The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter

Issue 26, Spring 2007 ISSN 1743-0976

Colin Donald Interviews Koyama Taichi Contents Dr Koyama Taichi, who lectures at Wayo Interview with Koyama Taichi … 1 Women’s University near Tokyo, will be From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 familiar to many readers of Newsletter Koyama Taichi Book Review … 8 from the Eton and London conferences Harry Mount Book Review … 11 and by reputation as the leading Japanese Competition Results … 12 scholar of Anthony Powell. Christmas Quiz Answers … 13 Subscriptions … 15 Last autumn his adapted PhD thesis was Event: Visit to Widmerpool … 16 published by Hokuseido in Japan as The Dates for Your Diary … 17 Novels of Anthony Powell – A Critical Conference … 17 Study, a perceptive, comprehensive and at Local Group News … 18 times highly provocative study of the Powell & Aleister Crowley … 20 entire novelistic output of Anthony Powell. The Bag o’ Nails … 24 The book also contains an exceptionally Letters to the Editor … 27 useful bibliography. Society Merchandise … 30 Membership Form … 32 Hailing from the semi-rural hinterland of the ancient Japanese cultural capital of Strategy Review Report … centre insert Kyoto, Koyama Sensei is a graduate of the elite Tokyo University, and completed his PhD at the University of Kent. He is a distinguished translator of contemporary British fiction, including several acclaimed versions of the novels of Ian McEwan. He has already translated Afternoon Men into Japanese, the only Powell novel available in that language, and he hopes shortly to undertake the first Japanese translation of Jikan no ongaku no odori, or A Dance to the Music of Time. Koyama Taichi’s book on Anthony Powell is available online from www.amazon.jp (press “In English” on the title page, then type in the full title of the book). The price is ¥4001 (around £17 or $33.50 US). Taichi-san can be contacted at [email protected]. Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 None of us likes change and there is scientific evidence that procrastination is The Anthony Powell Society is a our default mindset – “if it ain’t broke, charitable literary society devoted to the don’t fix it” makes good evolutionary life and works of the English author sense. But change is a two-edged sword: Anthony Dymoke Powell, 1905-2000. both “good” and “uncomfortable” it can be serendipitous: opening unexpected doors; Officers & Executive Committee bringing fresh visions; new opportunities. Patron: John MA Powell The Society is about to see one of those changes which are, from time to time, President: Simon Russell Beale thrust upon us all. Our Chairman, Patric Hon. Vice-Presidents: Dickinson, has indicated that for personal Julian Allason reasons he will be standing down at this Hugh Massingberd year’s AGM. Patric has been tremendous *Chairman: Patric Dickinson value as Chairman: not only has he opened *Hon. Secretary: Dr Keith C Marshall numerous doors for us and worked quietly *Hon. Treasurer: Dr Derek Miles and tirelessly for the Society, he steered us through centenary year. While we shall be *Committee Members: sad to lose Patric’s undoubted skills, sooner Dr Christine Berberich or later we must all ensure that we look Dr Nicholas Birns (USA) after ourselves. Leatrice Fountain (USA) Stephen Holden How to replace such a Chairman? My Tony Robinson personal view, and not everyone will agree, Elwin Taylor is that we need a quiet, “doing” Chairman. Someone who, like Patric, can open doors; Newsletter & Journal Editor: work for us behind the scenes as well as out Stephen Holden front; add their skills and experience to help Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall run and develop the Society. That is a tall PR/Media Adviser: Julian Allason order; Patric will be a hard act to follow. All correspondence should be sent to: We are announcing this now not so that Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society there can be a campaign to persuade Patric 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford to stay on – I’ve already tried, quietly, and Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK failed, and we should respect Patric’s Phone: +44 20 8864 4095 decision – but so that we all have time to Fax: +44 20 8864 6109 search our hearts and minds and ask “Could Email: [email protected] I be Chairman?”. You can find a short description of the Chairman’s role in the Strategy Review Report at the centre of this * Members of the Executive Committee who are the Society’s trustees. All trustees are resident Newsletter. The only thing I would add is in England or Wales unless stated. that to satisfy the Charity Commission our Chairman should probably be resident in the UK. Many members would do an © The Anthony Powell Society, 2007 and the excellent job as Chairman and bring us individual authors named. All rights reserved. valuable skills. Who will be bold enough Published by The Anthony Powell Society. to volunteer? Printed and distributed by Express Printing, Peterborough, UK

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Colin Donald: How did you first You have revised your thesis and turned encounter the writings of Anthony it into a book, but who is your Powell and why did you choose to study “imagined reader” of The Novels of him for your PhD? Anthony Powell? Koyama Taichi: Does the name Yoshida I wrote it to appeal to fellow Powell fans, Kenichi ring a bell? He is the celebrated and to win over those who haven’t read novelist-critic and high-spirited drunkard Dance but who are interested, however who interviewed Powell in Tokyo (see The slightly. Strangers All Are Gone). Yoshida later became one of Japan’s foremost critics, How would you summarise the writing extensively on Japanese, Chinese, substance of the book? English and French literature. I am a great “A close analysis of one of the greatest fan of Yoshida’s writings, and his mention comic representations of the modern of Powell in one of his essays started it all world”. I’m no great theorist – or a blurb off for me. To be honest I chose Powell as writer! the subject of my PhD partly because few others were “doing” him, but mainly Is Powell studied or read much in because I had always been fascinated by Japan? the English comic novel and Powell Regrettably, Powell’s readership in Japan seemed an exceptional figure within that is quite small at present. I published my tradition. translation of Afternoon Men in 1999, and some of the original 2,000 copies are still

Koyama Taichi

3 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 available in major Tokyo bookstores. I do Onishi had ever read or even heard of my best! Powell when he wrote the 1955-1980 series; it’s just one of those Powellian Are there any Dance-style novel coincidences that happen from time to sequences in modern Japanese time. literature? In his memoirs Powell mentions his The elegiac beauty of Tanizaki’s admiration for The Tale of Genji by Sasameyuki (1943-1948, in English The Lady Murasaki [Lady Violet!] (ca. 973- Makioka Sisters), comes immediately to 1014). What do you think appealed to mind. But as a trilogy it’s too short to be him about what is arguably the first- called a full roman fleuve, and its tone is ever novel in any language? not necessarily comic. Her keen sense of social nuances and the At the risk of sounding eccentric, I would interaction of human desires, especially name Shinsei Kigeki (Divine Comedy, sexual ones. Also, Genji is a novel about though it’s not translated into English yet) the passing of time. I must confess that by Onishi Kyojin. Onishi (1919-) reminds her Japanese is a bit too classical for me; me of Powell’s friend George Orwell: a reading it through in the original remains left-wing writer at odds with the one of my great ambitions. There is Communist Party. Shinsei Kigeki is, however a wonderful translation into roughly, Dance’s war trilogy extended to modern Japanese by the aforementioned eight volumes. Onishi’s way of depicting Tanizaki. life’s irrelevantly comic moments in a sober, deliberate style makes them all the What inspired a young student from funnier, often making me think of Powell Japan’s cultural heartland, with no and Dance. Shinsei Kigeki even includes family tradition of foreign studies, to go an officer-soldier interrogation that goes on and master English language and seriously awry, in the same way as the literature? Gwatkin-Sayce scene! I don’t think

Scene from the 11th century book The Tale of Genji. 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

