during the 1960s with Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest and We were nearing the end of our walk, but among others. Regrettably, there was still time to look at The Marquis its place has now been taken by “Wahaca of Granby, to which Julian Maclaren Ross Mexican” which doesn’t have quite the and others would make a quick dash after same ambience. closing time at The Wheatsheaf. Being in a different borough, it had a later closing time. This was a place “where intellectuals were virtually unknown”. And so to The Wheatsheaf itself, and our final destination. Opposite this we had our final reading, this time given by Graham Page. This passage from Books Do Furnish a Room [155-160] is where Jenkins goes to meet X Trapnel on his home ground, The Hero of Acre, to discuss his writing and his struggles with life. Julian Maclaren Ross (on whom Trapnel is based) “owned” the seat at the bar nearest to the door, ready for a dash at closing time to get to The Marquis. For us, it meant a climb up the rickety stairs to the upstairs room with a long table laid out ready for our well-earned lunch. Huge thanks from us all to Ivan for hoto John Blaxter another meticulously planned and P fascinating walk. ■ True to Dance the strollers encountered a demo 27 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Truth and Art: Acrostics, Jokes and Vats of Imaginary Whisky By Robin Bynoe Some time ago I was walking funny – only if he actually had a relation companionably through the Lincolnshire who died in a vat. countryside with my friend John. Apropos They take comfort from Kingsley Amis’s nothing he said remark to Philip Larkin: “My uncle drowned in a vat of whisky.” It did suddenly strike me how fed up I “Ah,” I replied. was about all those real people and real incidents [Powell would] put in his “He beat off all attempts to save him,” books. I thought you were meant John said. to make things up, you know, like a I let this sink in. Then I said, “That’s not novelist. true.” Amis was opposed to acrosticians, but they “Of course not.” think that he confirmed that they were I let this sink in too. Then I said, “That is right. a story that is interesting only if true. If it Powell was irritatedly trenchant on the is true, it has all sorts of aspects, including subject, probably because he did sail close the juxtaposition of farce with raw human to the wind occasionally as regards real tragedy. If it is not true, however, it is people. All his characters, he said, were merely an unoriginal joke, which was not the products of his imagination; of course worth making.” real people and real events triggered his Under this rebuff, John understandably fell imagination, but not one to one: each silent, as did I, but I spent the rest of the character was made up of a number of real walk considering the important influences, and, most importantly, the real implications of this exchange for the data had to be transformed by the writer’s novels of Anthony Powell, which are never imagination or the character would not, as far from my mind. he put it, “come off”. But he did sometimes take chances. The allied Many of Powell’s readers are attracted by officers in MP are clearly based on real the fact that Dance appears to them to be a people without much invention on the roman à clef. They treat the novel as an writer’s part, as is Colonel Finn. I acrostic, which I suppose makes them remember the fury with which I read in the acrosticians. They believe that characters Memoirs that Pennistone was fairly closely in the novel can be identified with real based on Alick Dru. I did not want to people known to Powell, doing things that know about Dru, who was at best a flimsy actually happened. It always seems to me and unknowable person from the real that acrosticians don’t understand either world. He was someone from Powell’s how novels are written or what novels are Waugh-related hinterland, which meant for; they are like Amazon reviewers who nothing to me except polite interest, tell you that you should avoid certain whereas Pennistone was a fully realised books because characters in them are and entirely knowable person in the world horrid, behave badly or, worse, say things of the novel: one of my favourites. that are racist, sexist or contrary to the consensus among scientists on One example that everyone quotes is anthropogenic climate change. They are Moreland. Powell has written that there is like people who spit in the street at actors a lot of Constant Lambert in Moreland. who play bad characters in soaps. They People have gone so far as to contend that, believe that John’s joke has validity – is because Moreland does or says something

