The Anthony Powell Society from the Secretary’S Desk the Anthony Powell Society Although Being a Voracious Reader, My Registered Charity No

Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 The Anthony Powell Society From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society Although being a voracious reader, my Registered Charity No. 1096873

father never showed any great interest in Newsletter The Anthony Powell Society is a Powell. Some years ago I gave him a charitable literary society devoted to the Issue 24, Autumn 2006 ISSN 1743-0976 couple of volumes of Dance to try, life and works of the English author although if he ever read them, he never Anthony Dymoke Powell, 1905-2000. discussed them with me. But clearing out

Let the Dance Resume: Echoes Of his papers after his death earlier in the Contents Officers & Executive Committee Anthony Powell in the Fiction Let the Dance Resume … 1 year I found half a dozen book reviews of DJ Taylor From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 by Powell which my father had culled Patron: John MA Powell from the Daily Telegraph between 1966 by Jeffrey A Manley Widmerpool’s Lair … 9 President-Elect: Simon Russell Beale Society Notices … 11 and 1976. They were reviews of books Anyone familiar with the literary Society Events … 12 on diverse topics in English history, Hon. Vice-Presidents: th journalism and criticism of DJ Taylor will Dates for Your Diary … 13 ranging from King Arthur to the 17 Julian Allason be well aware of his admiration for the Local Group News … 14 century Interregnum. No surprise at Hugh Massingberd works of Anthony Powell. For example, Performing Nothing … 15 Powell having written such reviews (he *Chairman: Patric Dickinson Taylor has described Powell as “the From the APLIST … 18 did read History at Oxford) nor really that *Hon. Secretary: Dr Keith C Marshall th greatest English novelist of the 20 Letters to the Editor … 21 my father had kept the reviews, having as *Hon. Treasurer: Kevin Jewell century” (Independent on Sunday, 4 July Society Merchandise … 22 he had an interest in the nooks and 2004). In addition, Taylor has also written crannies of English history. What was *Committee Members: AGM Business … centre spread Dr Christine Berberich a considerable body of fiction, and it is however slightly surprising, on reading Dr Nicholas Birns (USA) the reviews, were some of Powell’s perhaps less well known that he finds Leatrice Fountain (USA) numerous methods for expressing his unexpected insights into English history. Stephen Holden admiration of Powell in his fiction as well. AGM Decades on these insights may be Tony Robinson Prof. Ian Young (N Ireland) The Novels Saturday 28 October common-place to historians today, but Between 1992 and 2001 Taylor wrote four See centre spread had not previously occurred to me. Often Newsletter Editor: Stephen Holden novels which may be said to represent his in almost throw-away lines, Powell gives Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall attempt to describe how it was to live in us clues about the iniquities of Ship PR/Media Adviser: Julian Allason Money, the Normans in Italy, riots by England during the 1970-89 period. The All correspondence should be sent to: apprentices against the Puritans for their concept of this cycle seems to have been Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society formed in a series of essays published in suppression of Christmas celebrations, 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford 1989 as A Vain Conceit: British Fiction in the major occupants of castles being not Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK the 1980s. In those essays Taylor took the aristocrats (who owned them) but Phone: +44 (0)20 8864 4095 English writers of serious fiction to task lowly knights (who were paid to look Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 for failing, or not wishing, after them) and the homosexuality of Edward II. On the Normans Powell says: Email: [email protected] to perceive ... the powerful forces at * Members of the Executive Committee who are work in society which really influence The Normans were, in general, good the Society’s trustees. All officers are resident the way in which we think and act: at fighting, but many of their in England or Wales unless stated. America, television, the global money greatest successes were due rather marketplace, and especially to administrative ferocity and © The Anthony Powell Society, 2006 and the language, the constantly revivifying, cunning, together with an excellent propaganda machine (for instance, individual authors named. All rights reserved. endlessly self-renewing language of Published by The Anthony Powell Society. transatlantic and transcontinental the Bayeux Tapestry). Printed and distributed by Express Printing, culture. (Ibid. p15-16) [Daily Telegraph, 18 March 1976] Peterborough, UK

