Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 As in previous years members will find Newsletter the Annual Report and the AGM papers The Anthony Powell Society is a enclosed with this Newsletter. And also, charitable literary society devoted to the Issue 20, Autumn 2005 ISSN 1743-0976 as for the last couple of years, the whole life and works of the English author of the Executive Committee have been Anthony Dymoke Powell, 1905-2000. re-elected unopposed – an appreciated Camel Ride to the Tomb vote of confidence in our running the Officers & Executive Committee by Julian Allason Contents Society. Camel Ride to the Tomb ... 1 Patron: John MA Powell From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 It is doubtful if young Francis Xavier was But – and isn’t there always a “but” – we Powell’s 100th Birthday Party … 7 Hon. Vice-Presidents: ever permitted to ride a camel. British remain very conscious of the need for The Mysteries of the Dance … 9 Julian Allason expatriates kept their distance from new blood, new ideas and members From a View to a Death Revisited … 10 Hugh Massingberd Egyptians, most especially from the Bedu willing to take on some of the work of Hon. John S Monagan (USA) Review: Debs at War … 11 whose reputation for honesty was on par running and guiding the Society and Local Group News ... 13 with that for hygiene. On his one family being a trustee. As trustees we provide *Chairman: Patric Dickinson Centenary Corner … 14 holiday in the Isle of Wight the zoological the Society with strategy, direction and *Hon. Secretary: Dr Keith C Marshall Centenary Year Events Calendar … 16 *Hon. Treasurer: Kevin Jewell gardens at Sandown were found to be impetus, without which it will stagnate Society Notices … 18 closed. By the time X returned briefly to and die. From the APLIST ...21 *Committee Members: the Island as a conscript Dr Christine Berberich in November 1940 the zoo had been Books … 26 In many ways the Society is now at a Dr Nicholas Birns (USA) incorporated into an elaborate system of Books STOP PRESS … 27 crossroads. We have two successful Leatrice Fountain (USA) coastal defences: a shore battery occupied Cuttings … 28 conferences behind us, with all the signs Stephen Holden the lion house. The camels, he was Letters to the Editor … 29 of another round the corner in December; Tony Robinson Prof. Ian Young (N Ireland) informed, had become luncheon meat, Wallace Collection Exhibition … 30 we have established ourselves effectively Society Merchandise … 31 despatched in cans to the British and efficiently; gained charitable status Newsletter Editor: Stephen Holden Expeditionary Force in France. What with Membership Form … 32 when many small Societies don’t or can’t Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall the dismal weather and looming threat of be bothered; and we have our eponymous PR/Media Adviser: Julian Allason bombardment it seemed reason enough to hero’s centenary shortly upon us. On the accept the posting to New Delhi as orderly other hand we have not continued to All correspondence should be sent to: room clerk in RAF public relations. grow as steadily as we would have liked Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society and too much of the work still falls on a 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford Three years later X was in Benghazi, small number of people. The time is now Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 classed unfit for active duty, but all too right to re-evaluate. fitted for the forces wireless service, where Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 his ability to talk without interruption Email: [email protected] The Executive have therefore decided to found an uncritical outlet and a embark on work to look at the Society’s * Members of the Executive Committee who are satisfyingly large – and silent – audience. strategy, funding and organisation, thus the Society’s trustees. All officers are resident It comprised not just the exhausted setting the framework for the years in England or Wales unless stated. Tommies of the Eighth Army, but also the ahead. The work will start this Autumn Continued on page 3 and is expected to last into 2006. But this is your Society, so please do tell us what !! STOP PRESS … STOP PRESS !! you want or what you think we should be © The Anthony Powell Society, 2005 and the individual doing: I have just bought a special new authors named. All rights reserved. Two new upcoming Powell publications Published by The Anthony Powell Society. Out in November … see page 27 large in-tray just for your ideas! Printed and distributed by Express Printing, Peterborough, UK 2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Continued from page 1 Nevertheless the launch of Camel Ride to nothing is said by way of introduction, is X’s characteristic response was to tell familiar denizens of Cairo nightlife, who the Tomb by an unknown writer, seemingly led to the crenellated mud walls of a city, Jenkins over a protracted and largely still donned white dinner jackets and from out of the void, caught the critical location unspecified, but clearly North liquid dinner at the French Polisher’s Arms fezzes for visits to the bars their religion imagination. Who was this brave youth African. A gate is unbarred. He passes why only the last of these assessments was proscribed. whose light had remained hidden under the worthy of pursuit. bushel of war? Except that, approaching Eoin McArevey, Irish poet of infinitesimal thirty, X was no longer youthful, and far The sequence of events following output, was his radio relief, drinking from prodigious. Championship by Camel Ride’s publication was deftly reconstructed by the American scholar confederate and, the more perceptive said, Connolly earned the enmity of the Russell Gwinnett in his 1968 his alter ego. For as yet X had written, or Leavisites and the declaration of a noisy rather published, nothing, yet he enjoyed literary feud, which while it concerned the biography, Deathshead Swordsman. Far from being enraged by what was the reputation of a literary lion. In truth, slender volume only peripherally, would as the Irishman remarked in a rare moment later be studied as the model of book widely held to be a vicious review, X took up with its contributor, JG of insight, X was “both camel and sphinx”. marketing. X’s disinclination to cooperate Quiggin; two years later his Bin Ends For details of the lives orbiting that with any promotional activity served to stricken city, into which the pair returned fuel speculation about an author now was published under the imprint of Quiggin & Craggs. Yet a friendly whenever leave permitted, were stored in spoken of as the Lawrence of Egypt. An notice by Mark Members in the what McArevey christened X’s “hump”: a incoherent interview by McArevey on the through. Beyond awaits a turbanned Arab infinitely larger circulation Daily Beast bastion of confidences, laid down like Third Programme earned a magisterial with a camel. The dromedary descends; became an enduring source of friction wine for future consumption. The secrets rebuke from Lord Reith and banishment of our hero mounts. He makes his way between author and critic. Was there a of Widmerpool, Templar, Mountolive and both from Broadcasting House in through the moonlight, seeing little, whiff of politics in all this? Trapnel Clea supplied no tributary to the torrent perpetuity. hearing only the fading hum of the city. certainly felt the lash of the Left in the that flowed from him. What follows is a meditation in a manner It is known that the book’s title came from years following the Camel Ride, yet (later parodied by Robert M Pirsig in the According to the military police record a proposition intoned by a turbaned Arab appears to have found no solace in the account of his motorcycle trip) upon the Trapnel’s sole visit to Giza ended in the on a family outing, to the discomfiture of approbation of the Right. Perhaps a clue is ancients who had trod that same path and back of a Romany, the secure ten-tonner the mother of young Francis Xavier. “I to be found in an earlier remark, “I cannot upon the manner of their deaths. used to round up trouble makers. X had grasped at once that was how life was,” he tolerate the respect of the worthy, for the got nowhere near the pyramids, a later recalled. “Juddering through the A text which speaks directly to the respectful are without worth”. It had been forbidden zone, shown little interest in wilderness, on an uncomfortable confusions and agonies of existence, addressed to his audience at the Hero of them, and less awareness. An enlisted conveyance you can’t properly control, detailing a personal, philosophical Acre, a circle that in those days man in similar straits might have served along a rocky, unpremeditated, but odyssey encompassed the young Bacon, Freud and forty-eight hours in the glasshouse. indefeasible track, towards the destination Barnby. Instead X soothed his hangover in the crudely, yet truly, stated.” was the verdict of ‘Encounter’ who, with RMP sergeant’s mess, before being even less justification, would use similar Amongst the few items left by Pamela decanted gently onto the transport back to If the author’s character remained opaque, words of The Unquiet Grave. Nicholas Flitton was the Stringham Modigliani, Benghazi with tender instructions to care his style “like ancient waters trickling Jenkins, ever practical, noted in Fission which Widmerpool managed to retain. for his voice. In those days drink had not from a stranded iceberg” in Connolly’s that: Overlooked by the probate valuer was a violet phrase, what of the subject of the second painting, an unsigned portrait of X yet lent the voice the harshness of later This is a book which functions years. The surviving archive radio book? On first reading in those austere in the Hispanic photorealistic style of days Camel Ride offered an exoticism simultaneously at several levels: Carlos Sancha and June Mendoza. He recording of X in the Imperial War namely, as an exploration of the beyond the experience of the home front. stands tall, bearded and emaciated in his Museum carries something of the history of philosophy; as a response The lately demobbed, especially those who dyed officer’s greatcoat, skull-knobbed resonance of Richard Burton reciting to the blunting of artistic sensibility had served in the desert, were in no mood swordstick in hand ready to do battle. But Under Milk Wood. by two great wars; as intellectual for romances let alone death musings, so with whom? By the time of its probable provocation; and as an account of a Publishers did not issue press releases in the improbabilities of the plot went largely composition few antagonists were unwise 1945. Paper was still rationed. unremarked. A young man, of whom writer’s journey into the darkness of enough to engage with X. Publishers had the mind. 3 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 retired in despair; solvent acquaintances maintained a prudent distance: only old It took the intervention of Patrick Leigh- a . At the town carnival in August friends remained faithful. Fermor with the Patriarch of Alexandria to visitors may ride the camels along the obtain the entrance of Hilary Spurling to sands for a shilling or two. Perhaps X was Yet debate about the influences upon the the most closely guarded monastic library sufficiently solvent to make that Camel Ride long survived Quiggin’s in Christendom, and the oldest. But there expedition. dismissal of it as “Fitzrovia with sand”. on the page for 1917 of the Julian calendar Indeed some claimed to detect echoes not (1923 by our Gregorian reckoning) Bibliography only of Lawrence, but of St John Philby Spurling has deciphered the signature of Julian Allason, “Skulls in the Sinai”, and even X’s contemporary, Wilfrid Augustine Trapnel. It was to be the last Financial Times ‘How To Spend It’ Thesiger, though the last seems doubtful. document the pasha signed, for tripping magazine, 27 May 2005 According to Professor Gwinnett there over his own bootlace he fatally cracked Anon, “Pilgrimage of a Neo-Ptolemy”, was a Trapnel camel ride – but not on the his head upon the fire-extinguisher kept by Encounter, October 1945 part of X. Nor did it take place in the the prudent monks against the spontaneous John Russell Bartlett, Genealogy of that Valley of the Kings as contemporary recombustion of the burning bush. Does branch of the Russell Family, which critics supposed. Tombs are few in the this, as Dr Jung elsewhere suggests, comprises the descendants of John Gulf or the Western Desert, and in the Nile account for the antipathy of a son to the Russell of Woburn, Mass, 1640-1878 Valley they are spoken of only in the rites of inherited religion in a paternal (Boston: Privately published, 1880) plural. In Egypt, home of the Trapnels, relationship fractured by neglect? Sexton Blake (ed.), “One Hump or Two?: there is but one place known at the period The Egyptian Diary of Augustine Trapnel Pasha was denied the dignity of a in question as “The Tomb”. The site is Trapnel”, The Erotic Review, June 1969 Special Anthony Powell Christian interment, for the ground of inland from the south-eastern coast of the RB Gwinnett, Deathshead Swordsman Centenary Newsletter Sinai is too unyielding to allow the burial Gulf of Aqaba, not far from the course of (London: Heinemann, 1968) of anyone less than a saint. Instead his To celebrate Anthony Powell’s Lawrence’s great camel charge, an area Nicholas Jenkins, “X Marks the Spot”, skull grins out from the ossuary with those centenary, a special “bumper edition” redolent with Old Testament associations. Fission, No. 53, January 1946 of fifteen centuries of monks. It is the of the Newsletter is already in It was here, where ships returning from Eoin McArevey, Of Sand and Sandra – preparation and will be available at the India put in for water, that Trapnel’s Poems (Alexandria: Balthazar, 1945) beginning of December. father appears to have undertaken one Mark Members, “Camel Crusader”, Daily of his mysterious mounted expeditions. Beast, 4 November 1945 The Editor would welcome articles on The sole road winds up through wind- B Douglas Russell, A Deadly Development any aspect of Powell’s life and works ravaged passes to the high desert and or Yet Trouble Came (London: for inclusion. Articles may be Mount Sinai. By camel, at that time Holroyd’s, 1957), pp. 267-489 between 500 and 2000+ words. the only mode of transport other than John D Russell, Nicholas Jenkins: A If anyone has any “squibs”, snippets of foot or donkey, and safer than either, it Quintet, Sextet and War (Bloomington: Powell trivia or (copyright-free) was the journey of a week – the very Indiana University Press, 1970) images the Editor would be happy to span referred to in the book. For Hilary Spurling, Invitation to the Dance, see those too. Westerners this would have been a (London: Mandarin, 1992) FX Trapnel, Camel Ride to the Tomb difficult journey, but Trapnel senior Please send any contributions to: was, we now know, a jockey. There is (London: Vox Populi Press, 1945) FX Trapnel, Bin Ends (Soho: Quiggin & [email protected] but one tomb here, that of St Catherine of subject of constant flash photography by or by post to: Sinai, and it is housed in the fortified sixth Craggs, 1947) Scandinavian tourists in embarrassing Stephen Holden century monastery at the foot of the shorts and black socks. Back in Britain, This article is a revised version of Julian 92B Umfreville Road mountain upon which Moses received the however there does exist a monument, his Allason’s speech at the Society’s 5th Birthday London, N4 1SA, UK Ten Commandments. The tomb is closely name inscribed upon a wooden bench Party, held at Khan’s of Kensington on 1 June guarded to this day by inhospitable outside the camel house at Sandown Zoo. 2005, on his elevation as a Vice-President of the The final deadline for receipt of copy Orthodox monks, and by a symbol coeval The carving is almost illegibly shallow, Society. is Friday 4 November. to the tablets of stone – the burning bush. consisting of long, thin strokes, as if cut by 5 6 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell’s 100th Birthday Champagne Party – Booking Form