28 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 in the novel, Lambert must have done the you that what is being described actually same in real life. This seems to me to be happened – and that that is the only reason nonsense, for two reasons. The first is that that it is there. No novel is improved by Moreland is not much like Lambert except such rude intrusions from the outside in the outlines of their biographies. At its world. simplest, Moreland is a nice man and In my view Powell does process real life Lambert wasn’t. He was good, possibly; through his imagination, the result does often admirable, certainly; but rarely nice. “come off” in every case where it matters, The second is that it ignores the sheer and the more biographies we read the more technical joy that Powell clearly took in other works of fiction – Waugh’s in creating a world – Moreland, his friends particular – unravel into hunks of badly and hangers-on – that revolved around digested autobiography in a way that something – music – that Powell did not Powell’s work never will. It is a pity understand or like. I find that exhilarating. however that he left so many tasty morsels I think that he did too. to tempt the acrosticians. Other novelists of course have been far Where does that leave the encounter less fastidious. They put their friends and between my friend John’s imaginary uncle enemies into their fiction. Worse, they put and his vat of imaginary whisky and its in their ex-lovers and their bosses, in order implications for the world of Eng. Lit.? I to get their own back. EM Forster, when, think that we can draw these tentative as a prissy young man, he was let loose on conclusions of principle: the Empire, kept a notebook in which he recorded what he regarded as the most 1. Facts should be judged as facts. egregious sayings of the wicked colonials 2. Jokes should be judged as jokes. that he encountered. You can find some of 3. Facts may be funny, but jokes can’t be them in the dialogue in A Passage to India. factual. They are the bits that resemble sore 4. Jokes, on their own terms, help to thumbs sticking out. In short, unless you explain and change the world. are an acrostician, there is nothing more 5. For ‘jokes’ read ‘novels’, throughout. ■ dispiriting than reading a work of fiction when the chilling realisation creeps over Whisky galore

29 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Milly Andriadis’ Illegal Rave or Which Way did you Vote? From our Social Correspondent The house in Belgrave Square which gave Marxist praxis that the EU’s plan to raise a the air of being let unfurnished for a month European Army will destabilise the or two was bare save for DJ Maxx P Balkans, goading Putin’s Russia into Grimm’s massive sound system punching declaring war on Ukraine. The EU is out its insistent Hip-Hop beat. Mr Deacon, nothing but an unaccountable dictatorship, Gypsy Jones, Widmerpool, the Honourable a German-dominated neo-liberal super- Charles Stringham and I were met on the state that supports big business over stairs by the rave’s hostess, the Afro-haired workers’ rights – and Mr Deacon agrees “Empress Missy Miss” (AKA Mrs Milly with me!” Andriadis) dressed in a loose fitting silk “I wouldn’t be so cocksure, Miss Jones. shift and little else. “Who are these jolly- Last year the European Union was looking dudes, Chuck, darling?” she awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Ever purred, waving a spliff. since the EU came into being there has “Oh just some guys I ran into at the UK never been a war in Europe.” Stronger in Europe shindig, Milly. And Never one to be muzzled, Gypsy shot that’s Nick Jenkins. Nick and I were at back. “That’s only because the last time school together,” beamed a somewhat Germany tried anything 30 million people stoned Stringham. “You darlings,” said lost their lives and all of Germany’s cities Mrs Andriadis. “It’s going to be a lovely were reduced to rubble. It’s waging party now. Just so long as you are all economic war this time. I mean look at voting for Remain you can join us. I will the way the Germans have ridden de-friend anyone who says they are voting roughshod over Greece – the cradle of Brexit from my Facebook site!” democracy!” Widmerpool and Gypsy Jones threaded I left the pair to their argument and their way among the guests. wandered over to where DJ Maxx P “I shall of course be voting Remain as it is Grimm was holding court. On the way I the only sane choice facing the British bumped into none other than my former people. We no longer have an Empire but tutor at Oxford, Sillery. Usually, by this inside Europe we can punch above our time of the year Sillers would be spending weight on the world stage,” asserted the his Long Vacation abroad in Austria or puffed up business consultant. Italy. “I had it straight from the horse’s mouth. “Well if it isn’t Jenkins! How are you, My boss Sir Magnus Donners says that he young man?” is reviewing where to locate his global “I’m fine. I’ve got a new job editing film operation, the Donners Brebner scripts for Gainsborough Pictures. I’m just Corporation. If the UK leaves the about making ends meet,” I replied. Then European Free Trade Zone then he may be I added. “What is your opinion on Europe, forced to move the entire business to sir?” Frankfurt.” “Ah Europe, Nick. The single currency “What a complete self-serving load of and the borderless travel within Europe is utter bollocks,” countered the assertive a considerable boon to cosmopolitan Miss Jones brandishing a copy of a socialites such as myself. I’m delaying my pamphlet War Never Pays. “It’s f*****g customary reading party with a group of obvious to anyone who knows their