2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 He cites the previous generation of English Goldsmith’s College, London, achieves Narrative Structure novelists (including Powell, Waugh and some success, roughly speaking, as The narrators of the novels bear little Orwell) as well as the Victorians such as scriptwriter in the pornography industry social resemblance to Powell’s Nick Trollope, Thackeray, and Gissing as centered in Soho during the 1970 boom Jenkins. None received his education at a having taken on this task of writing what years, only to return to Norwich when that major public school, nor do they have any he describes as books that seek to “cope business (or at least his firm) collapses. connection with upper class friends or with their own vast, chaotic canvas” or English Settlement (1996) has an acquaintances comparable to those of books reflecting social comment or the 1 American narrator from West Virginia who Jenkins. On the other hand, many condition of England. (Ibid. p38). becomes a management consultant in a characters other than the narrators would Without any apparent announcement of his London accounting firm and is farmed out fall well within the parameters of the intentions in the books themselves, he to a mid-division football team in West Bohemian world of London populated by seems to have picked up his own challenge London where he discovers irregularities the characters of Powell’s novels. with the cycle of four novels beginning in in its business. The team has a “run” in Like Jenkins, Taylor’s narrators are 1992 with Real Life. It is not my intention one of the football cups and begins to describing events in which they were not here to assess the extent to which Taylor generate positive cash flows but then the prime movers but rather peripheral or may have succeeded but rather to describe collapses as the cup final approaches. secondary actors. This enables them to how he used elements of Powell’s style Trespass (1998) is narrated by another adopt a certain degree of detachment in and content from Dance in his own cycle Norwich native who is raised and educated their narratives similar to that used by of novels. In a Spectator article entitled Powell for Jenkins. They do not “Dukes, Debs and Democrats” (4 July in a working class district of that city, pronounce judgment on the characters 2004) Taylor described Dance as the work migrates to London where he studies whose actions cause the debacles which which “more than any other work of accounting and becomes involved with an are the theme of each story but rather fiction, tells you what it was like to have uncle in a sort of Ponzi scheme investment describe the events and participants in been alive in England between the years fund. This fund achieves a success for a seemingly objective but ironic voices, 1920 to 1970”. Since Taylor seems to be time as repository for the investments of allowing the actions and the resultant attempting a similar task in his own novels ordinary people but eventually collapses, failures to speak for themselves. covering a period that begins about the and the narrator returns to East Anglia, where he is contracted by a publishing time that Dance concludes, this may The narrative structures of Taylor’s novels firm to tell his side of the story six years explain his frequent allusions to Powell. Anthony Powell Resides Here are quite like those of Powell’s. While the after the collapse. plots are not linked chronologically nor do While Taylor’s novels, unlike the sequence CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS seeks and sells early editions of Anthony the characters reappear, the novels which of twelve written by Powell, are not linked The last of this series, The Comedy Man Powell’s works together with those of all take place in the Thatcher Years2 seem by character and plot lines they are linked (2001), is narrated by a former member of other distinguished British authors such a two-man comedy team which attains intended to form a cycle with some vague by theme. The novels describe events in as Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse, linkage to Powell’s Dance. This much is England during the 1970s and 1980s. In Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and popular success on national TV and related established, at least by implication, in A the first, Real Life (1992), the narrator, James Lees-Milne. In addition to rare venues in the 1970s. This novel traces the books, we offer a complete collection of Vain Conceit, as noted above. Any doubt from Norwich and educated at a cathedral- economic collapse of the narrator’s small new books in our store near the on that score is allayed by the epigraphs to affiliated school in that city and shopkeeper family in Great Yarmouth, Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs issued all but one of these novels, the only upon request. follows him through the glory years of popularity resulting from national TV exception being Trespass. By starting with 1 1082 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10028 An earlier novel, Great Eastern Land (1986), exposure and ends with his rather bleak these epigraphs, Taylor makes no secret of appeared before Taylor laid down his challenge in Open seven days per week Telephone: 212 289 2345 Vain Conceit. It is an “Oxbridge” novel, existence in South London eking out a [email protected] 2 describing the narrator’s education and entry into living by appearing in retirement homes For these purposes the 1970’s are considered as Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ included in the Thatcher Years, as the political the job market. It contains fewer obvious Association of America, Inc. and working men’s clubs. The Comedy references to Powell, although there is a character Man is darker than the other novels and, and economic malaise of that decade gave rise to (Mr Mortimer) who exhibits some distinctly perhaps as a consequence, has fewer Mrs Thatcher’s ascendancy, or so Taylor seems to believe, and few would dispute that belief. Powellian traits. Powellian elements. 