To: Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society, 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109

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Wednesday 21 December 2005 1830 hrs

Members & guests: £20 Non-Members: £25 Prior booking essential – booking form overleaf

The Quadrangle, Eton College 8 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 The Mysteries of the Dance From a View to a Death Revisited horse that “pulls a little”. Creditor by Derek Hawes by Mike Jay manages to throw Zouch to his death and peace can then resume. Writing to a friend after he had painted the The third of the Powell novels of the Nietzsche is credited with challenging the work that Anthony Powell found so thirties transports us to a sleepy, peaceful, foundations of morality. He posited the intriguing, Nicolas Poussin said, small English country town. It is supposed Ubermensch concept which we translate Powell used Salisbury as the model. Here perhaps clumsily as “Superman”. Zouch Things of perfection must not be we find an England now all too unfamiliar. insinuates himself as Powell’s Superman looked at in a hurry, but with time, An England where, for example, Mr who thinks himself above everyone and judgement and understanding. Vernon Passenger can walk across the In the sky, we find Apollo in his chariot everything within the provincial milieu Judging them requires the same main road without getting promptly with Aurora and the Hours, scattering and with his savage freethinking is capable process as making them … knocked down by a car. The London flowers, and in the foreground, two small of willing himself to power (superseding based artist, Arthur Zouch, a predatory It is advice which all Powell enthusiasts children, one blowing bubbles; are they Passenger). It is therefore much to “tuft hunter” arrives in this quaint who attend the conference this year will the children of the dancers or, as some Powell’s credit that the real “Superman”, environment, invited by Miss Mary want to bear in mind as they look at the believe, do they represent Vanitas (the Mr Passenger, is triumphant and Zouch Passenger, and proceeds to impose himself painting once again – and perhaps, as they bubble being a frequent symbol of vanity easily and literally brought to ground. upon the quiet town. Quiet that is apart ponder the meaning of the composition, and brevity). To find an answer to these from a local petty feud between Mr Powell continues to delight us with a fresh they will notice something which is unique questions we may have to do what Passenger and Major Fosdick over array of characters. Major Fosdick has a in Poussin and rare indeed in classical Beresford suggests in his monograph* on shooting rights. This dispute is wickedly couple of wet sons, Jasper and Torquil painting. the work: look at it through 17th Century concluded by Powell, who portrays (who is “rather odd”). The amenable eyes. As to the meaning, which has been the Fosdick as a transvestite who through the Mary Passenger has an interesting, subject of academic debate for four However, for the modern viewer there is a novel becomes less and less careful so independent much older sister Betty who hundred years, we inevitably ask who are more practical issue of interest. Looking eventually gets caught wearing a dress by was once married to an Italian aristocrat the four dancers, what do they represent? at the painting some years ago I suddenly his adversary Passenger. Fosdick feels with whom she had the precocious five What is the purpose of the dance and what noticed that much of the texture of the compelled to capitulate and hurriedly does year old Bianca (a budding Pamela message are we meant to absorb? surface painting had been made by the a deal with Flitton?) who goads Zouch with her fingerprints of the artist, pressed into the Passenger over pointed retorts. Joanna’s mother and Mrs Most experts concur with Richard underpainted surfaces, especially of the the shooting Passenger are portrayed as virtually Beresford’s argument that the painting dancers’ clothes. It produced in me a rights before comatose. Mr Brandon’s maid, Mr Dadds, represents human life or rather the cycle of remarkable and intriguing link across the getting himself is an irritable gossip. All these characters the human condition. The figures portray centuries with the real live Poussin. I had committed. and others are quite closely examined and Poverty, Labour, Wealth and Pleasure or never seen this technique in any other all are given the comic treatment. Powell Luxury, implying that through work we Poussin work, or indeed in any oil painting Zouch quickly finds no such thing as human equality. acquire wealth which permits pleasure of the classical period. claims the Everyone is treated at face value but all are which in turn, if indulged too much, ends pliable Joanna subjected to the author’s acid wit and in poverty. But others question many of Enquiries to the Wallace curator evinced Brandon as a sometimes bland cruelty. the symbolic aspects elsewhere in the that this had been especially evident after conquest but in work; the differing facial expressions; why cleaning, and had been discussed by no order to win the better bred Mary he has to This novel was published in 1933, one does Wealth seem to disdain the hand of less a person than Anthony Blunt who, gain the approval of her father, who proves year before Powell’s own marriage, and Labour? Some say the figures represent after calling in Scotland Yard fingerprint to be the equal if not the better of Zouch. one searches fruitlessly for clues or links the seasons. Why is Time playing a lyre experts, found that the marks are indeed Mary suggests that Zouch could impress between the author’s own situation and rather than carrying the more usual scythe thumb prints of the left hand, and all by her and ingratiate himself to Mr Passenger that of Zouch. Another bright, fast romp and what is the purpose of the Term, with the same person. by agreeing to hunt. Mr Passenger of a read with some sex, violence and young and old heads, facing forward and elegantly “kills” Zouch by mounting the philosophy. What more could a reader back? * Richard Beresford, A Dance to the Music of inexperienced interloper on Creditor, a require? Time (London: Wallace Collection, 1995) 9 10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anne de Courcy the parachute straps and anyone who Debs at War: How Wartime happened to be below would have seen my Changed Their Lives knickers”. Instead, to the astonishment of those on the ground, she managed to land Reviewed by Stephen Holden her aircraft at a tiny nearby airfield. The young unmarried daughters of the Perhaps the most heart-rending story is upper classes who were debutantes before told by Jean Meade-Fetherstonhaugh, a 1939 were the most cocooned members of nurse who worked for the plastic surgeon British Society. These girls, economically Sir Harold Gillies: “One day, just after D- supported, socially insulated, and morally Day, walking into the ward I saw rows of patrolled, found the advent of war – to Land Army girls model their Uniform stretchers, each with its label, of which most of them responded without desperately burned young men … one hesitation by joining up – both a challenge well-connected, they were often able to particular body had no face, only eyes and and an education. Anne de Courcy has bypass red tape. a hole with four teeth where the mouth and had the splendid idea of interviewing over jaw should have been. Yet as I passed I However, most debs still found time to forty ladies who were pre-war debs to find heard a loud wolf-whistle.” have fun during wartime, using their leave out “how wartime changed their lives”. to gallivant at London nightspots. One Several became nurses or VADs, others For many of the ladies interviewed the war was actually at the Café de Paris the night opted for factory work or became Land had an indelible effect on their lives. As a bomb exploded on the dance floor, much Girls (trying, usually unsuccessfully, to Anne de Courcy says, “When it [the war] like the scene at the Café de Madrid in The ended came the realisation, sometimes disguise their background), and others Soldier’s Art. As the war progressed and quickly, sometimes gradually, that the worked at Bletchley Park (“a blend of Like Norah Tolland, Eleanor Walpole- life became tougher, the chance to climb kaleidoscope had been shaken and had country house and internment camp”) or Wilson and Pamela Flitton, some ended up into a pretty dress and put on a pair of for SOE. But most went into the Services settled in a different pattern, an enormous as drivers. “Rather posh girls driving staff hoarded nylons was morale-boosting after – as FANYs, ATS, Wrens or WAAFs. social change at first masked by the cars,” as one man puts it. Another man long days in uniform, as was anything that Lady Violet herself opted to become a continuing shortages and grey monotony said they were “Widely regarded as smacked of frivolity and femininity, such VAD. of the immediate post-war era.” sexually sophisticated but only available to as Elizabeth Arden’s velvet-covered gas- officers of very senior rank”. mask cases which had a little silk-lined Anne de Courcy has written a fascinating pocket for cosmetics on top. The jolly book that is amusing, sad, consistently The early chapters of this book deal with innocence of debs about lecherous men, engaging and always uplifting. the debs’ background, including not to mention predatory lesbians, makes fascinating details on their clothes and the Debs at War by Anne de Courcy is published by amusing reading. The “rather butch types” Weidenfeld & Nicolson at £18.99. various coming out balls. And how female referred to by one lady bring to mind the education, for instance, focussed on those milieu of Eleanor Walpole-Wilson and accomplishments thought to be fitting to a Heather Hopkins. gentlewoman, notably a fluency in foreign languages and a knowledge of the arts. The pluck, determination and spirit of the “Men don’t like educated women,” one girls, who readily adapted from a mother told her daughter, “but it’s very pampered life of luxury to mucking in important to know how to ride”. Years on (sometimes literally) and doing their bit, the hunting field and a code that are inspiring. Diana Barnato-Walker, who discouraged the expression of any but was an ATA pilot (or ‘Attagirl’), describes happy feelings contributed to their very the occasion when “skimming happily real fearlessness; like their brothers they along in a Spitfire” she suddenly found A young WAAF officer and a Group had been trained implicitly to take the lead herself in thick cloud, “but I couldn’t bale Members of the WAAF also became great cricket Captain pose for the camera and made obvious officer material; and out. My skirt would have ridden up with enthusiasts 11 12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20