My father was a fan of classic Hollywood s hared by Patrick Swinden in his 1986 movies; he introduced me to the films of study The English Novel of History and Ford, Capra, Hawks et al. I was fascinated Society, which I recommend to Powell by the sophisticated comedies of the fans, who may enjoy countering its thirties and forties, and became motivated arguments. My view on Powell was to study English. Then one day I came certainly influenced by their views: though across a Japanese edition of Thackeray’s I’m not sure how deeply. Studying under Vanity Fair. It was an 80-year old someone who is stubbornly anti-Powell translation, but an excellent one. That was prevented me from writing the eulogy that my introduction to English literature and I had intended, which is probably a good made me think about becoming a thing. I had to work hard to convince translator, which I did in my early postgrad Irwin, a bitter fight that I’m not so sure I days. Nick Jenkins reflects in The won; but my views on Powell became Acceptance World, that more rounded in the process. Intricacies of social life make English When I started my thesis; the bizarre habits unyielding to simplification, elements of the fourth trilogy (Pamela, while understatement and irony – in Murtlock and converted Widmerpool) which all classes of this island appealed to me most. While I still enjoy converse – upset the normal emphasis that aspect of Dance, I’m struck with the of reported speech. flimsiness of the contrivance. Nowadays it’s the multi-dimensionality of supporting This also applies to Japan, hence my characters such as Ted Jeavons and interest in the English novel. I knew I Matilda Wilson that strongly attracts me. would end up in England some day and fortunately, a scholarship came my way. In your book you say that “a great intrinsic weakness of Dance is its What determined your choice of British seeming lack of purpose”. Isn’t university? entertainment enough of a “purpose”? Don’t tell anyone, but Cambridge rejected Umm ... for pure entertainment, I’d rather me! Kent was my second choice. I read go for PG Wodehouse’s fantasy world. in the prospectus that Professor Michael And surely, Dance’s opening pages alone Irwin was also a novelist, and I vaguely are enough to make us expect something knew he once taught in Tokyo. So I more than intellectual soap-opera, aren’t decided that he should be a good choice as they? a PhD supervisor. It turned out that he had indeed taught at Tokyo University, but it One of the bones you have to pick with was before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics! I Powell is that “the personality of the was probably his last PhD supervisee. narrator does not have enough weight to support his extremely long I gather Prof. Irwin was actually quite narration” (p 278). What do you mean hostile to Powell’s work. Did his by this? prejudices influence the writing of your thesis/book? It is interesting to compare him with his namesake from a novel Powell admired – Irwin’s main gripe was the “triviality” of Nick Carraway in Scott Fitzgerald’s The the things described in Dance, a view Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway’s life after

5 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 PG Wodehouse (top) Gatsby’s death is obviously “another and Ian McEwan story”, and just as obviously he has a life of his own to be lived out. That way, the reader can be at ease with Nick Carraway’s position as an opinionated bystander within the novel’s enclosure. On the other hand, Nick Jenkins is a character who gradually grows old until, at the ending of Hearing Secret Harmonies, he is a man in his mid-sixties. However, he becomes more and more of a pure narrative function as the volumes go on. In the first and second trilogies (and in the third, though intermittently), Nick Jenkins was part of the world he narrated, however implicitly. In the last trilogy, his relationship with the activities of the world gets almost unbearably tangential, while we learn so little about his own life as a writer and family man. The unease I feel about it is somewhat similar to the sense of unreality I have when I hear a human struggle that are daily woven disembodied voice from somewhere I and sooner or later consigned to can’t see. I know Powell’s argument about oblivion in the flow of time” (p 282). Do the advantage of setting a narrator of Nick you think the novelist would have Jenkins’ type, and see much reason in it. I minded this conclusion? would like to stress that the above opinion is basically a “yes but …” Your question reminds me of a remark by Bob Dylan: “I’m just a song and dance I am fascinated by your theory that the man [so don’t take me too seriously]”. character of Henchman in The Fisher Our “Dance” man might have said the King is a self portrait of the artist as an same thing, if someone had told him honourable failure, referring to the final outright that Dance is an everlasting trilogy of Dance, Powell’s own apologia monument of modern English literature pro vita sua as you put it. Why do you (which it is – for all the faults I have found see the post-War volumes in this with it). negative light? What other novels have you translated My answer to the previous question just into English? about covers it. And if I may add, Powell might have been too busy contriving to put My first job was Mick Jackson’s Booker a convincing end to it all; he had to put his short-listed Underground Man. I still feel shirt on the plot of Widmerpool’s symbolic great affection for this eccentric little downfall. piece. Then Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam, which was a minor hit in Japan and helped You conclude that Powell was “destined me to fund my foreign studies. I also to wander eternally among the texts of translated his Enduring Love and

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Atonement, and am currently working on his latest, Saturday. I discovered when I A close analysis of one of visited him that he was a Powell admirer. the greatest comic The great Ian McEwan a Powell fan? Tell us more! representations of the As a preliminary to discussing the new modern world translation we chatted over tea in his basement kitchen. Ian is much more Wodehouse. So deep that one day he easygoing than he appears in his dust decided to push his hobby translations into jacket photos. Talk turned to Powell when press, and he asked for my help. Of he asked me about the subject of my course I had read Wodehouse and enjoyed doctoral thesis. He and his wife had been it, but it wasn’t until I tried to put the prose to the Powell exhibition at the Wallace into readable Japanese that I realized the Collection and he had recently reread the man was a great stylist. I agree with early part of Dance. Powell’s opinion that Wodehouse was a It was rather a surprise to me that he had genius in a limited field, but there’s read Dance when he was younger. nothing like Wodehouse when it comes to Considering his enfant terrible reputation I restoring balance of mind after a stressful took it for granted that he would detest it day. in principle. Sure enough, he hadn’t How did you enjoy attending the Eton warmed to Powell when he first read and Wallace Collection conferences? Dance, but then, he didn’t like Jane Austen either at that time. Nowadays he is They were great. At Eton, I had a brief fascinated by the intricacy of social texture talk with the novelist DJ Taylor, whose in Austen’s novels and seemed to me that novels have similarities to Powell’s. I was he had come to enjoy Dance for exactly very glad to find he agreed. My the same reason. presentation at Eton was, I’m afraid, rather poor – I talked overtime – but I learned a I also think he might even have learned a lesson from the experience: stick to the thing or two from Powell’s technique of point. Also, the Eton conference gave me comically describing social occasions that many new ideas for my thesis. The go awry: see the scene in Atonement where London conference was even better: it was a family and their guests surround a roast a festive occasion for all Powell fans and dinner with sinking hearts – it’s an scholars. I’m sure the Bath conference intensely hot day – and have to drink will be just as enjoyable. lukewarm Barsac [sweet Bordeaux] instead of water. I know you are a great Wodehousian – Studying under someone can you say more about this interest? who is stubbornly anti- Well, the great Japanese Wodehousian is Powell prevented me from my co-translator, Masakatsu “Mike” Iwanaga. He was, until he retired recently, writing the eulogy that I a businessman who was deep into had intended

7 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Nicholas Jenkins – The Weakest Link Koyama Taichi The Novels of Anthony Powell – A Critical Study (The Hokuseido Press, Tokyo; 2006) ISBN 4-590-01210-3 Reviewed by John Potter

Koyama Taichi’s book (the family name is by a more detailed explication of their written first, following the custom in content. The author has obviously read an Japan) covers all of Anthony Powell’s enormous amount around his subject. The novels and is an ambitious project by a bibliography itself runs to almost 40 pages scholar who originates from a very and makes for some very interesting different background to his subject. reading in its own right with a wealth of Koyama is from Kyoto and is a graduate secondary sources, both well-known and of Tokyo University. His book was more obscure, that may intrigue and originally written for a doctoral delight even the more ardent Powellian dissertation and his name will be familiar readers. Koyama has certainly done his to delegates of the first Anthony Powell homework and whenever necessary brings conference at Eton in 2001 where he gave his vast army of sources into play to a paper on methods of comic realism in At support his arguments or to further Lady Molly’s . Any Powell aficionado will illustrate a point. Fortunately, this never be eager to read such a thorough and becomes excessive or tedious and we are detailed study as this wide-ranging book. quite clearly in the hands of the writer The good news is that Koyama writes very himself as he guides us on his journey well and his book is a pleasure to read. through the novels. In the text, his sources What may be less agreeable for some are, in fact, more like sauces: used Powell fans are many of his opinions and sparingly to bring out the flavour of the conclusions, for, while appreciative of dish. Inevitably, the main focus is on A Powell’s long literary career and Dance to the Music of Time but both early achievements, he also has many harsh and later novels are also given a fair judgments to make on the ultimate success treatment. of the novelist’s work. It may be a good idea to pause here to The book follows a straightforward address the question of just why a chronological survey of Powell’s novels. Japanese academic would be so interested There is one chapter for each of the four in these novels. As one who has also lived “movements” of Dance plus a chapter on in Japan for many years I have grown “Aspects” of Dance. These are preceded accustomed to giving regular explanations by a chapter on the early novels. The book of just who Anthony Powell is, to my ends with a chapter on the post-Dance frequently bemused Japanese friends and novels and then with a general conclusion acquaintances. I am also long past the which gives an overview of the novelist’s stage of surprise when told that Somerset career as a writer of “fictional comedy”. Maugham is the far better known and Each of the chapters dealing with the more highly regarded novelist in this novels begins with an overview followed country. And so, in his introduction,