3 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 his intention to follow, at least to some room” of their house in West Virginia, quasi-official celebrations of completed right hand and glaring stonily at a extent, the pattern adopted by Powell in through which the narrator spent years audits known as ‘drink-ups’ ...” (Ibid. second group made up of several his panoramic novels of real English life in “riffling” (Ibid. p39). Two of the younger p106). Another accountant, known as other guests, whose leader seemed to Dance. employees of the London management “Old Powell”, is employed at the lower be the girl whom Terry Chimes had consultant/accounting firm where the echelon accounting firm to which the previously tried to pick up. In the Sightings narrator is employed are named Sillery and narrator is ultimately relegated. Old middle of this assembly sat, or rather Throughout the books of the Thatcher Blanchflower (Ibid. p41) providing a link Powell had once worked in a more half-stood, supported by the girl, a Years cycle there are references to names to both Powell and Waugh characters as respected firm and, when the younger man whom I had not seen before, or places or other overt citations of the well as to the narrator’s observation a few accountants grew boisterous, would clutching his fingers over the upper Dance novels. These are perhaps a sort of pages earlier that airplanes bound for “occasionally remonstrate that ‘it wasn’t part of his face. Fragments of a “in-joke” for Powell fans and seem to be England “are full of college students quite the thing’” (Ibid. p134). bottle, Terry Chimes’ bottle of intended to reinforce the other less obvious reading novels by Evelyn whiskey judging by the label, formed allusions to Powell’s work Waugh and Anthony Powellian Language an odd symbolic barrier on the floor in case the epigraphs did not Powell” (Ibid. p28). Finally, there are those narratives in which between these apparently opposed succeed sufficiently in doing the voice of Nick Jenkins/Anthony Powell forces. (Ibid. pp190,199) so. Some, but by no means Trespass is similarly laden seem to appear. These are not frequent, all, of these are described with such overt citations to occurring hardly at all in The Comedy Man My favorite occurs in Trespass where there below. Powell and his works. A and only rarely in the other novels. These is a Powellesque description of a seaside reference to Huntercombe passages are really sustained only in the hotel in which the narrator has taken In English Settlement the Holdings is noted by the Prologue (entitled “Pretzel Logic”) to refuge following the financial collapse of narrator, in describing his narrator in a newspaper English Settlement where the narrator his uncle’s investment fund. Indeed, this American father’s past, article and reminds him of describes his and his family’s background hotel, the Caradon, is a source of recalls an incident when the incidents relating to his in the US. considerable amusement of a vaguely father entered the home of uncle’s investment trust Powellian sort which might be associated his girlfriend of the moment (Ibid. p17). A hotel A more isolated example occurs in Real with Nick Jenkins’ attitude toward Uncle – referred to as “Charlotte or proprietor is then overheard Life at a party described as “suggesting a Giles’ residences at the Ufford and the Ella” and daughter of a singing the melody Mountain Connolly/Horizon gathering along the Belleview. Here, for example, is the somewhat starchy Southern Greenery which is the same lines parodied by Evelyn Waugh” where introductory description of the Caradon US family – “bearing in his song that is overheard by nearly all the main characters are present (Mr Archer is the hotel’s proprietor and is DJ Taylor outstretched hand a half- attendees at the and one of them starts a fraças as a result himself throughout the novel a source of 3 eaten pretzel” (Ibid. p14). Huntercombe’s dinner dance of an unsuccessful attempt at picking up a considerable comedy very much in the girl: This “startling solecism,” which could be in A Buyer’s Market (p63). Some of the style of Powell): barristers’ chambers at which the narrator said to be comparable to Widmerpool’s The music had stopped. From beyond Long-standing residents sometimes conducts audits have “iron stanchions by inappropriate overcoat, costs the young the doorway came the clamour of said that the Caradon looked at its the door where, it was suggested to lawyer the hand of the well-connected raised voices. Moving into the room, best in the early morning. The front visitors, the linkmen of two centuries young lady. One of the accounting firms several clues as to what had lobby, reached ten minutes later – you before had hung their torches...” (Trespass; in the novel is Kellogg Landsdorf & happened swiftly presented could never be sure of hot water at p103). Compare with A Question of Powell (Ibid. p19). The narrator’s mother, themselves, the whole suggesting a that hour – bore this out. Sunk in who is English, possessed a “stack of Upbringing (p55) where similar stanchions tableau that might have been are described as located outside the house grey light, which bobbed and glinted Anthony Powell novels in the sitting captioned ‘Wounded Dignity’ or off odd protrusions of glass and of Stringham’s mother. There is also an 3 ‘Honour Spurned’, a tumult of chrome, it looked vaguely welcoming: Charlotte or Ella’s family name was Frosbisher. accountant named Jenkins who was a activity frozen suddenly into sharp austere, maybe, but not despicable. But she brings to mind Betty Taylor or Porter member of a group of six “Chaffington relief by our own arrival on to the Standing on the lower stairs, at the who was Peter Templer’s unfortunate second Irregulars” noteworthy for “evening wife. Taylor or Porter was the name of her first scene. Terry Chimes stood in the point furthest away from the excursions to odd pubs and wine bars husband. (Hilary Spurling, Invitation to the centre of a group of people which reception area, it scarcely resembled between Fleet Street and the river, or [for] Dance, p162) included Morty and Jerry, nursing his a hotel – more an exceptionally badly