Local Group News REMINDER Centenary Corner

London Group Summer Meeting The Annual General Meeting of The By Noreen Marshall Anthony Powell Society will be held on Saturday 22 October 2005 at Bethnal Green Museum of Anthony Powell Centenary Conference The Society’s London group held its summer quarterly meeting at The Audley Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, is to be held on pub on Saturday 13 August. It was a London, E2 9PA commencing at slightly smaller gathering than normal; 1400 hrs. Friday 2 & Saturday 3 December 2005 everyone else no doubt being otherwise The meeting agenda and proxy voting occupied on the beach, at the airport, or at papers are included with this similar. This enabled those present to Newsletter. Proxy votes must reach devote the greater part of the meeting to the Hon. Secretary no later than The Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London, W1 talking about genealogy (both their own Monday 17 October 2005. and that of other families’) over their salad, curry, sausage and chips etc. The formal business of the AGM will Centenary Conference Wallace Collection Exhibition be followed at 1500 hrs by a talk by Dr There was considerable interest in Vice- The conference is shaping up to be another No major news on the Wallace’s exhibition Richard Canning on the subject of blockbuster! We are well on track to which at this stage is probably a good President Hugh Massingberd’s review of Powell and Firbank. Roy Strong’s latest book of reminiscences, achieve our target audience: at the time of thing! Work on the exhibition is Passions Past and Present (Pimlico, At 1600 hrs there will be an writing we are well past the halfway mark progressing frantically and announcements 2005). The text gifted the piece, which opportunity to tour the museum in the of confirmed bookings, and if only half the are going out to the press (see page 30) – appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 1 company of the Society’s Hon. outstanding provisional bookings firm up which also gives the conference greater August, with an unbeatable title: “There I Archivist, Noreen Marshall. we will make our target! coverage. By the time the next Newsletter arrives the exhibition will be open! And if stand, in my blue velvet robe and For full details please see the centre So if you are one of those with a Elizabethan ruff …” and also provided a you can’t get to the exhibition then there spread of this Newsletter. provisional booking but have not yet paid will be a full review in the bumper Powell neat opportunity to quote satirist Craig your delegate fees then do so soon, or you Centenary Newsletter, due out in early Brown on names for the feline inhabitants could be disappointed. Because of the December. of the Strong household, starting with the demand we cannot guarantee to hold genuine Reverend Wenceslas Muff (whose provisional bookings beyond Friday 16 Wallace Collection Events companion was the Lady Torte de Shell). September. Sir Roy’s career as Director of the Extraordinary London Group To accompany the exhibition the Wallace National Portrait Gallery, and later the Pub Meet But if you haven’t booked at all, there are Collection are running a number of events. still likely to be spaces available as our Immediately following the conference on Victoria & Albert Museum, led neatly on Tuesday 11 October target audience isn’t 100% of capacity! the evening of Saturday 3 December, there to the discussion of museums and 1830 to 2130 hrs antiques, including exhibitions at the But again the sooner you book the better: will be readings from Dance under the title Imperial War Museum, the coming AGM’s The Audley book now to be sure! Love and Art in ‘A Dance to the Music of Mount Street, London ,W1 Time’ which has been written by Society venue at the Museum of Childhood, and What do you mean, you lost the booking how best to clean a Navajo Indian blanket. Vice-President Hugh Massingberd. More All are welcome for the usual array of form? There’s another enclosed with this Other subjects which came up included the details appear opposite. good beer, good food, good company, Newsletter! war work of debutantes (see page 11); good conversation in a Victorian pub There will also be a series of Times Kipling’s Rewards and Fairies; and the Powell would have known BE THERE OR MISS IT !! Literary Supplement Friday lunchtime various centenary events and venues. lectures. Again there are more details opposite.

13 14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20

Exhibition Centenary Year Events Calendar Dancing to the Music of Time:

The Life and Work of Anthony Powell The events listed are those which we know about. Please contact the Hon. Secretary if you know of other Anthony Powell related events happening over the coming months. To The Wallace Collection the best of our knowledge the information given is correct at the time of publication but Manchester Square, London, W1 the Society takes no responsibility for the accuracy of such information. You are advised to check event details before travelling. 3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 More details on page 30 Anthony Powell Centenary Conference Events Full details of conference events and costs are available in the conference booking leaflet. All conference events are open to members and non-members on payment Other Centenary Events Wallace Collection Special of the appropriate delegate fee. The major news on other centenary events Evening Event is the announcement of the Anthony Thursday 1 December 2005 Friday 2 December 2005 Love and Art in ‘A Dance to the Pre-Conference Evening Buffet The Garden God Powell 100th Birthday Champagne Party Music of Time’ on 21 December 2005 at the College of Reception A rehearsed reading of Powell’s play Arms in London. Please see page 7 for Saturday 3 December 1800-2000 hrs Imperial College Rector’s House, College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, full details. with optional dinner to follow 170 Queen’s Gate, London, SW7 London, EC4 Curtain up: 1930 hrs Extracts from Anthony Powell’s cyclical Friday 2 & Saturday 3 December 2005 12 novels, compiled by Hugh Anthony Powell Centenary Sunday 4 December 2005 Wallace Collection Public Massingberd and read by James Purefoy Conference Post-Conference Social Walks & Lectures and Annabel Mullion. Registration from 0900 hrs Lunch Conference: 0945 to 1630 hrs A leisurely, guided, Sunday morning Readings and a glass of wine, £20. A Times Literary Supplement lecture The Wallace Collection, Manchester walk around parts of Powell’s London Readings, wine and a three course Powell series in the 150 seat lecture theatre. Square, London, W1 and ending at a pub for lunch themed dinner in Café Bagatelle with Lectures begin at 1300 hrs. music, £40. Friday 18 November: Ferdinand Mount Booking Details: Please call 020 7563 1 June to 4 September 2005 Tuesday 11 October 2005 (relative of Powell) and DJ Taylor in 9516 or email danielle.cunningham@ Exhibition – Eton and Beyond: Anthony London Group Pub Meet conversation wallacecollection.org. Powell and His Contemporaries The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1 Friday 9 December: Jeremy Treglown James Purefoy and Annabel Mullion Eton College Library, Eton, Berkshire 1830 to 2130 hrs on Powell and the TLS (Jenkins and Mona from Channel 4’s Open weekdays, 0930-1300 & 1400-1700 An extra London group meet. Friday 20 January: Hilary Spurling on 1997 adaptation of the novels) will Details as 12 November Powell and the visual arts reunite to read a series of excerpts based Mid-July to mid-October 2005 Regular free lunchtime public lectures in around the theme of love in all its Anthony Powell Exhibition Saturday 22 October 2005 the gallery give a broad introduction to extremes of glory and desperation. All Georgetown University, Washington, DC Anthony Powell Society AGM the literary importance and background of the readings will be linked by their Details and dates tbc Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood,

Anthony Powell, a critical analysis of the references to key works of art mentioned Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 September 2005 AGM at 1400 hrs. paintings and drawings on show and an in the novels. Touching and engaging Anthony Powell Symposium examination of his links with the Wallace with plenty of jokes and a hint of Details in centre spread Georgetown University, Washington, DC Collection. sexiness ... Speakers to include Dr Nicholas Birns and Rosemary Colt; details and dates tbc 15 16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 Exhibition – Dancing to the Music of Society Notices Time: The Life and Work of Anthony Powell The Wallace Collection, Manchester Local Groups Square, London, W1 Centenary Year Details, opening hours, etc. at Subscription London Group www.wallacecollection.org or call Area: London & SE England +44 (0)20 7563 9500 Special Offer Contact: Keith Marshall See also page 30 Available to Email: [email protected] new & existing members Saturday 12 November 2005 Friday 2 December 2005 all grades of membership North East USA Group London Group Pub Meet Special Powell Centenary, Conference Area: NY & CT area, USA until 31 December 2005 The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1 and Christmas Newsletter Published Contact: Leatrice Fountain 1230 to 1530 hrs Members will automatically receive one Pay for 4 years Email: [email protected] Regular quarterly meeting. Good beer, copy free; additional copies available for a get the 5th year free good food, good company, good small charge Great Lakes Group conversation in a Victorian pub AP would Details from the Hon. Sec. Area: Chicago area, USA have known. Members & non-members Contact: Stephen Pyskoty-Olle welcome; further details from Hon. Sec. Saturday 3 December 2005 Subscriptions Reminder Email: [email protected] Topic: Venusberg Wallace Collection Special Evening Event: Love and Art in ‘A Dance to the Members are reminded that subscriptions Swedish Group 15 November 2005 to 27 January 2006 Music of Time’ were due for renewal on 1 April and Area: Sweden Anthony Powell Exhibition 1800 to 2000 hrs. Details page 15 renewal notices have been sent to those Contact: Regina Rehbinder Cambridge University Library, UK whose membership expired this year. Email: [email protected] Exhibition open to CUL readers; others by Friday 9 December 2005 Sadly some 25 members have yet to Please contact the Hon. Secretary if you special arrangement with Dr Emily Wallace Collection / TLS Public Lecture renew; final reminders are being sent to wish to make contact with a group and Mitchell on +44 01223 333122 Jeremy Treglown on Powell and the TLS them. Failure to renew will mean don’t have email. 1300 hrs; details page 15 removal from the membership register,