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Koyama addresses the topic of his own even more interesting for him as an fascination with Powell. He writes that the example of the British tradition of “seeing preliminary answer to this question is that the artifice of society with a comic eye”. Powell interests him because of his “comic It is therefore the aim of his book to representation of the world in the realistic provide, as well as a summary of all the mode”. He then goes on to say: novels, a critical account of the

… but can I absolutely deny that relationship between comedy and Powell’s novels fascinate me also realistic representation of the world, because I live in a society as full of and how this relationship grows and artificiality, protocols and polite changes in Powell’s work. evasion of radical questions of His treatment of the early novels is brisk existence as the one Powell deals and to the point. He is quite scathing with? After all, Japan is where The about them but also makes some useful Makioka Sisters – Tanizaki’s huge comments connecting these early novels novel that delves into the nature of with the later development of social artifice and customs, characterisation and comedy in Dance. In deception, decay, and the mental footnotes, he also provides good power-struggle fought under the summaries of the plots of each of the first serene surface of bourgeois society, five novels, as those familiar with Dance but does not offer any element of are nevertheless often forgetful of these judgment on such aspects of life – early stories. His fairness and willingness was conceived and put into words. In to criticise constructively continues into the case of Powell’s comic novels, the chapters on Dance and throughout the too, the charge of tacit connivance book. Generally his argument is that the with upper-middle-class snobbery is a Dance is far more successful in its early problem that cannot be sidestepped. stages than in its later development. After Probably, I am attracted by Powell’s The Acceptance World we learn much less novels because certain deeper of Jenkins’ personal life and this is viewed psychological strata of his as “one of the serious technical drawbacks superficially detached narration that of the series”. Koyama believes that it meticulously traces the details of would and should have been possible for people’s behaviour in society, have a Jenkins to give more of himself to the remote affinity with the elements of snobbery – the desire to formalistically defend one’s social fort, and to stick to the right kind of social persona – that have always been working, whether one likes it or not, in Japanese life, high and low, past and present. Despite these similarities, he points out that there is no tradition of comic representation of these societal matters in Japanese novels and so Powell becomes

9 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 novel without adversely upsetting the political manoeuvrings and subsequent balance, but he doesn’t simply complain involvement in a religious cult. Powell’s about the lack of details of the Jenkins need to reach a conclusion means that the marriage: he looks for reasons. Describing comedy becomes predictable and tends to the last six volumes as “something of a let function purely at the level of device. down”, Koyama takes the view that Finally Koyama writes that the Jenkins could get away with giving so most serious complaint against Dance little of himself in the first half of the would be that the personality of the series as he was quite likely to be able to narrator does not have enough weight live an unobtrusive existence among the to support his extremely long familiar upper-middle class background of narration. school, university, and London’s bohemia. The war is a different matter altogether but Jenkins is, in fact, “the weakest link” and Jenkins never seems to attract any more the greatest intrinsic weakness of Dance attention in the army than anywhere else. itself is its seeming lack of purpose. Powell readers are sometimes critical of the ending of Dance but for Koyama the Of the two post-Dance novels, O, How the rot sets in long before that. Wheel Becomes It! is described as being “light-weight in every respect”, while The In his section on the wartime trilogy Fisher King is seen as “Dance in a Koyama notes – rightly to my mind – the nutshell”. But it is the author’s critical lack of structure in The Military view of Jenkins’ narration and of the Philosophers compared to the previous second half of Dance that will cause most two novels, and he concludes that the controversy and consternation among novelistic quality of The Military Powell devotees. In Dance’s defence it Philosophers oscillates between weakness might be worth asking why the novel and desperate contrivance. It lacks in plot, sequence has maintained such a strong and many descriptions of the war here are following if its comedy and narrative disturbingly similar to those in Powell’s method is really as contrived as this author memoirs. In fact, the wartime books as a would have us believe. Nevertheless, whole offer little room for the actual Koyama has posed many interesting enactment of war and “the question of questions and given us all plenty to argue what the war is for, or why one has to be a about. I have long thought that Jenkins’s part of it, is never once asked”. self-effacing manner would go down very well in Japan where harmony is so He contends that this deterioration in important and open confrontation a thing quality continues throughout the final six to be avoided. It is now my hope that volumes of Dance and one reason for this Koyama, who has already translated is that the major new characters introduced several books into Japanese, including two (in particular, Pamela and Trapnel) are novels by Ian McEwan, will introduce the two-dimensional and puppet-like. They world of Jenkins to a new audience by are there to keep the ball rolling, as it translating the Dance into his native were, and to hurry the Dance along to its language. conclusion where loose ends can be neatly tied up. To this end Widmerpool also John Potter is Associate Professor of English at becomes something of a caricature of Kogakkan University, Nabari, Japan. himself with his somewhat bizarre

10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Small Latin and No Greek Harry Mount Amo, Amas, Amat … And All That: How to Become a Latin Lover (Short Books, 2006) Reviewed by Keith Marshall

Like all grammar and public school boys reawaken Latin in those of us who have of my generation I was subjected to cast aside what little of it we ever learnt. learning Latin. Or, more accurately in my Or, for some, kindle the fires of wanting to case, not learning Latin. It totally passed learn Latin. This not a Latin text book – me by; I miserably failed every piece of for that we are told to get Kennedy’s Latin I ever had to do. Foreign languages Shorter Latin Primer – it is more of a were a lost cause with me from the outset. holiday brochure for Latin with a bit of No wonder then I struggled with Latin. education on the side. Learning a dead language, by rote, when I The book takes as its approach to capture wasn’t interested just didn’t work for me. and enthral us. Yes, of course, we do get To stand any chance I had to be captivated; subjected to declension and conjugation – enthralled; motivated – and I wasn’t; my sadly they are an unavoidable necessity – teachers didn’t know how; they assumed but the details are asides which can be all bright kids to be equally good at returned to as and when. Intertwined with everything and equally interested too. the necessities are short chapters and What’s more (unknowingly at the time) I passages on Roman history and Latin agreed with Winston Churchill in not esoterica. Mount, in his light, chatty and seeing the point of conjugating nouns and witty style, introduces us to such declining verbs – or should that be the diversities as Roman Emperors, classical other way round? Likewise, even as a architecture and Latin masters he has scientist, I couldn’t see the point learning known. all those Maths theorems by heart. This is a great little book for a light- So why was I given a copy of Harry hearted introduction to Latin and some Mount’s book? And, more puzzling, why classical background. It is a book which did I try you can read and enjoy even while by- reading it? passing the necessities of learning Latin; Perhaps in the and it is also a book which will give you a hope I might quick overview of the basics of learning be re- Latin, and more. It almost worked its enthused? magic on me! I don’t think I know any “Mons” is a more Latin now (though I could do if I Latinist, read it again) but I do now know the having read difference between Doric, Ionic and Classics at Corinthian columns. Oh, and Anthony Oxford, and Powell gets a couple of mentions. he sets out in Harry Mount is an author and journalist. He is this book to the son of Powell’s nephew Ferdie Mount.

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Result of the Summarise Dance Competition

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the competition to summarise A Dance to the Music of Time Dance in 150 words is Terry Empson. In the words of the judges: summarised by Terry Empson

The entry by Terry Empson first of all Wat’ry-gladed, nobbish schooling, stood out from among the other Le Bas-baiting, Widmerpooling. entries through its format – the poem. Dreaming spires and scheming Sillery Rather than summing up the novel in Pulling wires (see Spurling, Hilary). a few sentences – a daunting task in itself – the winning entry used the Moreland, Barnby, High Bohemia freedom of the poetic genre to simply Follow hard on academia. list important names and events of Intervals on best behaviour, Powell’s novel sequence. This shows White tie-wearing in Belgravia. an in-depth familiarity with Dance that must appeal to all readers Monkey club where Deacon snuffs it, similarly acquainted with Powell’s Sunday lunch while Erridge roughs it, work. It could be argued that this Jeavons, Umfraville and Norah, makes it difficult for a complete Quiggin and La Passionora newcomer to Powell’s work but, in (Hendon North-type). Lacking caution, the opinion of the judges this handing Widders pays for her abortion. out of tempting bits and pieces might arouse reader curiosity and get new War and Welshmen, red-tabbed readers started. Kenneth. Interestingly, all the other entries Death, destruction reach their zenith – foregrounded Widmerpool in their Lovell; Molly: Bijou’s party summing up, as if Powell’s novel Die to Max’s mezzo-forte. was, indeed, called A Dance to the Music of Widmerpool. Post-war Soho, drinks with Trappy. Pamela thinks his novel crappy. Congratulations to our winner for a Venice, artwork on the ceiling, very innovative approach to summing Gwinnett’s bollocks get a feeling. up Powell’s work! And thanks to all Louis Glober, rich and pushy those who were unsuccessful. (Mopsy still a tuft less bushy). Terry Empson’s winning entry is printed opposite. Terry’s extended membership Widmerpool, the final curtain. will be winging its way to him shortly. Smoke from bonfire brings back Burton. All appropriate, says the Maître, Cotillion or fête champêtre, Stepping round with Poussin’s maidens We are bondsmen of the cadence. Sadly there were no entries for the competition Though appearances may fool us, to write a short story based on the solution to Terpsichore, Euterpe rule us. the crossword.