5 6 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24

furnished domestic house or salute to his works by another writer same characters in each novel to reinforce Years, so that using the same characters antechamber to some public room. seeking to accomplish a similar these linkages. (particularly the same narrator) may not Nearer at hand the place’s true description of English time in a series of have recommended itself as a realistic A further linkage is noted by Taylor identity was revealed in a high, novels. option. Moreover, unlike the sequential himself as the common theme of formica-covered reception desk, a Dance cycle, there is considerable time characters who leave their provincial green baize square set into the wall Conclusions shifting in Taylor’s narratives, with action homes for London only to return and find and pinned with notices, and a It is fairly evident that DJ Taylor has used taking place in the narrators’ present times them changed “beyond recognition”. blackboard covered with unclaimed his fiction as well as his criticism to pay as well as the actions described by those envelopes. As I stood looking at all homage to Anthony Powell. But is that in Taylor describes these books as “the same narrators in the past. This could well have itself any reason for other Powell admirers book rewritten in a variety of different this – a scene inspected twenty times 5 made a sequential novel such as Dance before but forever fascinating in its to read Taylor’s fiction? Perhaps not. But ways”. Powell, on the other hand, kept impractical. his novels flowing forward over the years seediness – a light went on in the there is much else going on in Taylor’s they covered. It was not so much the same On the whole, however, Taylor is writing office behind reception and there was work that warrants attention. He has events occurring to different characters as these novels very much in the tradition of a furious scrabbling noise: boxes recycled and updated the Powellian style it was the same characters reacting to Powell and other writers of social novels being thrown about, heavy feet and incorporated it into his own work, different events. describing life in England. They are not a wandering. Eventually Mr Archer’s especially in the four-novel cycle devoted Dance to the Music of Mrs Thatcher’s face and upper body appeared from to the Thatcher Years. Finally, Taylor uses a first person narrator Time but are probably about as close as behind the hatch. with a detached point of view. But he uses These novels are clearly linked, but in a one would care to get. For Powell fans, ‘Up early?’ different narrators instead of linking the way that is different from the Dance cycle. looking to move on from endless ‘That’s right.’ novels with a single narrator. The novels The settings – Soho, East Anglia and the rereadings of Dance, these novels certainly ‘Off to get a newspaper?’ are not sequential in time but overlap each City – provide one linkage. The aspects of recommend themselves. ‘Probably.’ society that form the focus of one novel other to a large extent in the Thatcher ‘We can get them delivered, you reappear briefly in another. For example know.’ in English Settlement the owner of 5 East Anglian Writers: DJ Taylor Speaker People going out to buy newspapers Walham Town FC made the money he Event, April 18, 2006, posted at New Critical Work on Powell was an old grievance of Mr invested in the football club in www.eastanglianwriters.org.uk. This seems not Archer’s ... Thinking perhaps that it pornography, although he was not to be the case in English Settlement where the The Novels of Anthony Powell: a was bad policy to criticize a guest at narrator is only embarking on his return home to Critical Study mentioned in Real Life. In The Comedy America when the novel ends. But this could be such an early hour of the morning, he Man, there is a back story of a financial by Koyama Taichi due to the truncation of that novel as reported by pub Hokuseido Publishing, Tokyo, said in a more conciliatory way: fraud but not the one described in Taylor in which the publisher caused to be ‘Another ashtray went last night.’ Trespass. And one of the perpetrators of removed a large section relating to a character’s September 2006 ‘Did it?’ that fraud is said also to have been “lost life in America”. (Ibid.) Koyama Taichi (then a graduate student ‘That’s right. Seven in this last prosecuted under the Obscene Publications at University of Kent) spoke at the Eton fortnight. I shall have to start Act. In Real Life there is a football theme conference and this book is the result of chaining them to the tables if this but based on supporters of a real team, his successful doctoral thesis. Koyama goes on.’ (Trespass; pp14-15) Norwich City, not the fictional Walham is now a university English academic These passages from Taylor call to mind Town. Accountancy firms play an back in his native Japan, hence the no specific portions of Powell’s novels. important role in both Trespass and publication of this book in Tokyo. But they are an obvious allusion to English Settlement and the narrator’s The book will be available via Powell’s language, one of the topics cited father in Real Life was a chartered Amazon.jp, and we hope other country as important to the writing of the 1980s in accountant. But Taylor decided not to Amazon sites as well. In view of the Vain Conceit. They are not so much a follow Powell’s structure of using the likely availability from Japan we are parody of Powell (although Taylor has also also hoping to be able to sell copies been known to engage in that as well)4 as a Independent (28 April 2001) of his attendance at the first of the Society’s conferences at Eton in through the Society – watch this space! 4 See for example Taylor’s report in the 2001 which is written entirely in Powell-speak.