Friday 18 November 2005 and in centenary year that means you Wallace Collection / TLS Public Lecture Wednesday 21 December 2005 Anthony Powell 100th Birthday Party won’t be eligible for discounts on Ferdinand Mount and DJ Taylor in conference delegate fees. conversation College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, Newsletter Copy Deadlines 1300 hrs; details page 15 London, EC4 We are now able to accept subscription Celebrate Powell’s actual 100th birthday; payments by Standing Order (UK The deadlines for receipt of articles and Wednesday 30 November 2005 open to all; prior booking essential; full members only) and recurring credit card advertisements for forthcoming issues of The Garden God details on page 7 transaction; appropriate forms will be the Newsletter are: A rehearsed reading of Powell’s play sent with your reminder notice. Payment Friday 20 January 2006 Issue 21, Winter 2005 College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, may also be made in UK funds by Wallace Collection / TLS Public Lecture London, EC4 cheque, Visa or Mastercard. Special Powell Centenary, Curtain up: 1930 hrs. Admission: tbc. Hilary Spurling on Powell and the Conference and Christmas Issue Joint meeting with Bar Theatrical Society; visual arts Members who are UK taxpayers are Copy Deadline: 4 November 2005 prior booking essential; details when 1300 hrs; details page 15 asked to GiftAid their subscriptions, Publication Date: 2 December 2005 available from Chairman or Hon. Sec. enabling the Society to reclaim basic rate 22 March to 24 May 2006 income tax already paid on the Issue 22, Spring 2006 Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 December Anthony Powell Exhibition subscription; currently this is 28p for Copy Deadline: 10 February 2006 Anthony Powell Centenary Conference Grolier Club, New York, USA every £1 paid to the Society. Publication Date: 3 March 2006 Full details on page 16 Details tbc 17 18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20

Society Notices Society Notices

Your Trash is Worth Cash So put your old mobile phones, inkjet Society Strategy Review and toner printer cartridges to one side. Tell us Your Views Your office trash can be worth hundreds Call recycling appeal direct on 08712 50 of pounds to the Society! Office 50 50 to arrange free collection from As the Hon. Secretary mentions in his materials that normally end up in the bin anywhere in the UK or send them in column on page 2 the Executive Anthony Powell Resides Here – toner and printer cartridges, and even sturdy packaging to: Committee are undertaking a piece of work to formally review the Society's CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS seeks old mobile phones – can be recycled to recycling appeal raise valuable cash for us. So if you are strategy, directions etc. The work will and sells early editions of Anthony Anthony Powell Society start this Autumn while we have the Powell’s works together with those of guilty of throwing away old inkjet FREEPOST NAT 22768 other distinguished British authors such cartridges and other recyclable office momentum of centenary year and Falkirk, FK1 2BR continue into 2006. as , P. G. Wodehouse, materials, read on! Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and Our UK members will find a plastic Should we be a small niche literary James Lees-Milne. In addition to rare The Society has teamed up with leading mailer enclosed with this Newsletter; this books, we offer a complete collection of society? Or should we aim to be a “big new books in our store near the recycling company recycling appeal in a can be used to donate small items. scheme that will help boost our funds player”? Is the vision of us being “a Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs issued Please quote Account No. 719052 on the Society of enthusiasts including upon request. and help the environment. Every time mailer to ensure we receive the benefits. you donate a cartridge or old mobile academics and professional literarists” 1082 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10028 the right one? Open seven days per week phone to us through recycling appeal the You’ll be helping the environment and Telephone: 212 289 2345 Society will receive a cash donation. helping the Society – and it won’t cost The purpose of the review is to answer [email protected] you a penny. these questions and position us to Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Robert Morton of recycling appeal says: Association of America, Inc. develop beyond Centenary year on a firm Throwing an old mobile phone away is Factfile strategic and financial footing. This not a good idea. Mobiles contain © Mobile phones contain cadmium, a means a consolidated plan for the cadmium, which is dangerous and highly dangerous toxic substance. Society's directions; overall strategy; toxic. Once in a landfill site, the phone © Mobiles and printer cartridges are casing corrodes and the cadmium leeches organisation; business, investment & out into the soil. So it’s not very valuable and can be recycled to help funding plans; an implementation plan. Why Not Advertise Here? environmentally friendly to dump your poorer nations and the environment. *** © Phones that are unsuitable for The review will actively involve the old mobile. But that’s not the only reason Display Advert Rates to recycle your old phone. recycling can be disposed of safely. Society’s Trustees (who have the legal © In January 2005 there were over 50 responsibility for the Society) and the Full Page: £30 We recycle old mobiles and give around non-Executive Officers. But more … half the profit to charities. Through our million mobile phones in the UK but ½ page or full column: £20 recycling programmes we have been able only 17 million in active use. The Society exists because of you, our 1/3 page (horizontal): £15 to donate over £1.5 million to good © The UK discards over 2 million printer members and friends. So the Trustees ¼ page (½ column): £10 causes. cartridges annually want – indeed need – to know your 1/6 page (1/3 column): £8 Another reason for recycling your phone © Fewer than 5% of discarded mobiles views. How you would like the Society Flyer inserts: £10 per A5 sheet is that it can help developing countries. and printer cartridges are recycled. to develop? What do you believe the Many developing nations do not have a © It takes more than 1½ pints of oil to Society should be doing? B&W artwork only pervasive landline infrastructure. As a make a new toner cartridge. *** result, mobile phones may be the only © In the last decade it is estimated that All members and friends are invited to way of communicating over a distance. Small Ads worldwide printer cartridges worth submit their thoughts and ideas to the We send old mobiles to these countries, Free to Society members thereby helping improve communication. over £500 billion were dumped in review by contacting any of the officers landfill sites. or committee. Others 10p/word, minimum £3