30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 hand-picked undergraduates until I vote in “I’m awfully sorry to disappoint but I the referendum. In my opinion the UK haven’t really considered it. Tuffy should have joined the Euro and Schengen Weedon has been engaging so much of my a long time ago. But I have ordered all my time lately. That’s when I’m not acting as holiday spending money early to take private secretary to Sir Magnus Donners. advantage of the good exchange rate But I am considering visiting an old friend between the pound and the Euro. If the of my father’s, Dicky Umfraville out in Brexiteers win my travel arrangements Kenya. Dicky left school fifteen years will cost a lot more. And an academic’s earlier than myself. He was sacked, like emoluments don’t stretch so far that I can me! Come to think about it, on sober absorb the cost. Then again, think of all reflection, I really do think that Dicky and the academic grants the EU dishes out. I will be voting for Brexit – just to get up Travel scholarships, visiting Buster Foxe’s nose!” professorships. I’d be lost without the Finally, I arrive at a group of hipsters who EU’s bottomless trough ...” are gathered around DJ Maxx P Grimm “Ah, here is the Honourable Charles who is performing one of his characteristic Stringham if I am not mistaken! How is raps. your mother, Stringham? Does she still “I comin’ out. I comin’ out remain at Glimber with her new husband, o’ de ole’ Brussels sprout. Buster Foxe?” An MEP is no life fo’ me. “Glimber as arranged by Buster is now let All o’ dat’ money but no honey Angela Merkel she ain’t no twerker. to a family of Armenians. Mater and An MEP is no life fo’ me … Buster are living in a more modest house in Sunningdale,” my friend replied. A lady in a tiara had at last abandoned the magnum of champagne to her bearded “And how will you be voting on the great opponent (now accommodated with a constitutional question – Britain’s younger, though less conspicuous woman), continuing role in Europe?” pressed and she was accepting a joint from a Sillery. Rastafarian. Beyond this couple a gentleman in a gimp hood and bondage gear was being led on a chain by a brassy blonde clad in PVC waspie corset and McTigger Book Search thigh boots. Struggling to find AP volumes? “Baby Wentworth! What brings you here Why not ask us to hunt for you? on the very eve of our historic Brexit Tell us what you want and how referendum?” I exclaim. much you want to pay and we’ll do “Oh hi, Nick darling. Have you met my our best to find it for you. new admirer? Prince Theodoric, this It’s always worth asking distinguished looking homme d’affaires is as we may have it in stock! Nick Jenkins and he’d like to have a word with you … once you’ve stopped licking Terms: cost + p&p + small fee. my boots!” Private sale. Independent of AP Soc. “We thought it was a fancy dress party, but then got a bit carried away,” explained his Contact supreme highness Prince Theodoric of Keith & Noreen Marshall Albania. “We like the EU and want to join [email protected] as soon as possible. In my country we

31 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 envy you British your Royal Family, I am on the point of leaving this rave public schools, fried chicken outlets and when I catch sight of Widmerpool still the National Health Service. Alas I am not caught in the spell of Miss Gypsy Jones. permitted to vote in the referendum but “I can’t stand it here,” Gypsy was saying. Baby here is voting to Remain in the EU.” “All you posh people you won’t know “That’s right,” assented Baby Wentworth what will hit you when the masses rise up breathing heavily. “I want to keep my and have their say. The proletariat versus eastern European nanny, my Polish globalisation. I can’t take any more of builders, and all of those charming baristas your canting lectures. I’m off to the who serve me my daily latte at Starbucks. Merrythought Club!” You know I have always thought of myself Widmerpool replied, “I’m coming round as a European first and foremost. I mean to your way of thinking. I’ll order us a this island is so drab. Those mean little taxi toute de suite!” ■ people who live ‘up north’ are just narrow minded plebeians who deserve to be on the dole … I bet they will vote Brexit just to ... that indeterminate territory be dog in the manger and spite us.” eternally disputed between tarts and art students … Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant

To think at all objectively about Profiles in String one's own marriage is impossible, while a balanced view of other His Excellency Mr Stephen Holden in a realisation by Dr Keith Marshall people's marriage is almost equally hard to achieve with so much information available, so little to be believed. Objectivity is not, of course, everything in writing; but, even after one has cast objectivity aside, the difficulties of presenting marriage are inordinate. Its forms are at once so varied, yet so constant, providing a kaleidoscope, the colours of which are always changing, always the same. The moods of a love affair, the contradictions of friendship, the jealousy of business partners, the fellow feeling of opposed commanders in total war, these are

all in their way to be charted. Marriage, partaking of such – and a thousand more – dual antagonisms and participations, finally defies definition. Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant hoto Keith Marshallhoto Keith P 32 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Controversy – It’s what the APLIST is for! By Robin Bynoe The Society’s Chairman urges us to use our email discussion list to stimulate interaction and even controversy

The Editor of your Newsletter is a lawyer Signing up to the APLIST is very easy. by training and by inclination. He believes All you have to do is send an email to less in the broad eirenical sweep of debate, [email protected]. You achieving consensus as it goes, discarding needn’t even include any content in the outmoded opinions with a grateful and email – though bear in mind that AP would civilised wave of farewell, than in the undoubtedly have done so, had he spectacle of people disagreeing and taking achieved the feat of linking his small chunks out of each other. portable typewriter to the World Wide “Write something controversial,” he will Web. occasionally urge me, and no doubt others Then, when faced with the tendentious too, fingering his green eyeshade stuff that the Editor serves up with the sole distractedly. “We’ll get a lively discussion aim of starting a fight, do not simply put going.” up with it. Write to the APLIST at once Or, “What about so-and-so’s piece? and point out the error of everyone’s ways. Rubbish, didn’t you think? Write and say Start a lively discussion. ■ so.” –––––––– As an approach to journalism this certainly Keith Marshall, owner of the APLIST has much to commend it. In the case of comments: APLIST members contribute to the discussions by sending their comments as the Newsletter, however, it has one big email messages to the list server at disadvantage: the timing. [email protected]. These comments are Even if one rushes to respond to an article then distributed by the server to every list member using email, thus allowing other members to in the next issue it is months before respond (via the server) and discuss. Rinse and anyone sees it. All passion will by then repeat. have faded and the original writer will There is also an online archive of all the posts have probably changed his or her mind which may be accessed at https:// anyway; or emigrated elsewhere in the EU groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aplist/info. under an assumed name; or died. When you email a subscribe request to the Meanwhile in another part of the forest we APLIST (as Robin describes above) you will be have the APLIST. This is the Society’s sent a return email asking you to confirm your email discussion list, which you can find subscription. out about on the website All new APLIST members have their posts (www.anthonypowell.org). Spirited moderated until we know they have a bona fide interest in AP. This is to reduce the incidence of discussions take place on it. Sometimes spammers joining the group. they are quite rude. My own very first contribution was met with a response that Although we would love all APLIST members to join the Society, and, like Robin, I would started, ‘Do I have to keep repeating encourage them to do so, the Society provides the that…’ group free-of-charge as part of our education, Many of the stalwarts of the APLIST are research and public benefit obligations. ■ members of the Society, but some are not. That is a shame. They should all join. Sticking together is important.