7 8 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Widmerpool’s Lair by Julian Allason

Internal evidence suggests that Widmerpool maintained offices within the Cabinet War Rooms complex in Whitehall, “Within, the bunker was permanently lit, and certainly attended meetings there. The making it impossible to tell whether it was following first hand account will shortly day or night when you looked at your be published in The Hot Seat, the military watch. Winston’s bedroom was not close and political memoirs of James Allason. enough from our office to hear him snoring, so the best test was to see whether “The Cabinet War Rooms, to which I was what we had prepared made any sense frequently summoned to give briefings, when typed up the next day. That attend meetings and amend plans, composed at 4 pm was notably better than occupied the fortified basement of the the 4 am version. The Premier’s sleeping steel-framed Office of Works building in habits were in any event an unreliable Storey’s Gate opposite St James’s Park, the guide, as he was as likely to take an strongest structure in Whitehall. Known afternoon siesta as he was to keep the simply as “George Street” or “Storey’s Chiefs-of-Staff up most of the night, often Gate”, it was protected by a raft of with us in attendance. (More frequently, concrete several feet thick strengthened though, he worked and slept immediately with tram rails that had been designed to above us in the six first floor rooms of the resist a direct hit, an engineering Number 10 Annexe, the windows barred Map Room of Cabinet War Rooms calculation fortunately never put to the with steel shutters during the bombing.) test. Works had started in June 1938, the War Room becoming operational on 27 “Several of Winston’s most stirring “At the figurative centre of the George who slept in cramped bunks in the sub- Street complex was the Cabinet Room, in basement bronchitis was a perennial August 1939, just a week before the broadcasts were made from the Map Room which a square had been formed of trestle hazard. Many preferred to risk the Blitz declaration of war following the German via a small BBC control room that was tables covered in baize, with a narrow gap than remain overnight. invasion of Poland. Fifty feet below permanently manned. Periodically the to allow members of the secretariat into ground, it was designed to house – and Prime Minister would disappear into his “Next to the Prime Minister’s bedroom the centre to take notes. Around the sleep – a permanent staff of 270, with private lavatory, which otherwise remained outside facing in would sit members of the was the Map Room, from which he had additional offices for regular visitors like securely locked. And there he would broadcast to the nation during the dark War Cabinet and Chiefs-of-Staff. my own team, in some 150 rooms. A sub- remain for a considerable time, giving rise days of 1940, and where he still met heads Whatever the hour at which I passed basement with low ceilings housed among the secretaries to a tender concern of state and military leaders. The walls through the sandbagged – and securely cramped dormitories crammed with bunk about his insides. It was a closely guarded were covered with large-scale maps of guarded – entrance to the bunker a beds. The complex was huge, with six secret that behind the door with its Britain, the Atlantic and Far Eastern meeting might be in progress in the acres of floor space and a mile of ‘Occupied/Vacant’ sign the PM was theatres of war bearing notes of force Cabinet Room. From it issued forth a corridors, but only chemical toilets. Gas talking over an encrypted transatlantic deployments and convoys. These were stream of demands for information, some masks were required to be carried at all radio link to the President of the United kept constantly updated with the latest of which it was our task as planners to times, and a torch was a sensible States. An early computer, located in an information. When my 80th birthday party answer. With so many people smoking in accessory. While hardly comfortable the annexe basement of Selfridges department was celebrated in the War Rooms in such a confined space, not least Churchill atmosphere was purposeful; few of the store in Oxford Street, was required to September 1997 the maps remained as puffing on his Romeo y Julieta No 7s, a visitors escorted in by the Royal Marine scramble speech securely on this the first constant fog persisted, confounding the they had been on the last day of the war – guards were left in any doubt that this was “hot line”. The highly classified system and my name appeared on the duty roster primitive – and noisy – attempts at air the hub of the war effort and centre of was codenamed SIGSALY, the London posted outside Winston’s bedroom.” conditioning. For the secretaries and aides decision-making. terminal being X-RAY.