19 20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 approach to religion which, like some Powell steps forward as that “man of baroque pictures, appears over the top to assurance” taking his metaphor from art From the APLIST us. I cannot for one minute claim to share rather than science and begins to answer Recent Discussions on the Society’s Email Discussion Group this view, but I think I understand it. with the Dance 4-5 years later. I like Waugh because he seems to reflect –––––– what is the primary issue of our time, how From Adrian Fry are survivors of Waugh’s earlier way of From John O’Brien do we cope with the decline in spiritual I agree with Adrian here – Decline and Discussion about Powell and Waugh (in writing? values (which are comforting regardless of particular the trilogy) has Fall and Vile Bodies are still tremendously But I find it extraordinary that anyone their accuracy). funny. I have just seen Bright Young certainly set me thinking. should consider Waugh’s Catholicism –––––– Things, Stephen Fry’s adaptation of Vile For me, Waugh’s real skill was for a sort of “mawkish” (and I was attracted to Sword Bodies – some laughs, but quite absurdist black comedy. When he of Honour long, long before I became a From Joan Williams disappointing. Fry unwisely decided to Michael, I think you have put the position attempts seriousness his lightness of touch Catholic myself). Nothing mawkish about rewrite Waugh, carrying the story forward deserts him and he has the air of a club Mr Crouchback senior, except possibly to very well. It tackles nicely the difficult to the second world war and tacking on an bore exercising his prejudices. Whatever Cecily who confessed (to Miss Prism?) issue of a writer who puts his considerable unconvincing “happy ending”. Lucky for talents at the service of a particular else it is – and it has some fine set pieces – that wicked people were so much more him Waugh was not alive to see it. The position such as a political or religious Sword of Honour is a very patchy work, interesting than good ones. And by actor who played Quiggin in the TV veering from comedy to lumbering “wicked” I suspect Cecily meant one. It seems to me to be a tricky adaptation of Dance appears here as the technical thing for a writer to pull off if pontification. The seriousness with which “naughty”. customs officer who seizes and destroys critics treat Waugh always astounds me – presented as fiction, because it can so Adam’s novel at the beginning of the story. On the other hand nothing could be more where they should applaud the stylistic easily shade over into melodrama or mawkish than the piety accorded quite a –––––– innovations of his early comedies, they propaganda. different Sword, that of , symbol dwell on his mawkish Catholicism and From Jeff Manley of a broken treaty between two really Which is why, of course that we are able to bracket him with the immeasurably I did not mean to suggest that political/ wicked men, and a battle where thousands have several quite different reactions – one superior Graham Greene. religious agendas have no place in novels of Soviet troops appear to have been to the writing skill and ability, perhaps another admiring the attempt to deal with of either Waugh or Powell. As you so Powell is a far subtler writer. Despite the executed by their own commander and rightly point out, without such subtexts (if intricate construction of Dance – all those where the first building to be reconstructed current issues and the third to the relative success or failure as a work of art. that’s the right word) the novel would coincidental meetings – there is a tendency and put to its original horrendous use was become nothing more than a diary to downplay what we normally call the NKVD headquarters. I’m reminded too of the lovely satirical (although in the case of these two writers “action”. But through characters such as Nothing mawkish about Waugh’s reference in Powell to this kind of even their diaries were more entertaining Stringham, Ted Jeavons and even Max Catholicism: he converted because he situation – “The pistons of our than most other writers best efforts). It’s Pilgrim we come closer than Waugh ever could rationally assent to the essential locomotives sing the songs of our more that Powell writes his subtexts into takes us to the dignities and indignities dogmas of the Church rather than for any workers”. Dance whereas Waugh piles his on (at into which war thrusts us. I suppose it is sentimental reasons; he converted at a time –––––– least in Sword of Honour). The Sword of because critics think of Dance as a single when he felt certain that he could never Honour series would still be a great novel work, and all authors best known for a From Joe Trenn remarry; and he always gave up his without the religious/political bits written single work as second raters, that the war In the Little Brown edition of Brideshead colossal consumption of cigars and alcohol as they are. Indeed it would in my opinion season of Dance is not accorded the Revisited, page 235-236, Waugh, in the for the forty days of Lent. That took some be even better. You could rid the work of respect hurled at Sword of Honour. voice of Charles Ryder, proposes an Crouchback père with no great loss and doing. unsatisfactory scientific metaphor which –––––– Guy needn’t brood so much about his –––––– he leaves “for the man of assurance” to religious beliefs. I could live without the From Andrew Clarke From Michael Hexum describe “the little spinning planets of Sword as well but I suppose the title Well I have to agree that Trimmer is a There appears to be a great deal of personal relationships … and the cold would have to be changed. Indeed, the straw man and that Apthorpe’s thunderbox repression in Waugh’s nature which I think interstellar space between them” which are political subtext is less artificial than the long outstays its welcome. But then these was expressed in a rather aesthetic “ to be found in England and only there”. religious one and could probably be left 21 22 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 largely undisturbed. What you would be of Oxford in the twenties (well Powell clearly revered as an artist, even From Jeff Manley left with is Waugh at his best, back on called it a myth anyway)? Certainly when the critic likes some of his Once again, I find that I agree with almost form with the works of the thirties but with Waugh himself grew to be a little ashamed novels more than others. (Bayley everything Andrew Clarke says and come more maturity. And the blot that of his nostalgia for a world entre deux favours the peacetime volumes of the away with a better understanding of my Brideshead Revisited left in his copybook guerres that never really existed. A Dance to the Music of Time own opinions after reading his. As to could then be forgotten. You would be left –––––– sequence over the wartime ones, thus Crouchback père and the Sword of with something much like Powell’s war reversing the usual preference: the Stalingrad I see Andrew’s point of view, trilogy with perhaps more sharply drawn From Craig Ranapia reader is left to decide whether the and agree that perhaps the books would be comic elements. The malaise with the Taking that a little further, Waugh’s reviewer might be saying this because the less by their deletion, at least for some modern world would still be there but it failures of charity and courtesy are legion too many people said the opposite.) readers. For me, they still remind me of would not be refracted through the rather and do not need to be re-hashed here. And Bayley correctly points out that nothing so much as the Stakhanovite tiresome lens of the superimposed I certainly would not defend Brideshead Powell’s chief concern, unlike heroes and themes that had to be written religiosity. I would not suggest that this Revisited as Waugh’s finest work or even a Waugh’s, was less with the landed into Russian novels of the ’30s and ’40s in gets out of hand in Sword of Honour to the good novel. (I’d even go out on a limb gentry than with the higher bohemia order to satisfy Stalinist guiding principles. extent it does in Brideshead Revisited. and say I find Powell’s war trilogy and its population of misfits. But Rather than , Waugh gives There is no question that Sword of Honour superior to Waugh’s, while I regularly re- probably Bayley’s main reason for us antisocialist mysticism. Contrary to is written by the same hand as wrote the read Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War preferring Powell to Waugh is that he what someone suggested, I find such books of the 1930’s whereas Brideshead with more pleasure than either.) But I find