33 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 BOOK REVIEW Adrian Tinniswood The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars Jonathan Cape; £25 Reviewed by Michael Barber

What a house! Coronets on the table could be damp and draughty). In the napkins, but no kind hearts between the evening there would be billiards, bridge, sheets. [AW, 199] jigsaws or charades (hence AP’s belief that Stringham, you may recall, was no fan of a facility for buffoonery was an essential his aristocratic in-laws or their country weapon in the arriviste’s armoury). seat, Mountfichet, where he could never Opposing them were city dwelling find the lavatories, plutocrats like Sir Magnus Donners, who if there is, indeed, more than one, a motored down to their well-appointed matter upon which I cannot speak with mansions for relaxing week-ends, and the certainty. [AW, 199] quasi-egalitarian Prince of Wales, who Stringham may have been drunk, but he liked everything to be smart, glossy and up had a point. Before the Great War nobs to date. At his country bolt hole, Fort like the Bridgnorths had no need of Belvedere, he introduced many of the modern plumbing: there were always creature comforts he had ‘known and plenty of skivvies on hand to empty sampled in the New World’: not just en- chamber pots and lug around tubs of hot suite bathrooms – almost unheard of then – water (chores I don’t recall depicted in but showers and central heating as well. Downton Abbey). But after 1919 the At this point I ought to say that supply of willing skivvies dried up and the Tinniswood’s sub-title is a bit misleading. post war generation to which Stringham I expected something along the lines of belonged rejected, along with much else, Merlin Waterson’s elegiac retrospective, the Victorian notion that bathrooms were The Country House Remembered (a fertile an unnecessary luxury. There was, it is source here). In fact it is more like an true, a concerted effort on the part of the addendum to Mark Girouard’s Life in the titled and territorial classes to put Humpty English Country House; there is at least as Dumpty together again, but the Great War much about the houses themselves as the had finished the job begun by Lloyd people who lived in them. Architecturally George. As one chatelaine lamented, the speaking the two camps, ancient and war changed their world for ever, modern, were represented respectively by shaking all things to their foundations, Sir Reginald Blomfield and Oliver Hill. wasting the treasures of the past, and Sir Reginald was old school, a casting its sinister influence far into the ‘Wrenaissance’ specialist who despised future. and detested anything that reeked of The conflict between ancient and modern, ‘cosmopolitanism’, for which read alien involving social change and architectural and probably Jewish. Hill, a friend of Eric development, is an abiding theme in Gill, whose fondness for adolescent girls Adrian Tinniswood’s stimulating and he shared, predicted that beautifully produced study. In one corner, a maximum of sunlight and facilities for clad in tweeds and plus fours, were the Old recreation and exercise such as dancing, Gang, for whom country living meant field swimming and squash, will be large sports, formal dinners and a blazing fire all factors to be provided for in the modern year round (even the most palatial piles house.

34 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

adventuresses like Mona in Dance mingled with the sort of equivocal young men that Nancy Mitford’s Uncle Matthew called ‘sewers’. Equally exceptional, though not in the least outré, was Cliveden, whose atmosphere Tinniswood compares to a grand hotel (its current role). There the Astors entertained celebrities like Chaplin, Shaw and Gandhi, as well as the appeasers known as The Cliveden Set. Drink at Cliveden was rationed because the Astors were teetotal, but unlike at many big pre- war houses there was no shortage of servants, whose quarters were connected to the guest wing by an underground passage. Presiding behind the green baize door was Mr Lee, a butler so imperious that he was sometimes mistaken for Lord Astor. When Bobbie Shaw, Nancy Astor’s gay son by her first marriage, was gaoled for cruising, Mr Lee threatened with dismissal any underling who blabbed. In conclusion, Tinniswood says that Christopher Hussey, a former editor of The most insolent and extravagant Country Life, was told by a war widow challenge to the quiet good taste expected that her late husband, on finding a copy of of a country gentleman was Port Lympne, the magazine at the front, had written to Sir Philip Sassoon’s sumptuous abode say “that it was so lovely to read what one overlooking Romney Marsh. Chips was fighting for”’. The poor chap can’t Channon described it as ‘a triumph of have known how much damage his own beautiful bad taste and Babylonian side, let alone the Luftwaffe, was doing to luxury’. His wife likened it to ‘a Spanish the large country houses and estates they’d brothel’, which begs the obvious question: requisitioned. But the social cost of the How would she have known? Sir Philip war was even greater. The ruling class, was presumed by many to be homosexual, who had built those ‘power houses’, no like his cousin the war poet, but longer ruled. When AP joined up in Tinniswood says he had ‘no obvious December 1939 he was not just entering a sexual inclination in any direction’, and new life but leaving an old one to which unlike, say, Somerset Maugham’s villa in there was no return. Nothing was ever the Antibes, Port Lympne never became a same again. ■ byword for depravity. But fingers were certainly pointed at What are the English like? Worse Ashcombe, where Cecil Beaton held court, answers might be given than “Read and Faringdon, Lord Berners’ country seat. Aubrey’s Brief Lives and you will They embodied what Tinniswood calls see”. “the ABC of Art, Bohemia and Culture”, a Anthony Powell; John Aubrey and demi-mondaine environment in which His Friends