9 10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24

Society Notices Society Events

The Life of Gallileo Powell Birthday Lunch Subscriptions Local Groups Come to the theatre after the AGM This year’s Powell birthday lunch will Subscriptions were due for renewal on be held on Saturday 2 December at London Group We have tickets for the evening 1 April. The 40 or so members who 1230hrs Area: London & SE England performance on Saturday 28 October of have not yet renewed will recently Contact: Keith Marshall Bertold Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, at As is becoming tradition we are going to have received final reminders. Those Email: [email protected] the National Theatre in London an Italian restaurant which offers a variety not renewing will cease to be members of dishes which should suit all tastes. on 30 September. North East USA Group Starring the Society’s President-Elect Area: NY & CT area, USA Simon Russell Beale, David Hare’s This year we’re going again to Zia Teresa, We are able to accept subscription Contact: Leatrice Fountain version of The Life of Galileo has received 6 Hans Road, London, SW3 which is payments by Standing Order (UK Email: [email protected] widespread critical acclaim. conveniently situated opposite the side members only) and recurring credit door of Harrod’s (for Christmas shopping) card transactions; appropriate forms Great Lakes Group “Galileo’s astonishing proof that the earth and a short walk from the South will be sent with reminder notices. Area: Chicago area, USA moves around the sun shatters a belief held Kensington museums (for those more Payment may also be made in UK Contact: Stephen Pyskoty-Olle sacred for two thousand years. Considered culturally inclined). funds by cheque, Visa, Mastercard or Email: [email protected] an enemy of humanity, he’s threatened online using PayPal. Swedish Group with torture and faced with a terrible The whole of Zia Teresa’s menu will be choice: integrity versus intellectual sell- available – you order what you want; we Members who are UK taxpayers are Area: Sweden out. Writing on the brink of World War II, settle the bill centrally; you pay the Hon. asked to GiftAid their subscription. Contact: Regina Rehbinder Bertolt Brecht offers one of the greatest Secretary. This enables the Society to reclaim Email: [email protected] plays ever written about social basic rate income tax already paid on If you want to be there please contact the Please contact the Hon. Secretary if responsibility and the conflict between the subscription; currently this is 28p Hon. Secretary (address on page 2) so we you wish to make contact with a group reason and faith”. for every £1 paid to the Society. and don’t have email. can ensure we have a large enough table. Tickets are £10 each and may be obtained Non-members will be welcome. Any member wishing to start a local from our Chairman: Patric Dickinson, Why not join us for the usual convivial group should contact the Hon. College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, Copy Deadlines time – good food, good wine, good Secretary who can advise on the London, EC4V 4BT; email conversation? The deadlines for receipt of articles number of local members. [email protected]. Please and advertisements for forthcoming make cheques payable to PL Dickinson issues of Newsletter and Secret (and not to the Society). Non-members Harmonies are: will be welcome. Future UK Events ** Subscription ** Secret Harmonies #1, 2006 The following events are being Copy Deadline: 4 September 2006 ** Special Offer ** New Local Groups? planned for 2007 ... Publication Date: 28 October 2006 5 years for the price of 4 The Society has an increasing number of An Evening of Music from Dance Newsletter #25, Winter 2006 members in the North of England (mostly with Paul Guinery Copy Deadline: 10 November 2006 Available to new & existing Yorkshire and the Manchester/Liverpool Publication Date: 1 December 2006 members & all grades of conurbation) and in East Anglia. If you Visit to the Nottinghamshire village would be interested in organising the of Widmerpool Newsletter #26, Spring 2007 membership North of England Local Group or the East Further details when available from the Copy Deadline: 9 February 2007 Anglia Local Group, then please get in Hon. Secretary Publication Date: 2 March 2007 Available to March 2007 touch with the Hon. Secretary.