prefers humanism to mysticism. He tendentiousness to be tiresome whatever Revisited is more like so many other it disturbing how often even such subtle just doesn’t think that art and religion religious or political principles it may be overwritten best sellers of its time. and insightful critics as Kingsley Amis, make a good match, especially if the espousing. And for me, it mars what are Christopher Hitchens, Orwell and even –––––– religion is an adopted one, as in the otherwise brilliant novels. But even if one Powell appear to use the novel as an case of Waugh – and the case of skims these sections, the remaining 95% From Andrew Clarke occasion to sneer at the Papists. Graham Greene, by whom he is of the novels are among the best things he The point about Crouchback père is that he To paraphrase Bob Duport on enthralled even less. Without wrote and I suppose he can be forgiven for is a) a Catholic, b) a gentleman and c) Widmerpool, Waugh was a “chateau- precisely calling these two eminent the bits he felt obliged to include for a imbued with what Yehudi Menuhin found bottled shit” long before he became a Catholic converts perpetrators of a higher calling. The only point I would in English music: a kind of passionate Catholic and one he remained until the end put-up job, he makes it clear that he make is that this never happened to innocence. This is the civilisation under of his life. Where I have great difficulty is thinks their religiosity detracts from Powell. I’ve read everything except the threat from the “Modern Age in Arms”. drawing the conclusion, as many critics of their scope of vision rather than Aubrey biography and can’t recall any bits The sword of Stalingrad has to be there. Waugh do, that it reduces his faith to little adding to it. I would skim through or delete upon revisiting the book (with the possible That’s the Modern Age in Arms in all its more than an expression of high Tory I’m not quite sure what’s meant by “a put- shallowness and worse than shallowness, camp. exception of the genealogical sections of up job” in this context, but generally I’d the memoirs). He simply made his points the installation in a place of worship of a agree with Bayley’s view. I’m also one of –––––– through describing the lives of his symbol of the most horrendous and evil those apparently rare people who prefer From John Potter characters. Waugh’s comedy and satire are regime in modern history. the peacetime Dance novels, though I still I don’t know if anyone else has seen this, more pointed but on the whole Powell’s is like the wartime trilogy better than OK. Religion, for Waugh, embraces all but the 27 May issue of TLS has a very equally satisfying. Would that Waugh had Waugh’s Sword of Honour. This is not to the good things that the Modern Age in interesting two page review of John used his power satire to deal with the say I don’t care at all for Waugh’s novels: I Arms is opposed to and by which the Bayley’s new book of literary essays The theme he addressed by introducing the think Decline and Fall is one of the Modern Age in Arms is to be judged. Power of Delight. The review is by Clive Sword of Stalingrad – indeed, why didn’t funniest I’ve read and have always liked What of course makes things even James and the part relevant to APlisters is he just apply his satiric talents to that very Brideshead Revisited … despite the grimmer is Waugh’s feeling that these as follows: subject. It would have made the same religion. good things are doomed in this world, point more effectively. albeit efficacious from eternity. Bayley much prefers Anthony Powell to Evelyn Waugh. Quoted almost as Is it the Catholicism that’s overwritten or often as Auden, Powell is treated as a the plumy descriptions of the great myth friend throughout the book, and 23 24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 From Jeff Manley far and away the best performances in the Someone wrote (possibly Andrew Clarke otherwise overblown Granada TV series of but I’m not sure about that): the 1980’s). I take heart from reports that … Books … Books … Books … Books … Books … Books … the latest TV version which is in and out of The Bridesheads, remember, are a production depending on who is reporting convert family: far more typical of will dispense with the deathbed English Catholicism would be a reconversion scene (and perhaps with the Bitten by the Tarantula and Other Writing congregation of blue-collar Polish or equally unlikely conversion of Charles Irish immigrants in a brick barn of a Ryder). Black Spring Press are publishing an Actor, Soho Dandy Julian Maclaren- place in Birmingham or North extensive collection of work by Julian Ross, will also be published in October. London, complete with Them Holy Fortunately, even though the post-Dance Maclaren-Ross in October 2005 entitled Whether Maclaren-Ross was Pictures and sugary plaster statuary, novels were a bit weak and far from Bitten by the Tarantula and Other producing reviews, essays, fiction not to mention sugary hymns. Powell at the top of his form, he doesn’t Writing. The book brings together or memoirs, he had that happy have something like Brideshead Revisited essays, reviews, short fiction, fragments I didn’t think this was quite accurate knack of being able to make his to be lived down or to cause endless of longer fiction, literary parodies, and although it’s been nearly 20 years since I prose feel vibrant, immediate, embarrassment for his admirers. One the eponymous novella, and is compiled read Brideshead Revisited (and I certainly effortless and individual. His APlister noted in an earlier email that and has an introduction by Paul Willetts. have no intention of doing so again). I did writing conveys the unmistakable Waugh in later years regretted somewhat The section “Essays on Literature and however look up the part regarding Mrs voice of what his friend, the critic the purple prose of the Oxford passages Book Reviews” will be of particular Flyte aka Lady Marchmain and it seems Anthony Cronin, called ‘one of the and I think I recall reading that he was at interest to the Society as many of these her family have been Roman Catholic for doomed men of Soho’. Reading his least to some degree embarrassed by the pieces were commissioned by Powell. many generations, dating back to before work now is akin to viewing some book’s huge success in the US (although They include the essay “From a Chase to the Reformation. So, they are much like miraculously untarnished film he was no doubt happy to cash his royalty a View (Anthony Powell)” which both the Crouchbacks in that respect. Lord footage, the colour undimmed by checks). Religion goes down a treat in any reviews A Question of Upbringing and Marchmain was, of course, a convert and the intervening decades. Ahead of form over here and probably boosted also covers Afternoon Men, Venusberg, that is perhaps to whom the reference was the game in so many respects, Brideshead Revisited’s US sales. Perhaps From a View to a Death, and Agents and intended. But he was hardly a voluntary Maclaren-Ross’s time has, it seems, that’s why the religious themes in Sword of Patients. one since his conversion was coerced by Honour are a bit more subdued and the finally arrived. his marriage (not unlike Graham Greene, A revised and expanded edition of Paul Wavian satire and comedy reappear in the [From Paul Willetts’s introduction but that’s another story). The source of Willetts’s Fear and Loathing in other portions of those books. to Bitten by the Tarantula.] Lord Marchmain’s adherence makes his Fitzrovia: the Bizarre Life of Writer, deathbed “reconversion” all the more incredible. Indeed, if the family had all been voluntary converts, one could Ordering Books Online sympathize a bit more with the Christmas is Coming! overzealously pedantic observances of the Don’t forget you can help the Already stuck for Presents? mother, the oldest son (Bridey) and the Society by ordering your books on- youngest daughter (Celia). At least in my line via the links on the AP website, What better way to celebrate case, far fewer hackles would be raised. www.anthonypowell.org, to Amazon, Christmas and Powell’s centenary Amazon UK and Abebooks. than by giving your friends copies of But I fear this particular book is probably something by Anthony Powell for beyond redemption even if heavy editing Christmas. With the new edition of were applied. Still, one would hate to lose Dance out in paperback giving your it because with that loss would go Anthony friends all 12 volumes plus a year’s Blanche, Ryder père, and Rex Mottram membership of the Society is now who are surely among the best of Waugh’s affordable! comic creations (and the former two are