35 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64

Uncle Giles’ Corner

A Good Sergeant Major’s Brew As my young nephew Nicholas will tell you, I never take tea in the afternoon. People who Where were you when you heard the news eat tea waste half the afternoon. Never that the UK voted for Brexit? It was one of wanted to form the habit. But it’s more of a those epochal moments like How They guideline than a rule. Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix or discovering President John F Kennedy had Now for some practical (PG) tips! That’s a been shot. joke by the way. Me? I was in bed with the companion of my 1. Tea, officers for the drinking of. bosom, Mrs Erdleigh. The Teasmade had Here is what RSM Ronald Brittain at switched itself on and was bubbling away. Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot “There’s nothing like a good cup of tea in the told us. morning to blow out the cobwebs, Mrs E!” “Stand up straight you at the back and pay You see, she shares my passion for a proper close attention laddy! cuppa. On the command one! Boil water in kettle. Take your teapot and Your favourite Uncle switches on his bedside swill it round with a small quantity of wireless, tunes in to the Today programme boiling water. Drain. and lo and behold there was some On the command two! parliamentarian chappy crowing about a Wait for it … Open tea canister, dip “victory for common sense”. Well I’ll be teaspoon into tea leaves, place three jiggered! heaped teaspoons and “one for the pot” How did I vote? I’m not saying. But I will into warm teapot, fill to one inch below say this. I heard a rumour that some blighters the lid of pot. in Brussels were plotting to slap VAT on On the Command three! English Breakfast Tea with a view to finally Once teapot is loaded, allow to brew for outlawing it from “le Continong” altogether. five minutes. Put quantity of milk into cup Apparently we all have to switch over to and two lumps of sugar (optional). Then Nespresso (whatever that is). Damned if I using a tea strainer pour in the nectarous will! liquid. Fire at will!” Things started going wrong for this country 2. Avoid trendy hotels. They try and fob one ever since they stopped making Mazawattee off with complimentary sachets of Tea and introduced all this wooftah herbal Rooibos, Green Tea or Lemony Snicket. nonsense – Ginseng, Coconut and Verbena, 3. Do go to “greasy spoon” cafes. Ask for a and Lord knows what? Damned unnatural I cuppa char in a big mug with the tea bag call it. left in. When I was attached to the 10th Gurkha 4. Hang out with builders. They know a Rifles out in Peshawar, our Sergeant’s Mess thing or two about tea! employed an excellent chai-wallah. He’d keep his samovar polished and ready for 5. For a good Sergeant Major’s brew you can action so we could always count on a rely on the following: Brooke Bond PG refreshing cuppa char – even in the midst of Tips, Taylors of Harrogate, Twining’s battle. English Breakfast or Barry’s Irish Tea. ■

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Extreme Legibility is a weblog sentimentality, and the result is wherein Peter Cameron “attempts to refreshing and bracing. There’s a remember books he’s read before he flavour of – the black forgets them”. Back in June 2016 he comedy masking something deeper wrote thus ... and darker, and a cool, clear- Venusberg by Anthony Powell (Little, sightedness and understated flippancy. Brown & Co., no date* [1952, 1965]) Our hero’s name is Lushington; his A darkly comic and elegantly chilly mistress is Ortrud; his friend at the novel about a young British journalist British Embassy is DaCosta. I who travels to a small unnamed Baltic enjoyed reading this book very much. country as a foreign correspondent * Interestingly, the book was first shortly after WWI. The community published in the United States in 1952 he finds himself in consists almost by the Periscope Bookshop and the entirely of diplomats (and exiled Holliday Bookshop. The unsold stock Russian nobility). He falls in with a was taken over by Little Brown in rather aimless and indolent lot and 1963 after they became Powell’s begins an affair with a charismatic and American publishers. Little Brown wealthy native who is married to a reissued the book with a new spine much older stoic professor. Not much label and price label to the flap in happens, but Powell writes with an 1965. ■ almost brutal asperity and lack of

