Lord Berners: the Last Eccentric Free
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FREE LORD BERNERS: THE LAST ECCENTRIC PDF Mark Amory,Sam Leith | 304 pages | 21 Mar 2011 | FABER & FABER | 9780571247653 | English | London, United Kingdom Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric - AbeBooks - Amory, Mark: Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, was a 20th century Renaissance man but also a truly extraordinary person, a real product of the Roaring Twenties. Not only was he a novelist, a painter and an aesthete but also a composer. However the sailor of the Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric re-appears when he repeatedly interrupts the Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric as a bass soloist with an inebriated rendition of The Last Rose of Summer! The original drunken sailor of that other familiar song perhaps? He dyed the pigeons on his estate various shades of bright colours, and he once invited a horse to tea — but not just any horse. He had a purpose-made folding clavichord installed in his Rolls Royce, and had paper flowers planted in his garden. He was very much a socialite with a wide circle of friends and acquaintances: Salvador Dali, H. Wells and Igor Stravinsky were among those who visited. In Stravinsky said that Berners was the best composer of his generation. Lastly, Berners also acted as interpreter for Walton in when he met the twelve-tone composer Alban Berg in Salzburg. Lygon was an old friend of Berners and brother of Lady Mary Trefusis — the probable Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric for one of the variations — and the grandmother of our very own soprano Morwenna Orton! Nov 5 Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric by Mark Amory Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Lord Berners by Mark Amory. Composer, writer, painter, and eccentric millionaire, Lord Berners led a life filled with music, art, travel, and high society. Stravinsky, Picasso, and Salvador Dali; the Sassoons, the Betjemans, and the Sitwells; Harold Nicolson, Frederick Ashton, and Gertrude Stein were all his friends, and many came to stay at his house near Oxford, where the pigeons were dyed all the Composer, writer, painter, and eccentric millionaire, Lord Berners led a life filled with music, art, travel, and high society. Stravinsky, Picasso, and Salvador Dali; the Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric, the Betjemans, and the Sitwells; Harold Nicolson, Frederick Ashton, and Gertrude Stein were all his friends, and many came to stay at his house near Oxford, where the pigeons were dyed all the colors of the rainbow. A charming, hugely enjoyable portrait of a life that was truly eccentric. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions 4. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Lord Bernersplease sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Oct 21, Tosh rated it it was amazing. Lord Berners was a composer which I know a little about and a fantastic writer. Both fiction and memoir writing. And of course a dandy eccentric. A man who had his horse run free in his living room there's a photograph of this plus he liked to dye the feathers of his Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric because when they fly it makes them book beautiful. How can this not be a fantastic biography? Mark Amory did a great job and it's truly a shame that Lord Berners is not more well-known in today's world. Nov 29, Peter rated it liked it Shelves: reviews. His friend Igor Stravinsky considered Lord Berners the most interesting British composer of the twentieth century, which Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric a reasonable encomium, and he wrote music for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes and later for Sir Frederick Ashton and Margot Fonteyn. Gerald Berners seems to have attracted people to him, but was said to be quite quiet in company though capable of the occasional pithy comment. Nov 25, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric Thomas rated it it was amazing Shelves: biography. A fascinating portrait of a gifted eccentric whom Nancy Mitford caught beautifully in her books. The biography evokes a lost age of indulgence by someone who was rich enough to do as he wished and Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric care. May 13, Chris Browning rated it really liked it. Kind of an inverse story to that of Denton Welch: a brilliantly gifted man who suddenly finds himself rich and landed and as such seems to never quite develop as the skilful artist he could have been. Yet who are we to judge a life well lived? And Berners did that if no Kind of an inverse story to that of Denton Welch: a brilliantly gifted man who suddenly finds himself rich and landed and Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric such seems to never quite develop as the skilful artist he Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric have been. But boy it needs someone willing to stop and relax into the narrative a bit more Sep 01, Kay rated it liked it Shelves: biogr-memoireccentricsmusicnonfiction. He was also, as his gravestone truthfully reported, "never bored. His social circl "Here lies Lord Berners One of life's learners Thanks be to the Lord He never was bored" gravestone epitaph Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, the fourteenth Baron Berners, was one of the twentieth century's great eccentrics. Lord Berners himself was a composer, novelist, playwright, and painter, with his work showing a strong surrealist and whimsical bent, never taking itself too seriously. He lived openly in a homosexual relationship on a vast estate that was Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric of a menagerie both socially and literally, with its numerous hangers-on and a pet giraffe roaming the grounds. Intent on Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric life of hedonism, he nevertheless produced some notable musical compositions a friend was kind enough to send me a CD of Berner's music and two memoirs one of which I own but haven't yet read. His various short stories and novellas were posthumously published as Collected Tales and Fantasiesand it was this book that initially led to my interest in this notable eccentric and aesthete. Armory's Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric does a good job of detailing the swirl of people and events in Lord Berners' life, but it seems curiously inert, somehow, in comparison to its subject. I'd hoped for a little more insight into the person and less for the external facts of his life. Still, it's the only biography we have of Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric complex and talented man, and it does capture the sense of the time and social milieu. Among the book's illustrations and photographs is a marvelous picture of a group having tea in Lord Berners' drawing room -- all very proper and English, with the lace tableloth and nick-knacks on the bireplace mantle. But then there's the large white horse standing placidly between two of the ladies, looking for all the world as if Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric were about to contribute to the table conversation -- this unusual animal apparently had free range of the house. Full of snippets of correspondence and thousands of references to titled personages, literary luminaries, avant-garde artists of the day, this makes for an entertaining and bustling biography, one that serves in a way as a portrait of a passing age. My one complaint is that it renders the age better than its ostensible subject. It's not possible to know what made Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners tick but everyone seemed to like him and his eccentric acts were mostly harmless; dyeing animals, driving around in grotesque masks, hiding under a bearskin rug to 'fool' tedious guests. A soft spoken aristocrat with a small but keen talent justifies this very readable and accomplished bio. And remember: "Red roses blow but thrice a year, in June, July and May. But those who have red noses can blow them every day. Jul 07, Lauren Albert rated it really liked it Shelves: biography-autobiographyhistory-british. I didn't find Lord Berners all that eccentric. I certainly don't think he was the last one. He was mostly eccentric in his tastes in music, art, etc. But this, of course, was mainly by the standards of the day. This isn't a deep biography and it doesn't delve much into his relationships, for instance. But it does give you a bit of a feel for the life he led. Ariel Marguin rated it really liked it Apr 10, Charles rated it liked it Oct 05, May 28, Bettie marked it as maybe. Anecdotes on Evan Morgan by his contemporaries. Apr 19, Karen-Leigh rated it liked it Shelves: bio-memoir-letters. Interesting bio of a man mentioned in the biographies of so many others. Elizabeth rated it it was amazing Nov 19, Frank rated it really liked it Mar 01, Mickey Anthony rated it really liked it Jul 25, Martin Hannon rated it liked it Feb 17, Duane rated it it was ok Jul 18, Anthony rated it liked it Oct 17, David Buswell rated it did not like it Dec 21, Flaubertian rated it liked it Dec 12, Marah Kabaservice rated it liked it Aug 02, Lanny marked it as to-read Apr 22, Eric marked it as to-read Jun 29, Karlie marked it as to-read Mar 20, Penny added it Aug 16, Liamzuelke added it Aug 26, Greg Ross added it Feb 03, Michelle marked it as to-read Apr 22, Erica Wissick marked it as to-read Dec 20, Alasdair Ekpenyong marked it as to-read Feb 10, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric - Mark Amory - Google книги So reads the epitaph on the gravestone of Lord Berners.