11 12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24

Dates for Your Diary Local Group News

London & SE England Group August Pub Meet Saturday 16 September 2006 East Coast USA Group Meeting 2007 Conference By Noreen Marshall Venue: Silvermine Tavern, Norwalk, CT The Fourth Biennial Anthony Powell Time: 1230 hrs Conference is provisionally booked When half the world (including some of its title role). See page 11 for details of the Details from Leatrice Fountain for Saturday 8 September 2007 at leaders) appeared to be away on holiday, it Society’s outing to The Life of Galileo. was quite cheering that ten of us came to ([email protected]) the University of Bath. Talk of Society elections led on to the the August pub meet at The Audley on the forthcoming AGM at the Swedenborg Saturday 28 October 2006 As we have not had anyone volunteer afternoon of Saturday 12 August. We also Society and will be followed by Joanne Anthony Powell Society AGM to take on the role of Conference achieved a good mix of old hands and and Tony Edmonds’s talk Powell’s Talk: Powell’s Americans Organiser the Executive Committee newer arrivals: David Butler, Derek Miles, Wynter Room, Swedenborg Society, have decided to cut our cloth according Victor Spouge and Keith and Noreen Americans (see centre spread). 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1 to a different pattern, a pattern we can Marshall were joined by Anita Blanchard, We debated the possibility of having a Time: 1400 hrs. Details centre spread manage from the cloth we have. Sir Robin Williams, Guy Robinson and more formal occasion, giving members the Graham & Dorothy Davie for food, drinks It has been decided that we will try chance to dress up to match. Some of us Saturday 28 October 2006 and conversation on the usual wide range something different for the 2007 remembered Lunch at the Ritz in 2001: a The Life of Galileo of topics (Powell related and otherwise). conference: a one-day symposium with wonderful occasion. But despite the National Theatre, South Bank, London And of course, the fact that half the world perhaps half a dozen speakers each of advantageous price Julian Allason SE1 was away on holiday meant that we were whom will get a longer time in which negotiated for us in that instance, the cost Time: 1930hrs. Details page 11 able to choose our seats, spread out in to speak and answer questions. of such events puts them beyond the reach comfort and be brought our food with even Saturday 11 November 2006 Although there was hot debate about of many members. And not everybody more alacrity than usual. London Group Pub Meet whether this will work for us, it does enjoys formality. It might be possible to have a cocktail party at some point, The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1 work for many other societies and has We gave a considerable amount of time to perhaps – particularly likely to appeal to Time: 1230 to 1530 hrs the merit of being something which the discussion of ancestral history, one of those who enjoy the more elegant episodes Regular quarterly meeting. Good beer, can be managed collectively by the Powell’s major interests. A number of our in AP’s fiction. (Strange how often these good food, good company, good Executive. members have an interest in the subject, turn out to have a disreputable or seedy conversation in a Victorian pub AP would and have put a considerable amount of Speakers have not yet been arranged, element, though). But what do you think? have known. Members & non-members time and effort into tracing ancestors. but we hope to attract the usual Would you come? How much money is welcome; further details from Hon. Sec. Some of us even follow AP in taking an interesting guests. In addition we interest in everybody else’s family history too much? Saturday 2 December 2006 would welcome paper or session as well. We also talked of pubs (and their loos); the Powell Birthday Lunch proposals from members, so if anyone novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton Zia Teresa, 6 Hans Road, London, SW3 wishes to submit a suitable proposal Another major theme was that of Society (1904-1962), perhaps now best known for Time: 1230hrs. Details page 11 for a (probably 45 minute) session, events past, present and future. We talked his1930s novel 20,000 Streets Under the please contact the Hon. Secretary extensively about a number of current Sky; Southbank, Southwark and Saturday 10 February 2007 without delay. stage productions including Trevor Nunn’s London Group Pub Meet production of Tom Stoppard’s Shakespeare (and Beckett crept in there This leaves the Sunday of conference too); AP’s early work; and music. Finally, Details as for 11 November Rock’N’Roll, and David Hare’s staging of weekend free. However we hope to be Graham and Victor made some instant Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo at the Saturday 8 September 2007 able to offer some optional extras this additions to their Powell collections from National Theatre (which stars our Fourth Biennial Conference day for those wishing to stay over in Keith’s (private) stock of Powell books President-Elect Simon Russell Beale in the University of Bath Bath: perhaps a coach trip, a walking available for purchase. Details to follow tour of Bath or Sunday lunch.