Channel 4’s Dance Films Peter Cobrin writes to remind us that the 1997 TV films of Dance are available for viewing online on Channel 4’s “On Demand” service. They can be found at www.channel4.com/programmes/a- dance-to-the-music-of-time/on- demand. ■

Overheard at Sillery’s Tea Party “Mageve!! Such a horrid little town full of shops selling nasty art to Russians.”

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London Historians discounts on selected historical attractions and exhibitions. They hold a Although he lived the second half of his pub meet in central London on the first life in Somerset, Powell remained a Wednesday evening every month. Londoner at heart with the capital featuring prominently throughout Dance. London Historians encourages its Many Society members therefore have members to share information about an interest in assorted aspects of London their London activities and events to and its history. If you are one of these feature on their website, their blog and in London aficionados you may be their monthly members’ newsletter. interested in joining London Historians. Individual membership is a relatively London Historians was launched in expensive £39 a year although there are August 2010 for those who would like to also joint, under-18, student and life learn more about the city’s history. They membership rates available. organise visits, talks, walks and social Find out more on their website at events; members sometimes also receive www.londonhistorians.org/. ■

John D Simon, President of Lehigh through the 1960s, told University in Pennsylvania writes in The through the world of creativity – Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 May books, paintings, and music. The 2016: narrator and main character, Nicholas What I’m Reading: ‘A Dance to the Jenkins, is a writer. Music of Time’ The story reminded me of the Last October, Mark Edmundson, a importance of the arts and humanities professor of English at the University in our society. It’s an idea often of Virginia, posted the cover of A missing in our current national Dance to the Music of Time on dialogue about higher education. Facebook with the statement “Don’t Students need an education that always like it, but can’t stop reading prepares them for success in it.” I was intrigued. professional and civic life. The world In the next six months, I completed all needs citizens who possess the 12 volumes of the series by Anthony creativity, civic learning, Powell. It was an amazing communication skills, and critical experience. thinking that the arts and humanities provide, so they can take on the task The series provides a wonderful of solving an increasingly complex set window into the social history of five of challenges. ■ decades in London, from the end of

38 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #64 Society Merchandise

SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS JOURNAL & NEWSLETTER London 2011 Conference Proceedings Secret Harmonies: Journal of the Anthony UK: £8, Overseas: £14.50 Powell Society Centenary 2005 Conference Proceedings Back numbers of issues 1, 2 & 3 are available. UK: £11, Overseas: £17 UK: £5, Overseas: £9 each Oxford 2003 Conference Proceedings AUDIO UK: £7, Overseas: £13.50 BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance Eton 2001 Conference Proceedings Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between UK: £6.50, Overseas: £10.50 1979-82. 26 one-hour episodes. Single CD containing 26 MP3 files. For copyright Jeff Manley et al.; Dance Music reasons available to Society members only. 150-page guide to the musical references in UK & Overseas: £10 (£5 + £5 donation) Dance; in the style of Spurling’s Handbook. UK: £7, Overseas: £10.50 POSTCARDS Writing about Anthony Powell Anthony Powell’s Ancestral Lands Talks given at the 2004 AGM by George Lilley, Postcards Michael Barber and Nick Birns; introduced by Set of four colour postcards from photos by Christine Berberich. John Blaxter of the Powell ancestral lands on UK: £4, Overseas: £6.50 the Welsh borders. UK: £2.50, Overseas: £4 The Master and The Congressman Society Postcard 40-page monograph by John Monagan B&W postcard of Powell with his cat describing his meetings with Powell. Trelawney. Pack of 5. UK: £2.50, Overseas: £4 UK: £4, Overseas: £6.50 Wallace Collection Poussin Postcard OTHER PUBLICATIONS The Wallace Collection’s postcard of Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time. Pack Violet Powell; A Stone in the Shade of 5. Fourth & final volume of Lady Violet’s UK: £3, Overseas: £4.50 autobiography covering mostly the 1960s. Includes many of Lady Violet’s coloured ORDERING travel sketches. Hardback. UK: £24.50, Overseas: £29 The prices shown are the members’ prices as of April 2016 and are inclusive of postage Anthony Powell, Caledonia, A Fragment and packing. Please note the different UK The 2011 Greville Press reprint of this rare and overseas prices which reflect the Powell spoof. UK: £8, Overseas: £10.50 additional cost of overseas postage. Non- John Gould; Dance Class members will be charged the member’s American High School student essays from price shown plus postage & packing at John’s two teachings of Dance at Philips cost. Academy. UK: £12, Overseas: £17.50 Please send your order to: ––– ––– ––– Anthony Powell Society Merchandise, 48 Cecil Road, London, E13 0LR, UK *** SALE! – LAST FEW COPIES *** Email: [email protected] The Acceptance of Absurdity: Anthony Payment may be by cheque, Visa, Mastercard Powell – Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952- or PayPal. If paying by credit card please 1963 include the card number, expiry date, 3-digit Edited by John Saumarez Smith & Jonathan secure code, and the billing name & address. Kooperstein; 2011. Cheques, payable to the Anthony Powell Fascinating letters between Powell and his Society, must be for UK funds and drawn on a friend and first American publisher Robert UK bank. PayPal payment should be sent to Vanderbilt. [email protected]. You may also Paperback: UK £8.50, Overseas £12.50 order through the Society’s online shop at Hardback: UK £18, Overseas £24.50 www.anthonypowell.org. ■