25 26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20

… Books … Books … Books … Books … Books … Books … … Cuttings … Cuttings … Cuttings … Cuttings …

* STOP PRESS … STOP PRESS * * STOP PRESS … STOP PRESS * BBC Radio 4 Roy Davids’s Some Poets, Artists and Seeing Secret Harmonies: Pictures Documentary Portrait ‘A Reference for Mellors’ of Anthony Powell on Powell Collection For by Anthony Powell and Dance Auction This Wallace Collection/TLS Early November sees the publication publication which is being released Sadly Tom Roy Davids is of Some Poets, Artists & ‘A in early November in conjunction Morris’s radio documentary selling his Reference for Mellors’ – Anthony with the Wallace Collection’s scheduled for broadcast on Thursday collection of Powell’s long-awaited collection of Exhibition, will contain essays by 7 July was cancelled at the last portraits of criticism on poets and artists. The Ferdinand Mount, Hilary Spurling minute to allow up to the minute writers, artists, collection, drawn from over four and Jeremy Treglown. There will coverage of the London bombings. musicians, etc. decades of reviews and critical also be a piece by the Assistant However the scheduled repeat did go by auction at Bonham’s (101 New writing, shows Powell at his most Director of the Wallace, Jeremy out the following Sunday night – and Bond Street, London, W1S 1SR) on incisive and beguiling and closes Warren, which will form the very good it was too! 3 October 2005. The portraits are in with A Reference for Mellors, a gem exhibition catalogue. a wide variety of media including We believe that the documentary will of a parody which imagines that oils, drawings, watercolours, Mellors has found a new job as a Full details are not available as we be broadcast “properly” later in the go to press but when published the etchings, woodcuts, medallions, gardener and his prospective year, but at the time of going to press book will be available from the photographs, sculptures etc. and employer has written to Lady we have no confirmation of this. Wallace Collection’s shop. range over five centuries. The Chatterley for a reference. catalogue (£20) describes the Publisher: Timewell Press, 10 collection comprehensively and is Porchester Terrace, London, W2 3TL fully illustrated in colour. Estimated Is there a Graphic Artist in the Phone & Fax: +44 (0)870 760 5250 And don’t forget the recent Random prices start at £150. House paperback reissue of Dance House? Publication date: 2 November 2005 The sale includes a photograph of and Hilary Spurling’s Invitation to ISBN: 1857252101 Price: £25 Anthony Powell as well as images of the Dance, all of which are now We have an idea for a large size (A5) many of his friends and Now orderable via Amazon UK available. Society postcard illustrating the life and works of our hero. But to realise contemporaries including: JP it we need someone to do the Donleavy, TS Eliot, Christopher Fry, illustrations. If there is a good artist John Galsworthy, Graham Greene, Heywood Hill Powell Centenary Catalogue out there who would like to give Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Philip Larkin, DH Lawrence, Lady Ottoline In November this year Heywood Hill’s presentation inscriptions). There will be their time to help the Society by Morrell, Peter Quennell, Roger Fry bookshop plans to issue a catalogue of a postscript including one or two items doing the and Augustus John. In all there are books that have been selected from the from Heywood Hill’s own Powell stock. drawings, over 280 lots. basement of The Chantry. While the then the Hon. If you would like to receive a copy of the volumes offered will all carry Anthony Secretary The catalogue is available on-line at catalogue, please send £3 with your name Powell’s armorial bookplate they are would like to www.bonhams.com or may be and address to: G Heywood Hill Ltd, 10 peripheral to the Powell family’s core hear from ordered from Bonhams on +44 (0) Curzon Street, London, W1J 5HH as collections (the family is retaining all them. 1666 502 200. soon as possible. association copies and books with