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Christmas Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Quotations Quiz 2: Britain in World War II 1. George Orwell, review in the 1. Neville Chamberlain. Fortnightly Review. 2. CC41 was the British Utility Clothing 2. Henry Green (Henry Yorke), Pack My standard (it stood for Civilian Clothing Bag. 1941) which was introduced in 1941 3. Robert Byron, First Russia, Then and not finally withdrawn until 1952. Tibet. L-85 was the US Utility Clothing 4. Jilly Cooper, Polo. standard which ran between 1942 and 5. Osbert Lancaster, Pillar to Post. 1946. 6. Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood. 3. Franklin D Roosevelt. 7. Maurice Bowra, attrib. 4. Conscripts and volunteers who were 8. Evelyn Waugh, interview in Paris sent to work in the coal mines. Review. 5. Bengers: A food for convalescents. 9. Malcom Muggeridge, Tread Softly Camp: Liquid coffee essence, the For You Tread on My Jokes. forerunner of instant coffee. 10. Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise. Rhinosole: Spread on the soles of 11. TS Eliot, Portrait of a Lady. boots to make them waterproof. 12. Kingsley Amis, One Fat Englishman. Zixt: Soap. 13. Osbert Sitwell. Snowfire: Makeup. 14. Terence Rattigan, Separate Tables. DDD: Antiseptic cleansing lotion. 15. David Cecil, Early Victorian 6. Barnes Wallis. Novelists. 7. Agatha Christie. 16. James Thurber, Let Your Mind Alone. 8. Because rationing was not only a 17. Michael Arlen, in conversation. brake on consumption but also a 18. Graham Greene, Travels With My guarantee of supply. So unless supply Aunt. could be guaranteed something could 19. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack Up. not be put on the ration and supply and 20. Philip Larkin, interview with The demand was allowed to operate Observer. instead. 21. Alison Lurie, The War Between the 9. St Paul’s Cathedral. Tates. 10. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas sung 22. VS Naipaul, interview with Radio by Bing Crosby. Times. 11. V1 was the Doodlebug, basically a 23. Peter Quennell, The Sign of the Fish. pilotless guided missile or “flying 24. Roy Fuller, January 1940. bomb”; first V1 falls on Bow, 25. CP Snow, A Coat of Varnish. 13/06/1944. V2 was a rocket 26. Paul Fussell, Abroad. successor to V1, an early ballistic 27. Julian Maclaren-Ross, Memoirs of the missile; first V2 attack 08/09/1944. Forties. 12. Rationed: Tea, Soap, Shoes, Petrol, 28. Siegfried Sassoon, Dreamers. Bacon, Furniture, Cheese, Cow’s Milk. 29. Peter Fleming, letter to his brother Not Rationed: Beer, Hats, Sausages, Rupert. Coffee, Fish, Clogs, Offal. 30. Constant Lambert, Music Ho! 13. The Windmill Theatre.

13 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 14. Britain went on to Double Summer 28. 183 people were crushed to death on Time. the steps of the underground station in 15. Codebreaking. panic at sound of a new anti-aircraft 16. His A Christmas Carol was read on rocket. radio (CBC) for the first time. 29. Daily Worker from 21 January 1941 to 17. Spitfires. September 1942. 18. Noel Coward. 30. The Anderson air-raid shelter. 19. Pearl Harbour. 31. John Betjeman. 20. Lord Haw-Haw, the pseudonym of 32. Storage of national art treasures. William Joyce (although there were 33. They are “The Famous Five” who first probably others who also broadcast as appeared in print in Enid Blyton’s Five Lord Haw-Haw). on a Treasure Island. 21. Lt-General Bernard Montgomery. 34. First digital computer; built at (Later of course to become Field- Bletchley Park by scientists and Marshal and 1st Viscount engineers from the Post Office Montgomery.) Research Establishment, Dollis Hill. 22. Bread. 35. The cost of posting a letter. 23. ARP: Air Raid Precautions. 36. Clement Atlee. He had defeated TTFN: Ta Ta For Now. Churchill at the general election held ENSA: Entertainments National between VE Day and VJ Day. Service Association. ITMA: It’s That Man Again. Solution to Christmas 2006 Book Titles WVS: Women’s Voluntary Service. Crossword

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SNAFU: Situation Normal All Fouled F L S F P C I Up. 8 9 C LOISTER I SLAND 24. Chad was a ubiquitous piece of O O O O C U S popular culture graffiti often seen in 10 11 12 the United Kingdom during and S WAN N IGHT B OTH E E U A shortly after World War II. He was 13 14 15 16 17 usually seen saying “Wot no … !” C RUE LSEA R IS ING Sometimes known as Kilroy. I D E A C 18 19 20 21 25. Evelyn Waugh. K I NG S TEPS M EET 26. Vera Lynn. N H I A B 22 23 24 25 27. Mrs Miniver. M ERTON D IA MOND S I I U I 26 27 28 29 30 A GOD S WORD S ONG H O T N R O I 31 32 A THOME E LEPHANT Y R R S Y O G

Sorceresses, more than most, are safer allowed their professional amour propre.

Mr Chad figures still survive today; here’s one [Anthony Powell, Temporary Kings] from the last US Presidential election.

14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Subscriptions

Overseas Members and Gift Aid Subscription Renewal UK members will be aware that, as a charity, the Society is able to reclaim basic Subscriptions are due for renewal on rate income tax on donations to the 1 April and renewal notices will be Society made by UK taxpayers. Currently sent out during March to those this means we can claim 28p for every £1 members whose subscription expires you pay the Society in subscriptions or this year. In order to help keep our donations, providing you are a UK costs – and your subscriptions – taxpayer and have completed a Gift Aid down please renew promptly. Declaration – something most UK We are pleased to announce that members have done on their subscription the “5 years for the price of 4” renewal or membership form. subscription offer is to continue Until now we were led to believe that this indefinitely, subject to annual applied only to UK citizens paying UK review by the trustees. This offer tax. However thanks to one of our applies to all grades of Swedish members it appears that the net is membership and is available to wider. both new and existing members. Providing you pay UK income tax of at We are able to accept subscription least as much as you pay the Society, and payments by Standing Order (UK complete a Gift Aid declaration, we can members only) and recurring credit claim back basic rate tax paid by any card transactions; appropriate forms member, anywhere, even if they are not a will be sent with your reminder UK citizen. This means that overseas notice. Payment may also be made members who have UK-based in UK funds by cheque, Visa, shareholdings, and receive share dividends Mastercard or online using PayPal. with UK tax paid, may Gift Aid their Members who are UK taxpayers are payments to the Society and we are able to asked to GiftAid their subscription. reclaim that 28p for every £1 paid. (See left for more on GiftAid.) This Any member (whether in the UK or enables the Society to reclaim basic overseas) who wishes us to take advantage rate income tax already paid on the of the GiftAid facility is asked to contact subscription; currently this is worth the Hon. Sec. who will provide the 28p for every £1 paid to the Society. appropriate form. Any member who does not renew their subscription by September will be removed from the membership register.

