The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter Issue 57, Winter 2014, ISSN 1743-0976, £3 Season’s Greetings and a Prosperous New Year Contents Editorials ............................................ 2 Venice Conference Reports ............... 3-8 All Saints, Ennismore Gardens ....... 9-11 A Curious Invitation ...................... 12-15 My First Time ................................ 16-17 Dates for Your Diary ........................ 18 Society Notices ............................ 19-20 AGM Report ....................................... 21 Local Group News ........................... 22 Marxists: Daniel Tokenhouse ........ 23-25 Review: Scott-Moncrieff ............... 26-27 Poussin Sketch for ‘Dance’ ................ 28 Letter to the Editor ............................. 29 Cuttings ....................................... 30-33 Merchandise & Membership ....... 34-36 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #57 A Letter from the Editor From the Secretary’s Desk There are two events, Putting this Newsletter which dominate this together for the printer I issue: Christmas and am astonished not just the 8th Anthony Powell at how much is packed Conference in Venice. into it but how much the Society is doing at the The Christmas Quiz moment. But then supplement, lovingly autumn always is a busy prepared by our time for the Society dedicated team of brain with the AGM, Annual Lecture (sadly torturers, is full of cancelled at the last minute), London pub seasonal surprises and prizes. The Venice meet and AP Birthday lunches in London conference was also lovingly prepared by and New York. the dedicated Taylor team and associates. It also was full of surprises as the reports This year we have also had what was on the Conference reveal. The whole clearly an outstanding weekend in Venice. event was a great success and a brilliant How I wish I could have been there, but example of what a group of engaged for once family obligations had to take enthusiasts can achieve for themselves precedence – it isn’t every day your with encouragement and direction. mother celebrates her 99th birthday! In the previous issue I asked you to And speaking of celebrations, let us not release your inner Widmerpools. Many forget that 1 December would have been thanks for all your contributions. Please the Powells’ 80th wedding anniversary. do not feel snubbed or humiliated, as To mark this I have written a short history Widmerpool and Trapnel often must have of All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, felt, if you cannot see your contribution Knightsbridge – now the Russian in this issue. Pressures of space have Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of forced us to defer publication of some the Mother of God and All Saints – where excellent pieces, which all our readers AP and Lady Violet Pakenham were can look forward to savouring in the next married. couple of issues. Some contributions As you will see, Stephen is beginning to were so scholarly as to merit an have his wicked way with the Newsletter appearance in Secret Harmonies. One or and introducing some new features and two were so scurrilous that they induced subtle changes of design and defamation palpitations. organisation. We are also experimenting Nevertheless KEEP THEM COMING!! with printing on a different paper. Do you like it? Please tell us what you think. With season’s greetings and best wishes for 2015 to you all! It remains only for me wish everyone a Stephen Walker Peaceful Christmas [email protected] and a Prosperous New Year 2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #57 8th Anthony Powell Conference: Venice, October 2014 or What became of (Under) Wearing? By Stephen Walker Of the many possible topics which the 54 attendees at the 8th Anthony Powell Conference might have imagined they would be discussing, David Beckham’s underpants was not one of them. But that is what they did in the final session at the Cini Foundation on San Giorgio on Saturday 11 October 2014. It was an unexpected end to a triumphant occasion. Whether the discussion was prompted by Lisa Colletta’s explanation of ns r i the difference between being nude and B being naked or the Scandinavian inspired k Nic o feminist reinterpretation of Temporary t o h Kings or a lust for levity after a day and a P half of intense Powellian archaeology was Delegates assemble in the Sala Borges not clear. choices at the Do Forni restaurant on What was clear was the success of the Friday night. whole event. From the mingling at Florian’s on the Thursday night through As they generously acknowledge they the five lectures, one Prosecco reception could not have done it without valuable and a conference dinner plus a bonus trip contributions, advice and hard work from to Vicenza, the expertise and efficiency of other people. Keith Marshall looked after the speakers and organisers were radiantly the London end. Jeff Manley provided a obvious. backup talk and organised the trip to the Villa Valmarana in Vicenza referred to in Elwin Taylor explained