27 28 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Widmerpool and Asperger’s Syndrome P owell’s writings chronicle, in poignant Letters to the Editor and often hilarious detail, the lives over From: Nick Hay time of a group of friends and “Bwab” is reciting that great passage from Burton, Someone on an email list drew my acquaintances, presenting a rich and you’ll see that the film has created the attention to the following link detailed portrait of British life throughout From: Andrew Clarke following oeuvre for Nick and left it for www.webspawner.com/users/asperger/ a period of intense change. In reality, It would be easy to believe that “Bwab” our viewing pleasure in Widmerpool’s pagesix.html in which is included the Powell himself formed part of a vibrant the gentleman who didn’t actually know rooms. following: artistic set, including writers and critics which regiment he belonged to but George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh and Cyril Judging from the styles on the book spines Professor Digby Tantum, who gave believed they had green facings and that Connolly, composer Constant Lambert and as well as the relative condition of the you got to them from Victoria Station, was me my own diagnosis of Asperger artist Henry Lamb, and associated with books we see, I’d say this list is in roughly Syndrome, meanwhile agreed with the archetypal Late Victorian knut or some of the most inspirational artists and a chronological order of publication: Lounge Lizard, especially given his Lord me that Kenneth Widmerpool, the designers of the time, their friendships and arch villain in A Dance to the Music Wotwotleigh speech defect – “the The Silent Summer rivalries providing vital material for his of Time (serialised by Channel 4 in wottenest wubber of wecent seasons” etc. Mornings in Wiltshire novels. the autumn of 1997) almost certainly Fellow Members: A Memoir has Asperger Syndrome. This exhibition will offer a rare insight Which just goes to show that just as Knowing the Right People into this world, and the development supposed role models might lead to a Asperger Syndrome is apparently linked to (These are on Widmerpool’s’ bookshelf process of Powell’s key works, both misconception of autism. fictitious persons (and next to A People’s History of Great textually and illustratively. Britain.) vice-versa) references to Photographs of The Chantry, Powell’s real persons in fiction Paying the Rent: Collected Reviews Wallace Collection Exhbition home for fifty years, and an evocation of might be equally Borage & Hellebore Dancing to the Music of Time: The his working space will help elicit the spirit misleading. In real life, of the man. Portraits of Powell and his Bwab [shown right in a (These are on Widmerpool’s desk at the Life and Work of Anthony Powell contemporaries will be juxtaposed Spy cartoon – Ed] top of the pile of stuff he starts to go 3 November 2005 – 5 February 2006 alongside entertaining private letters, hand through.) appears to have been an 2005 marks the centenary year of Anthony inscribed books and personal photographs. extremely effective I kind of like Paying the Rent as an Powell, one of the most important English Manuscripts will allow visitors a valuable commander of men at a amusing side-comment on how Powell novelists of the post war period. Powell insight into the development of the novels. time when British made a significant portion of his annual retained close ties with the Wallace Rarely seen original jacket illustrations military administration wage. No doubt the wittier amongst us Collection throughout his life, both as a and artwork exploring the Dance left a great deal to be can come up with other interpretations, frequent visitor to the museum and as a characters by the celebrated cartoonists desired. read other meanings into them, etc. I just friend of its Director, Sir Francis Watson. Osbert Lancaster and Mark Boxer, as well –––––– found it an interesting detail to have Significantly, The Wallace Collection also as dramatic Constructivist book covers included in the film. provided the inspiration and title for his created by Misha Black in the 1930s, Widmerpool’s Book Collection provide a visual portrait of Powell’s work most famous work, the cyclical twelve [It is possible, but I have not been able to to complement the written material. From: Bobb Menk novel sequence A Dance to the Music of check, that Hugh Massingberd may have Time, inspired by the Poussin painting of You and I know that the only title ever had a hand in some of these titles – Ed] The exhibition is given an added mentioned for one of Nick Jenkins’s the same name which hangs here in the dimension through the inclusion of works works in Dance, is Borage & Hellebore Great Gallery. of art from Powell’s small but select for his work on Burton. To mark this milestone, The Wallace private collection, including drawings by Vuillard and Picasso. Poussin’s Dance to However, if one watches closely in the Collection has assembled the most the Music of Time will also be featured in final scene of the Channel 4 film version comprehensive exhibition ever on Powell, the exhibition. where Nick is looking through promising to offer a remarkable portrait of Widmerpool’s things while the voice over the man, his contemporaries and his work.

29 30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #20 Society Merchandise The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 Oxford Conference Proceedings Wallace Collection Postcard The collected papers from the 2003 The Wallace Collection’s luxurious conference at Balliol College, Oxford. postcard of Poussin’s A Dance to the Membership Form Price: £7.50 (post free to all members) Music of Time. Picture on page 9. Member Information Payment Information Price: £2 for 5 (postage rate B) Eton Conference Proceedings Type of membership (please tick): Total amount payable: £ ______Limited edition of 250 numbered copies Wallace Collection Poster ¨ Ordinary Member – £20 a year. (No. of years x membership rate) each signed by the Society’s Patron. The Wallace Collection’s 48.5 x 67.5 cm ¨ Joint Membership – £30 a year. Any two Price: £15 (post free to all members) (half life-size) poster of Poussin’s A Dance persons at the same address. ¨ I enclose a sterling cheque drawn on a UK to the Music of Time. Mailed in a poster ¨ Gold Member – £30 minimum a year. bank. Please make cheques payable to The ¨ Student Member – £12 a year. Please send Anthony Powell Society. Oxford Conference Delegates Book tube. Picture on page 9. a copy of your student card. As given to delegates at the conference. Price: £5.75 (postage rate D) ¨ Organisation – £100 minimum a year. ¨ Please debit my Visa / MasterCard Price: £1.50 (postage rate C) 4 Society Bookmarks Subscriptions are due on 1 April annually. If I authorize you, until furthe r notice, to chafrge r The Master and The Congressman Price: £1 for 5 (postage rate A) joining on or after 1 January, membership my Visa / MasterCaerd account for the osum of f e A 40 page monograph by John Monagan includes following full subscription year. £ ______on, for immediately cafter 1 April each yeaOr. I will advise youi in writing describing his meetings with Anthony Newsletter Back Issues r Full Name: immrediately the ca rpd becomes lost or stolen, Powell. A small treasure for all collectors Back numbers of Newsletter issues a r Yeif I close theo account or I wish to cancel this of Powelliana. 1(reprint), 6 and 8 to 19 are still available. Address: y author itfy. ** Price: £5 (post free to all members) Price: 50p per copy (postage rate B) ar i p n sh Card No.: e r BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance Postage. All Society merchandise is post free to t e members in the UK. Regrettably we have to ask Postcode/Zip: n b Valid from: Expires: Available to members only. e Single CD of 26 MP3 files. Price: £2.50 overseas members to contribute to airmail postage C m using the following rates: Country: e Name & address of cardholder (if different + Donation: £7.50 minimum (Total £10; s m from above): post free) Rate UK Europe World Email: r 26 Audio CDs. Price: £20 + Donation: ea £40 minimum (Total £60; post free) A free 25p 60p N uymber of years membership being paid: I am a UK taxpayer and I want all donations I’ve 5 B free 40p £1 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / more (please state): made since 6 April 2000 and all donations in the Audio Tapes of Dance future to be Gift Aid until I notify you otherwise. Copies of the following audio tapes of C free 60p £1.50 ** Simon Callow reading (abridged) volumes D free 80p £1.75 Gift Membership I agree to the Society holding my information on of Dance: · A Question of Upbringing computer. Non-members will be charged postage & packing If this is a gift membership please attach the name · The Kindly Ones at cost. & address of the recipient plus any special Signed: · The Valley of Bones message on a separate sheet of paper.

· The Soldier’s Art Gold and Founder members of the Society receive Date: a 10% discount on the cost of all merchandise Where shall we send the membership? Price: £2.50 each (postage rate C) (but not on postage charges). ¨ Direct to the recipient ** Delete if not applicable. ¨ To you to give to the recipient personally Society Postcard Ordering. Post, phone or fax your order to the B&W postcard of Powell with his cat Hon. Secretary at the address on page 2. Payment Please send the completed form and payment to: Trelawney. Picture on page 25. by cheque (UK funds drawn on a UK bank), Hon. Secretary, The Anthony Powell Society Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 Price: £1.75 for 5 (postage rate B) credit card (Visa or Mastercard) or cash. 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109

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