15 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Local Groups Society Events London Group Area: London & SE England Visit to Widmerpool Contact: Keith Marshall Saturday 14 July Email: [email protected] We are pleased to announce a Society North East USA Group outing to the Nottinghamshire village Area: NY & CT area, USA of Widmerpool on Saturday 14 July. Contact: Leatrice Fountain Email: [email protected] Arrangements are not yet complete but we hope the day will include: Great Lakes Group Area: Chicago area, USA • Visit to Nottinghamshire County Contact: Stephen Pyskoty-Olle Records Office to view some Email: [email protected] Widmerpool family archive papers Swedish Group • Lunch at the former Widmerpool Area: Sweden Railway Station (now a pub) Contact: Regina Rehbinder • Visits to Widmerpool church and Email: [email protected] Widmerpool Hall (Victorian Please contact the Hon. Secretary if Jacobethan, now being converted you wish to make contact with a group into flats) and don’t have email. • Visit to nearby Wysall church to Any member wishing to start a local view the Widmerpool monument group should contact the Hon. Secretary who can advise on the The village of Widmerpool is about 12 number of local members. miles (20 km) SE of Nottingham. Timings will be arranged to connect at Nottingham with a suitable London train. We plan to arrange transport between Nottingham and Widmerpool by coach. Full details, including detailed itinerary and cost, will appear in the next (June) Newsletter. All members and guests will be welcome. If you would like to join the trip please let the Hon. Sec. know as soon as possible – so we can book a large enough coach and enough seats for lunch – please include a deposit of £5 per person. Bookings will be confirmed in June when full details are available.

Widmerpool Hall (top) and Holy Trinity church, Wysall 16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Dates for Your Diary Conference

Saturday 21 April 2007 NE USA Group Meeting 2007 Conference Further details when available from Leatrice Fountain The Fourth Biennial Anthony Powell Conference will be held on Saturday Saturday 12 May 2007 8 September 2007 at the University London Group Pub Meet of Bath. The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1 This will be a one-day symposium with 1230 to 1530 hrs five or six speakers each of whom will Quarterly London Group meeting. Good beer, good food, good company & Powell get a longer time to present and lead chat in a Victorian pub AP would have discussion. known. Members & non-members The speakers have not yet been welcome. Further details from Hon. finalised, so there is still time for Secretary. Society members to submit proposals for a 45 minute session. If you wish to Saturday 14 July submit a session proposal please Visit to the Nottinghamshire village of contact the Hon. Secretary without Widmerpool More on page 16; full details in the delay. Summer Newsletter. On the Sunday following the conference we hope to be able to offer Saturday 11 August 2007 some optional extra events for those London Group Pub Meet wishing to stay over in Bath. A literary Details as for 12 May. walk round Bath, Sunday lunch and a Saturday 8 September 2007 visit to The Chantry are among ideas Fourth Biennial Conference which are being considered. University of Bath Details to follow; see also below.

Saturday 27 October 2007 Annual General Meeting Centenary Conference Proceedings 1400 hrs Details to follow. Update We are acutely aware that we have not yet published the proceedings of the Anthony Powell Centenary Conference in December 2005. Editing of the proceedings has been delayed but is now progressing well and we hope the book will see the light of day in the next few months. We apologise for the 15th century Green Man misericord disappointment this delay may be causing. in Wysall Church

17 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Local Group News

London & SE England Group February Pub Meet By Noreen Marshall

Twelve of us met in the Audley on Recent performances of the Pinter plays Saturday 10 February for lunch and The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter were conversation. We congratulated each other mentioned; the current Patrick Barlow on having got there despite the recent adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps, snowy weather (half an inch of snow is in which four actors and “a mystery arm” usually quite sufficient to bring public play 150 parts, was felt to be particularly transport to a halt in the UK) and ingenious. discussed our usual wide range of topics We also talked about Powell and sport, over fish and chips and other similarly assisted by the fact that the pub was comforting dishes. showing two of the weekend’s Six Nations I wonder what Widmerpool would have rugby matches (England beat Italy 20-7, chosen from the menu? Among other and Scotland won their match with Wales things we went on to talk about whether he by 21-9). Bridge, whist and cribbage also took ‘substances’ (Chloral, anyone?) – and came under discussion: many of the card whether there is too much concentration games which were such an important and on him in discussions about A Dance to popular feature of the social scene when the Music of Time. Of course, at that point AP was a young man are now almost we hadn’t seen the judges’ comments on unknown to the general public. My 1932 the results of the ‘Summarise Dance’ copy of The Official Rules of Card Games: competition on p 12. Hoyle up-to-date lists dozens of games such as bezique, écarté, faro, euchre and Talk turned to the fact that a number of Klondike which for most of us are now aspects of Powell’s work have recently familiar only in name. been the subject of research by members and APLIST participants: Jeff Manley’s Architecture, food, regional dialects and work on music in Powell and John Gould’s genealogy helped to round out the on Constant Lambert, for example, and conversation still further, and there was a Keith Marshall’s work in tracing the good deal of pleasurable anticipation sources of Powell’s book titles (which regarding Rhythms of Dance, the range from Shakespeare to traditional forthcoming Paul Guinery illustrated talk song). [Watch this space for more on these on the musical references in Dance on 26 – Ed.] Two subjects which came up as February. relatively unexplored were Powell’s Present were: Patric Dickinson, Stephen network and the dedicatees of his books. Holden, Keith and Noreen Marshall, Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Steinbeck Sandy Morrison, Prue Raper, Guy and Proust were among the other authors Robinson, Bob Rollason, John Rollason, we talked about and, as often, there was Victor Spouge, Peter Taylor and Elwyn considerable discussion of the stage and Taylor the current London theatrical scene.

18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 East Coast USA Group February Meeting by Leatrice Fountain

The East Coast meeting took place on Also, the one-line selection on page 20 of Saturday 17 February. Six members At Lady Molly’s , where Nick Jenkins turned up which was not bad considering describes the house in South Kensington, the cold weather and bad road conditions. ending “not particularly encouraging echo At Ed Bock’s suggestion, we asked of High Renaissance.” members to select a favourite passage From Leatrice Fountain: from Dance, read it aloud and be prepared My chosen passage was from A Question to discuss it briefly. His idea was a of Upbringing (p. 229). After being put splendid ploy, highly entertaining and off by Stringham for a more entertaining informative. Later I asked members to invitation, Nick considers the fragility of email me the identity of their readings. human ties, beginning From Eileen Kaufman: The evening was decidedly cool, the Conyers putting the shawl around Billson rain was half-heartedly falling. I from The Kindly Ones (p. 61). Because it knew now that this parting was one of is funny, because it speaks to commanding those final things that happen, in time of crisis (the war is about to start) recurrently, as time passes. and because Conyers is a favourite of everyone although hasn’t a lot of centre This whole paragraph stopped me cold the stage scenes. first time I read it. It’s poignancy and beauty lingers in my mind many years From John Gould: afterward. I chose the opening paragraphs of A Soldier’s Art, in which Nick buys a From Joe Trenn: greatcoat to accompany him into the army. The passage I chose begins on page 148 of The shop also deals in costumes for actors, The Military Philosophers at the sentence and the seller, mistaking Nick for an actor, “The first two cut-out” through the end of asks him what he is appearing in. He the chapter. I was impressed with the replies, “Oh, just the war.” “Ah,” says the subtlety with which AP kept the violence fellow, “The War,” believing that this is and carnage of the war off stage and then the name of a new drama. reveals it in this scene in which Jenkins the observer-narrator and the reader see and I love the set-up, and the release of this hear “shots fired in anger” for the first joke, which suggests that the war will time. Of course, as he does throughout, indeed be a drama, with lots of actors AP alternates the larger picture with the playing their parts – as, in many senses, it personal throughout the scene concluding was .... with the reference to George Tolland From Ed Bock: whose condition will affect the Tolland My selected passages were the post- family long after the war. seduction or post-coital pages in A Buyers References are to the UK first editions and are the Market (pp 257-258) concluding with same as the Little, Brown trilogy first editions – Gypsy Jones’s observation about her Ed. sunburned legs.