in his opening TK (p 43). John Roe, apart from chairing remarks that while failure is always an the conference in his customary suave orphan, success has many parents. The masterly way, also used his considerable paternity suits will rumble on and DNA local contacts to arrange a visit to the RAI testing may be necessary to decide whose headquarters at the Palazzo Labia with the signatures appear on the birth certificate. help of Adriana Arban and Anna Crovato. Elwin and his wife Susan will definitely appear. They organised the whole event Elwin and Susan persuaded other members and took immense pains to make sure that of their family including Malcolm Price it was a success. Between them they made and Susannah Taylor to help with the six reconnaissance trips to Venice. They Delegates Book and the Registration took care of the smallest detail including a formalities. Food is always important at sophisticated and immensely helpful conferences and with the invaluable help colour coding reminder system for menu of Cannaregio residents Chris and Anna Wayman, Susan was able to make 3 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #57 excellent arrangements with the Do Forni restaurant and Rosa Salva, caterers since 1879, for the breakfasts, refreshments and reception. Finally the Society’s thanks must go to the Cini foundation for their ld generous support and to the Master of u o G Campus, Massimo Busetto, whose calm, hn o friendly, multi-lingual helpfulness ensured J o t a stress free stay. o h Apart from good food, good P accommodation and good company there Food is always important at conferences were also good talks. Jonathan Black got tiramisu, baked shin of veal, Mont Blanc the conference of to a flying start with an and beef fillet in Barolo wine sauce were entertaining and insightful exploration of called upon to digest the cerebral delights AP and the rackety world of the British of Dr Peter Kislinger fluently and swiftly inter-war avant garde. He demonstrated taking us through the application of that AP was a more prescient and engaged narratology to Dance via perspectivism, observer of the art world than one might mise-en-abyme, parti pris and fragmatism. have thought. Nicholas Birns followed Without pausing for breath or coffee we with a typically erudite and enthusiastic plunged on with Prof. Lisa Colletta asking explanation of AP’s relationship with the question: is Venice in literature an Americans. He revealed that half of AP’s image of death or vitality and joy? She readership was American and that he was pointed out via Thomas Mann and Henry an assiduous and prompt correspondent James that although film has reduced the with those admirers who wrote to him. influence of literary culture, Venice, as the This included Nick’s mother. He also most written about city in literature, lives pointed out that American reviewers and on. Marinetti may have called for the critics gave AP a kinder reception than canals to be filled in with the rubble of English ones. Why this might be is no past pallazzi but now the Venetians spend doubt a subject for another talk. money on dredging to keep them open for After lunch John Roe provided privileged tourists and celebrities. access to the world of TK by taking us to Which brings us back to David Beckham’s the Palazzo Labia to see the Tiepolo wall underpants. What would AP have made of and ceiling frescoes on which AP based this? Given his description of Pamela the viewing of the Tiepolo painting of looking up at Tiepolo’s ceiling as we all Candaules and Gyges in the Bragadin did on the Friday afternoon palazzo by the Widmerpools, Gwinnett, White trousers, thin as gauze, Glober and Brightman at the 1958 writers’ stretched skin-tight across elegantly conference. This set off Pamela’s betrayal compact small haunches, of Widmerpool leading to both their challengingly exhibited yet neatly deaths. formed. On Saturday morning the attendees, still The answer is: quite a lot. digesting the culinary delights of linguine with lobster sauce, Grant Marnier soufflé, Is that a call for a follow up conference I hear? ■ 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #57 Aperitifs and Frescoes: in Venice Honouring Novelist Anthony Powell By Giles Elgood Reuters; Venice; 13 October 2014 Venice is the setting for the second-last novel in the sequence, Temporary Kings, After the Clooney wedding and the film and the city locale allowed for conference festival, Venice played host at the weekend delegates – a mixture of academics and to a gathering concerned more with enthusiasts – to visit places in the book literature than glitz: the annual conference and touch on Powell’s own experience at a of the Anthony Powell Society. cultural conference there, which he One of the most subtle of English incorporated into the novel. novelists, Powell created an intricate comedy of manners that skewers socialites and bohemians alike as their lives unfold Directions to Tokenhouse’s and interlock over the course of a 12- lodgings are given in volume A Dance to the Music of Time.