39 Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 The Anthony Powell Society Membership Form Registered Charity No. 1096873 Please tick below the membership required: The Anthony Powell Society is a charitable literary society devoted to UK Overseas the life and works of the English Individual Members □ £22 □ £28 Joint Members * □ £33 □ £39 author Anthony Dymoke Powell, Student Members ** □ £13 □ £19 1905-2000. * Any two persons at the same address. Officers & Trustees ** Please send a copy of your student card. Patron: John MA Powell [ ] Buy 5 years membership for the price of 4 (any grade) President: The Earl of Gowrie PC, FRSL Gift membership and standing order Vice-Presidents: payment are also available; please ask. Patric Dickinson LVO Subscriptions are due on 1 April annually. If Michael Meredith joining on or after 1 January, membership Jeremy Warren FSA includes following subscription year. Society Trustees: Name: Robin Bynoe (Chairman) Address: Jeffrey Manley (USA) Dr Keith Marshall (Hon. Secretary) Dr Derek Miles Harry Mount Postcode: Country: Graham Page (Hon. Treasurer) E-mail: AC (Tony) Robinson [ ] I enclose a sterling cheque drawn on a Prof. John Roe UK bank for £ and payable to Elwin Taylor Anthony Powell Society. Membership Secretary: Keith Marshall [ ] Please debit my Visa/MasterCard with £ Social Secretary: Stephen Walker Card No.: Expires: CVC: Merchandise Secretary: Robin Bynoe [Delete if not required.] I am a UK taxpayer Newsletter & Secret Harmonies Editor: and I want all donations I’ve made since 6 Stephen Walker April 2000 and all donations in the future to be Gift Aid until I notify you otherwise. You Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall must pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year (6 April All correspondence should be sent to: one year to 5 April the next) that is at least Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society equal to the amount of tax that the Society 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford will reclaim on your donations for that tax UB6 0JW, UK year. Phone: +44 (0) 20 8864 4095 I agree to the Society holding my contact Email: [email protected] details on computer. Website: www.anthonypowell.org Signed: Date: © Anthony Powell Society, 2016. All rights reserved. Please send the completed form and Published by The Anthony Powell Society. payment to: Anthony Powell Society Printed and distributed by Lonsdale Direct Solutions, Memberships, 76 Ennismore Avenue, Wellingborough, UK. Greenford, UB6 0JW, UK The views expressed are those of the authors and do Phone: +44 (0) 20 8864 4095 not necessarily reflect the official policy or opinion of Email: [email protected] the Anthony Powell Society.