19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Anthony Powell: A Biographical Sketch of a Friend & Acquaintance of Aleister Crowley by Gerald Edward Cornelius

Anthony Powell’s earliest recollection of Some twenty years later, Anthony Powell Aleister Crowley occurred when he was a found himself working as a publisher for young child in 1911. It was a story his the firm of Duckworth in London. One mother had told him.1 It begins with her book he helped publish was by a woman waiting for a train which was to take her to named Betty May. Claiming it was a a luncheon on the outskirts of London. somewhat bizarre work which I was At the station my mother noticed responsible for Duckworth’s getting into one of the compartments publishing – not without some a man whose appearance made her trepidation on Balston’s part [one of feel a sudden sense of extreme the three owners of Duckworth].2 repulsion. At her destination, this The book was entitled Tiger-Woman. It man reappeared on the platform. She was a biography by Betty May, who had found herself almost praying that he lived with Aleister Crowley at the Abbey would not be her fellow-guest at the of Cefalu.3 Powell also writes, that soon luncheon. Needless to say he was. It after its publication was the magician, Aleister Crowley. When Anthony asked his mother what they talked about during the luncheon, she simply replied, “Horrors.” So his mother apparently didn’t enjoy the acquaintance of the Great Beast, but what of his father? Anthony Powell believed that his father was strongly influenced by the writings of Aleister Crowley. In fact his father owned a full set of Crowley’s Equinox along with many of his other books. Despite this Powell had a firm conviction that his father had never met the Great Beast. In any case it is fairly certain at an early age that Anthony Powell knew of Aleister Crowley. If he did not hear such from his parents, it might have come from a close friend of the family who was a big Crowley adherent, namely Major-General JFC “Boney” Fuller. He was the author of a book entitled The Star in the West, a critical essay on Aleister Crowley’s writings which was published in 1907. Aleister Crowley

20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Crowley telephoned to the office, suspect, was the injustice which Crowley inviting me to lunch with him at felt at Duckworth publishing Betty May’s Simpson’s in the Strand. I had never book. According to British law at the met him in person, but his celebrated time, Crowley could not sue Duckworth near-cockney accent grated at once since most of the information had been on the ear, as familiar from stories.4 serialized previously in the Sunday Express in 1923. If legal action was to be When Powell asked how Crowley might filed, it should have been taken with them, be recognized, the Beast replied, “You will not Duckworth, and basically too many recognize me from the fact that I am not years had passed to pursue a lawsuit. This wearing a rose in my buttonhole”.5 Crowley regretted. Powell later wrote that So, with many memories of Crowley from throughout the luncheon, his childhood running through his mind it was never quite clear what he had along with numerous new images, really hoped to gain from our Anthony Powell found himself going to a meeting; perhaps merely hungering similar luncheon, like his mother before for a new listener.9 him. En route to the restaurant he wrote, A year after the publication of Tiger- I wondered whether I should be met Woman a letter arrived at Duckworth with in the lobby by a thaumaturge in a Berlin return address. It addressed priestly robes, received with the ritual Aleister Crowley’s suicide on 21 salutation: ‘Do what thou wilt shall September 1930. Of course this was a be the whole of the Law’; if so, publicity stunt and never really occurred. whether politeness required the The letter simply read correct response: ‘Love is the Law, Love under Will’.6 My dear Powell, I am the beautiful German girl for […] whose love the infamous Aleister The reality at Simpson’s was less Crowley committed suicide ... dramatic. Instead of a necromantic Powell continues stating, figure, sonorous invocation, a big weary-looking man rose from one of the gist of this not always very lucid the seats and held out his hand. He communication seemed to be that was quietly, almost shabbily, dressed Duckworth’s was offered “the story in a dark brown suit and grey of our elopement” – entitled My Homburg hat. When he removed the Hymen – for an advance of £500 on a hat the unusual formation of his bald 15% royalty. 10 and shaven skull was revealed; so The signature was said to be a woman’s, shaped as to give the impression that probably Hanni Jaeger, who was Aleister he was wearing a false top to his head 7 Crowley’s Scarlet Woman at the time. like a clown’s. Duckworth decided not to accept the offer Both gentlemen talked on numerous – especially when they compared the subjects, Anthony with his pint of beer and handwriting to that of Aleister Crowley’s Crowley actually “drinking a glass of and found that the letter was actually milk”.8 The main topic, as everyone might written by him!

21 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 A few years later Nina Hamnett’s book, records that upon meeting Crowley, Sylvia Laughing Torso, was published.11 remarked, “you’ve got such a kind face”.15 Crowley, feeling he was again slandered, Mrs Gough might have actually viewed wasted no time in bringing a lawsuit Crowley as such but Powell quickly against her and the publishers. To make a follows this statement with a brief long story short, he lost the lawsuit. description of his memories of that “kind However, Powell felt, face” by stating Had Crowley won the case ... he The countenance that had thus struck would certainly have instituted her was dull yellow in complexion, another suit regarding Tiger-Woman the features strangely caught together against Duckworth’s.12 within the midst of a large elliptical area, like those of a horrible baby, the Due to this possibility, Anthony Powell skin of porous texture, much mottled, was sent to the trial to observe the perhaps from persistent use of drugs proceedings. He made it a point to avoid required for magical experiment. any and all personal contact with the Great Beast. He was successful. He simply sat Like many writers who knew Aleister in the back of the court, watched and kept Crowley, when Anthony Powell wrote his a low profile. novel entitled The Kindly Ones in 1962 he used elements of Crowley “as one of the Throughout Powell’s life the Great Beast components of Dr Trelawney”.16 This always seemed to be nearby – even though character appears in book six in the series the two actually met only once. Even A Dance to the Music of Time. Trelawney when Anthony Powell was living in is described as running London, he would often look out the window of his apartment and notice a centre for his own peculiar Aleister Crowley walking down the street. religious, philosophical – some said He describes Crowley on one occasion as magical – tenets, a cult of which he being “Hatless, heavily bespectacled, he was high priest.17 was dressed in green plus fours, as for Like Crowley he has a special greeting golf”.13 Years after Crowley’s death which he uses when meeting everyone but Anthony Powell would visit George Sims, instead of, “Do what thou wilt”, Trelawney a rare book dealer in London. Apparently cries out, “The Essence of the All is the when sharing stories regarding Aleister Godhead of the True” and instead of Crowley’s last days in Netherwood, Crowley’s response which is, “Love is the Powell told Sims that he believed “Aleister law, love under will”, you must reply with, Crowley was probably the least eccentric “The Vision of Visions heals the Blindness figure living in that seaside boarding- 18 14 of Sight”. Although physically house”. This might have been written tongue-in-cheek but if Powell honestly Dr Trelawney does not much believed that Crowley was the “least” resemble Crowley ... nor were eccentric, it makes you wonder who else Powell’s autobiographical records of he knew in the area? Crowley encountered over a lunch table incorporated into Dr Another story worth relating from one of Trelawney’s portrait.19 Powell’s books is about a woman from South Africa named Sylvia Gough. He The two are very different.

22 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

It is fitting that one woman in the book 11 Nina Hamnett, Laughing Torso states that Trelawney is (London: Constable, 1932). 12 Powell, Messengers of Day, p. 83. not a person with whom I ever 13 Ibid., p. 85. wanted my name to be too closely 14 20 George F Sims, letter to Louis associated ... too much abracadabra. Wilkinson, 5 November 1951. This makes it sound like Anthony Powell 15 Powell, Messengers of Day, pp. 82-83. really did base his character of Dr 16 Neil Brennan, Anthony Powell, A Trelawney on Aleister Crowley. Biography (New York: Twayne), p. 49. 17 Anthony Powell, The Kindly Ones Notes (London, Heinemann, 1962), p. 28. 1 Anthony Powell, Infants of the Spring, 18 Ibid., p. 28. The Memoirs of Anthony Powell, Volume I 19 Timothy d’Arch Smith, Dr Trelawney (London: Heinemann, 1976), p. 49. and Aleister Crowley: The Books of the 2 Anthony Powell, Messengers of Day, Beast (Oxford: Mandrake 1991), pp. 80- The Memoirs of Anthony Powell, Volume 81. II (London: Heinemann, 1978), p. 79. 20 Powell, The Kindly Ones, p. 28. 3 Betty May, Tiger-Woman, My Story (London: Duckworth, 1929). For Further Reference 4 Powell, Messengers of Day, p. 82. Timothy D’Arch Smith, Dr Trelawney and 5 Ibid. Aleister Crowley (London Magazine, 6 Ibid. Volume 27, Number 12 March 1988) p. 7 Ibid. 21-29. 8 Ibid., p. 83. 9 Ibid. Men who talked or slept with 10 Ibid., p. 85. her were often found frozen to death.

[Anthony Powell, A Writer’s Notebook]

Copy Deadlines The deadlines for receipt of articles and advertisements for forthcoming issues of Newsletter and Secret Harmonies are: Newsletter #27, Summer 2007 Copy Deadline: 11 May 2007 Publication Date: 1 June 2007 Newsletter #28, Autumn 2007 Copy Deadline: 17 August 2007 Publication Date: 7 September 2007 Secret Harmonies #2, 2007 Copy Deadline: 7 September 2007 Publication Date: 27 October 2007

23 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 The Bag o’ Nails Research from the APLIST

From Jeff Manley From Michael Henle Could this be the Bag o’ Nails to which I lived above this Bag o’ Nails for 5 Stringham took Audrey? months in 1992 (or so). Fitting, I suppose, that it might turn out to have an AP connection but I never realized it at the time. It seemed to be a perfectly ordinary pub (if there is such a thing). We enjoyed their Shepherd’s Pie. Another reason this could be Stringham’s Bag o’ Nails is its proximity to his lodgings on West Halkin Street where Widmerpool put him to bed in A Buyer’s Market. Since it’s near Pimlico [on Buckingham –––––– Palace Road, behind Buckingham Palace and near Victoria Station – Ed.] it would From John Perry have been on her way home from nearly A marvellous catalogue of bad behaviour. anywhere north of the river. I can’t recall The Bag appears also to feature in mid- offhand where Stringham’s mother was 60s London lore; numerous bands either living at the time. It seems to be going play, or go on there from The Scotch of strong and has attracted a fair amount of St James. Certainly it was a venue used chatter on [a] pub website. One [post even for ‘launchs’. There was even a (non- claims] some historic connection to an musical) group of hipsters who styled Elton John incident and song but that is themselves The Bag, partly in deference disputed by another who refers to a pub in to this their local, and partly referencing Soho. If we can verify that this is indeed James Brown & the colloquial ‘it’s in the the pub mentioned in Dance … [it] might bag’. Has anyone ever seen the BoN help attract a higher class of clientele, or used as a venue for live music? not, as the case may be. –––––– –––––– From Ellen Jordan From David Hallett I found the discussion on this pub To be precise, suggested taking Audrey. interesting, but I have some doubts about The excursion was forestalled by the whether such a classic pub as the picture arrival of Tuffy and the horrifying shows could have been what AP meant. realization (for Nick) that Stringham is Stringham seems pretty certainly to be more or less kept penniless by his guardian talking about a nightclub, given the as a way of controlling him. preceding mention of Dicky Umfraville’s, and furthermore it is not Is the Elton John incident related to his very likely that an ordinary pub would song “All the Girls Love Alice” or is there have been still open at that time of night. something altogether other in that If the party was held after the concert it reference? must have been pretty late by the time

24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Stringham was ushered out. Also it is with the pub in Victoria which, like Ellen, referred to by both AP and Barbara Comyn I am sceptical about. as “the bag of Nails”. On the other hand Searching in The Times Digital Archive I since it was, as Michael Henle points out, found an article dating from 14 July 1936 close to Stringham’s former lodgings on (ie. roughly contemporaneous with Mrs West Halkin Street, he may simply have Foxe’s party). The article is headlined been suggesting going to his “local” of “BOTTLE PARTIES” and goes on ... earlier days without considering the question of licensing hours. What do Summonses alleging infringement of others think? the Licensing Act at seven bottle party establishments in the West End Barbara Comyn’s book, by the way, was were down for hearing before Mr called A Touch of Mistletoe. McKenna at Bow Street Police Court. –––––– The premises concerned were: - The From Jeff Manley Mother Hubbard, Ham Yard W.; Ellen [makes] some pretty good points theTop Hat, Ham Yard, W.; the against Stringham’s reference to the Venetian, Kingly Street, W.; the Bag present Bag o’ Nails as the place to which o’Nails, Kingly Street, W.; the Lamp he was inviting Audrey. It may be that AP Post, Upper James Street, W.; the merely used that name because he was Coconut Grove, Regent Street, W., familiar with it. The pub is just near the and the Oriental, Leicester Square, Rubens Hotel which was the location of W.C. the Polish legation during WWII and AP might well have repaired there after a hard Mr Vernon Gatti, prosecuting, said day with the Poles. The bus he took daily that bottle party establishments had between Whitehall and Chelsea might well taken the place of the old night clubs. have passed the Bag o’ Nails. If the law was observed persons who visited bottle parties for the first time AP refers to The Lord Nelson as his ‘local’ were told that they could not then be during the war years when he lived in that supplied with liquor, but that they neighbourhood. I looked it up on the pub might give an order. That order, if site but found no entry. AP says it was given during permitted hours, was located next to the Chelsea Palace Variety transmitted to a wine company and music hall which was pulled down in the was delivered when the customer 1960s or 70s to make way for Heal’s next visited the bottle party. furniture store on the King’s Road west of Sloane Square. Does any one know of a But the difficulties of observing that pub adjacent to Heal’s that might once procedure were obvious, and a device have been The Lord Nelson? was sometimes adopted which was quite illegal. Dance hostesses –––––– employed at the parties, whose only From David Butler remuneration was tips from their Following on from the discussion, I partners, deposited with a wine store believe that I may have found a reference a large order for liquor. Then when a to a “Bag O’Nails” which may very well visitor wanted drink, one of the be relevant to that mentioned by bottles so ordered by the dance Stringham in CCR. It has nothing to do hostesses was sent for ... 25 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

possibility that such a venue might have had a later licence than a pub; the 1936 dateline; I think the link with the venue Stringham / CCR is more than intriguing. –––––– From Jeff Manley David, You may well have hit the Nail on Anthony Powell Resides Here the Head. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the twofer.) The only question would be CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS seeks and sells early editions of Anthony whether the Bag O’ Nails mentioned in the Powell’s works together with those of Times article would have been sufficiently other distinguished British authors such notorious for AP to have remembered it as Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse, when he wrote CCR in the 1960’s. If so, Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and that seems a more likely destination than James Lees-Milne. In addition to rare books, we offer a complete collection of the pub in Victoria (or any pub for that new books in our store near the matter). Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs issued upon request. He would surely have remembered the pub 1082 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10028 in Victoria (assuming it was there in the Open seven days per week war years) but as Ellen has noted, Telephone: 212 289 2345 [email protected] Stringham doesn’t seem to have had a pub in mind no matter where it was located. Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, Inc. Unless there is something in AP’s memoirs or letters (whenever we get those) there’s probably no way to know for sure. –––––– The article continues on to explain how From John Perry this amounted to illegal resale of liquor The mid-60's Bag o' Nails (presumably and concluded with the Penalties handed lasting into the early 70's if Elton John / B out to the various venues which, in the Taupin figure in its lore) was also in case of the Bag o’Nails was: Kingly St. Thus the pub in Victoria is a complete herring. … MISS MILDREDTH HOEY, proprietress, of Hatherley Grove W, against whom there was a previous conviction, fined £150, with an order Contributions to the Newsletter to pay £35 costs, for selling alcoholic are always welcome and should liquor without a licence. be sent to: Newsletter Editor, Stephen Holden, GIOVANNI SERVINI, waiter, fined Anthony Powell Society £30 and MISS ODETTE GILL, 76 Ennismore Avenue dance hostess, fined £10 for aiding Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK and abetting. Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 Given the location (Kingly Street is just a Email: [email protected] short way east of Berkeley Square); the

26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Letters to the Editor

Fettiplace-Jones In the correspondence section of the last Newsletter, there was speculation as to whether Powell was acquainted with Chastleton House and the genealogy of its occupants (a Jones family allied to one named Fettiplace). Oddly enough, I can produce some evidence to show that Powell never visited Chastleton – or at Chastleton House, Oxfordshire least that he had not done so before completing Dance. Jones, who built Chastleton) married Anne In September 1975 Michael Ratcliffe Fettiplace in 1609, which accounts for the interviewed Powell for an article in The Fettiplace arms appearing in the Times, which appeared two days before the decoration of a Jacobean chimney piece in publication of Hearing Secret Harmonies. the house. It is just conceivable that It contained the following passage: Powell knew of this particular marriage but it seems on the whole unlikely because I told him I had recently visited it doesn’t appear in the article about the Chastleton House in Oxfordshire, family in Burke’s Landed Gentry. As it whose period (1603), perfect state of happens, Clutton-Brock was not himself preservation and terrible family descended from the marriage, having paintings had reminded me of the inherited the property by a sideways route. country houses which form so But in the guidebook that he wrote about important a setting in the earlier Chastleton, Clutton-Brock says: “There is novels of the sequence. No, he had reason to believe that Henry and Anne never been there. To whom did it Jones were among the ancestors of George belong? Alan Clutton-Brock. How Washington.” extraordinary: Clutton-Brock had been a fellow-member, along with In the final volume of his diaries, James Harold Acton, Henry Yorke (“Henry Lees-Milne describes a visit he made to Green”), Robert Byron, Brian Chastleton six months before he died in Howard and Oliver Messel, of the 1997, recalling that he used to go to Eton Society of the Arts, about which children’s parties there in the 1920s. I he had been trying to write that very myself have been to Chastleton twice, in morning. “I’m pottering with my 1966 and 1986; on the second occasion I Memoirs.” was shown round by Alan Clutton-Brock’s widow Barbara, a wonderful old duck who Clutton-Brock duly secured a mention in richly deserved the substantial obituary Infants of the Spring. she was given in The Daily Telegraph There had indeed been a Jones/Fettiplace when she died two years ago. marriage. Henry Jones (son of Walter Patric Dickinson London, EC4

27 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Still with Us Modigliani Sketches My heart leapt when I read the following I have just been reading Nina Hamnett’s in the Daily Telegraph on February 17: autobiography, Laughing Torso, and her various references to her friendship with In the 34 years since WH Auden’s Modigliani have made me wonder how death in Vienna, there have been Stringham acquired his Modigliani sketch, several biographies and memoirs of which having made a brief appearance in the ‘I knew Wystan’ variety. Now The Acceptance World and re-emerged in there is another book on the way, by Books Do Furnish a Room, plays a vital Nicholas Jenkins, which seeks to role in the last volume. reclaim Auden as, first and foremost, an English poet. Writing in the Times Stringham’s other artworks, the engraving Literary Supplement, Jenkins of Glimber and the coloured prints of challenges the established view that monkeys riding dogs, sound the kind of Auden was ‘the poet of a deliberately things that a young man of his interests willed uprootedness’. His Auden is a and background would have been offered writer who remained English by by conventional print-dealers, but the instinct through all those years in Modigliani must have come from the New York, Ischia and Austria ... world of avant garde art, much more Nick’s world. It’s comforting to know that Jenkins, who like many of us must be at least a little Nina Hamnett records that when she was long in the tooth by now, is still active in in Paris in 1913 Modigliani used to pay for London’s literary world. His choice of his drinks by selling his sketches to subject may surprise some in view of acquaintances and that she bought a Auden’s flight to USA in 1939, but for me number. She also describes an exhibition these names raise many memories of old of recent French art, including a number of friends from the past. Did Auden Modigliani paintings and sketches, contribute to Public School Verse in 1924 mounted by a Polish entrepreneur in (or was it 1923?) alongside Mark London in 1919. While this suggests that Members? Certainly Members’ ‘H-bomb there were a number of Modigliani Eclogue’ of 1960 would I am sure have sketches circulating in London in the impressed the author of The Age of 1920s and 1930s (much in the manner of Anxiety. Did Auden I wonder admire the John drawings described in Temporary fellow poet Malcolm Crowding’s work? Kings) it does not sound as though these Your members will know the answers, but were circles Stringham frequented. So one I simply wish to record here my pleasure wonders why Powell chose to give him that Nick should still be on the active list. just that single work of avant garde art. I look forward to his new biography of Could it perhaps be an oblique private Wystan with keen anticipation. tribute to his affair with Nina Hamnett, memories of which must have been much JG Quiggin in his mind when writing The Acceptance London, WC1 World? Nicholas Jenkins, The Island – WH Auden and the Regeneration of England is published by Harvard Ellen Jordan University Press on 15 May 2007. Newcastle, Australia

28 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

The Firbank Connection So Powell was not only influenced by Firbank but responsible to some extent for This week’s TLS [15 November 2006] assuring that his influence reached other carries a longish article by Alan writers of his and later generations. I Hollingworth about Ronald Firbank. He wonder whether Powell was responsible makes the not altogether revolutionary for the edits about which Hollingworth claim that Firbank heavily influenced complains. Somehow, it doesn’t sound Powell, Waugh and Henry Green: like something Powell would do, at least The newly lightened and aerated form not on his own initiative. as a vehicle for a view of social life Jeff Manley as absurd and inconsequential was Maryland, USA what Waugh and other writers of his generation loved in Firbank, whose mark is also clearly seen in the droll Nothing is interesting unless futility of Anthony Powell’s early you are interested, novels and, more deeply, in those of and conversely. Henry Green, who combines Firbank’s ear for the oddity and [Anthony Powell, A Writer’s Notebook] inconsequence of speech with his imagistic eye for detail and oblique application to plot. Why Not Advertise Here? He goes on to report that when *** Duckworths reprinted Firbank’s novels, Display Advert Rates they set about regularizing his Full Page: £30 grammar, spelling and punctuation, ½ page or full column: £20 stripping out the capital letters and 1/3 page (horizontal): £15 italics, even rewriting passages in ¼ page (½ column): £10 ways that changed their meaning and 1/6 page (1/3 column): £8 spoilt their music or their wit, and B&W artwork only inevitably introducing new errors of *** their own. Flyer Inserts He doesn’t mention (or if he does I missed £30 per A4 sheet it) that Powell in his memoirs reports that £15 per A5 sheet he “pressed the claims” of Firbank on plus printing costs Duckworths’ directors who were at first reluctant to proceed until they found out *** that Firbank left £800 in his will to help Small Ads finance such republication. After the Free to Society members initial deluxe, limited edition unexpectedly Others 10p/word, minimum £3 sold out quickly, they followed up with *** various cheaper ones [Messengers of Day, Births, Deaths & Marriages p 75]. I know this only because I was rereading Messengers a day or two before Free to Society members the TLS article appeared. Others 25p/word, minimum £5

29 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26 Society Merchandise

Secret Harmonies: Journal of the Audio Tapes of Dance Anthony Powell Society Copies of the following audio tapes of Issue 1, October 2006. 86pp of Powell- Simon Callow reading (abridged) volumes related articles. of Dance: UK Price: £4 Overseas Price: £5 A Question of Upbringing The Kindly Ones Centenary Newsletter The Valley of Bones The bumper 120-page celebratory Powell The Soldier’s Art Centenary Newsletter (issue 21; December UK price: £3 each 2005). Overseas price: £4 each UK Price: £6 Overseas Price: £7 Wallace Collection Poster Oxford Conference Proceedings The Wallace Collection’s 48.5 x 67.5 cm Collected papers from the 2003 conference (half life-size) poster of Poussin’s A Dance at Balliol College, Oxford. to the Music of Time. Mailed in a poster UK Price: £8 Overseas Price: £9 tube. Picture, page 9. Eton Conference Proceedings UK Price: £6 Overseas Price: £7.50 Papers from the 2001 conference; limited Fitzrovia: London’s Bohemia edition of 250 numbered copies signed by Written by Michael Bakewell and the Society’s Patron. published in the National Portrait Gallery UK Price: £9 Overseas Price: £10 “Character Sketches” series this small Writing about Anthony Powell volume contains snapshot biographies of The talks given at the 2004 AGM by Fitzrovian characters including Powell and George Lilley, Michael Barber and Nick many of his friends. Birns; introduced by Christine Berberich. UK price: £4.50 Overseas price: £7 UK Price: £4 Overseas Price: £5 Society Postcard The Master and The Congressman B&W postcard of Powell with his cat A 40 page monograph by John Monagan Trelawney. Pack of 5. Picture, page 29. describing his meetings with Anthony UK Price: £2 Overseas Price: £3 Powell. Wallace Collection Postcard UK Price: £4 Overseas Price: £5 The Wallace Collection’s luxurious BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance postcard of Poussin’s A Dance to the Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Music of Time. Pack of 5. Picture, page 9. between 1979-82. 26 one-hour episodes. UK Price: £2 Overseas Price: £3 For copyright reasons, available to Society Newsletter Back Numbers members only. Back numbers of Newsletter issues 6, 8 to Single CD of 26 MP3 files. Price: £11 20 and 22 to 25 are still available. (£3 + minimum £8 Donation) UK price: £1 each 26 Audio CDs. Price: £70 (£26 + Overseas price: £2 each minimum £44 Donation) (CD prices apply to both UK & overseas) Society Merchandise

30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #26

Society Merchandise

Pricing Notes. The prices shown are the Non-members will be charged the Society members’ prices and are inclusive overseas price shown plus postage & of postage and packing. packing at cost. Please note the different UK and Ordering. Post, phone or fax your order overseas prices which is to reflect the to the Hon. Secretary (address on page 2). additional cost of overseas postage. Payment by cheque (UK funds drawn on a UK bank), credit card (Visa or Mastercard) Gold and Founder members receive a 10% or online using PayPal to discount on the cost of merchandise. [email protected].

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