13 14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Performing Nothing product of Green letting his “instincts be in other people’s lives, not their own? by Nicholas Birns seduced” by “midlife affairs with younger Perhaps the denouement liberates Philip women”. and Mary to go their own ways, free from a fettered and ingrown past? In that way, Both Henry Green (a pseudonym of Henry experience available in fiction. Powell The plot of Nothing centers on John the suggestion of incest is symbolically, if Yorke; I will refer to “Green” throughout) might have observed that his own Pomfret and Jane Wetherby, two middle- not literally, true, and it is a situation the and Anthony Powell saw their centenaries trajectory was the opposite, from the age people who once had an affair, but had younger couple are well out of. observed last year. In both cases dialogue-laden prewar novels to the far ended up married to other people. Now, international conferences were held at more discursive Dance. Powell also might their two children, Philip Wetherby and Jane also has a younger daughter, prominent venues (the University of have suggested that Ivy Compton-Burnett Mary Pomfret, are engaged. Philip, Penelope, who is still a child. Penelope as Warwick, the Wallace Collection). Yet the is not given sufficient credit as a though, is troubled by the sense that John a strand in the plot dynamics is well hundredth birthday parties of these two predecessor in critical discussion of may be his father as well as Mary’s and evoked by the play; she is in the book as writers, who knew each other at the age of Green’s experimental use of dialogue. that he is on the verge of committing well but Hart’s dramatic adaptation eleven and are still known as members of Nothing was published in 1950, at the incest. There are also Liz and Richard, foregrounds her to such an extent as to be the same literary generation, did not, as far height of the attempt to “launch” Green in alternative romantic possibilities for John almost interpretative in so doing. as I know, have a single speaker in and Mary – they are the outsider Penelope never appears on stage, but she common. Powell’s constituency and the US. Interestingly, Powell was never launched over here in the same way: he characters, jettisoned by the main plot, adds an intriguing extra element to the Henry Green’s seem widely separated. It received good reviews; people enjoyed his who serve as comic relief and who end up imagined tableau, especially as she is telling that the writers who speak well of with each other in a satisfying gesture of represents a still-younger generation, the Green, such as Eudora Welty or John works; but there was never a “campaign” to “import” Powell on the part of publisher comic resolution. The pivot of the play is generation, in Powellian terms, of the Updike, do not seem to have much time the way there has periodically been with the reversal of destinies; the older couple Quiggin twins and Fiona Cutts, not of X for Powell, while, equally, one cannot Green; the difference can even be seen in end up together, the younger one Trapnel and Polly Duport. imagine Ian Rankin or Sarah Waters separated. Some critics, such as the late the effort made in marketing Jeremy The above reference to Dance characters demonstrating any special interest in John Russell, saw the older couple as Treglown’s 2001 biography of Green and also shows the very different generational Green. blocking figures, undermining the Michael Barber’s 2004 biography of dynamics in Powell. It is the bohemian emergence of the younger generation. In So the performance of the dramatic Powell, both excellent biographies. But Trapnel, not the staid Philip and Mary, adaptation of Nothing at the 59 E 59th St Treglown’s was given much more push by strict mechanical terms, this is true enough, but it ignores Green’s unusual who represents the generation born in the Theater as part of the “Brits Off the mainstream media. Nothing’s 1920s. Part of this might be attributable to positioning of the older generation, the Broadway” festival in June 2006 was an publication in 1950 came on the heels of Green’s son, Sebastian Yorke, having been former “Bright Young Things” now in interesting opportunity for a group of laudatory pieces such as Philip Toynbee’s born in 1934, six years older than Powell’s middle age, as the lighter, more pleasure- Powell fans – including myself, my in a 1949 Partisan Review, in which, eldest son, Tristram, continuing a pattern seeking generation, and the younger mother (Margaret Boe Birns), Jonathan disconcertingly to present-day ears, he that also saw Green marry and, indeed, generation as more earnest and pragmatic. Kooperstein, Jeanne Reed, and Ed Bock – described Green, along with most publish fiction and win acclaim earlier. It to gauge the similarities and differences modernist writers, as a “Terrorist” author. This differentiation, reversing the also, though, speaks to Powell and Green between the two contemporaries. The This was a portent, as Green’s novels were traditional values associated with the old inhabiting different worlds by this point. play, originally staged at the Glasgow considered under the aegis of Modernism; and the young may be seen as one of the Green’s perspective on the younger Citizens’ Theatre, was adapted by Andrea Powell’s, inappropriately, less so. But first instances of the idea of the “Young characters is prescient, in a way, as it Hart. Nothing makes a natural enough despite Green’s relative celebrity in the Fogey” in British culture. It also unsettles anticipates the greater ‘seriousness’ transition to the stage, since the novel US, Nothing is customarily considered a any conventional idea of the older couple brought into British literature by the Angry itself is almost entirely in dialogue. Green slight work, and Green’s last two novels, as blocking the younger one as it seeks its Young Men of the 1950s. by this time had committed to dialogue as according to Updike (writing very recently future. The role the past relationship of Nothing was snappily staged, with a rather his main medium of creative expression, about Green, in the unexpected context of John and Jane plays in the awareness of ascetic set that doubled as restaurant and and, in his radio talk “Communication Edward Said and “late style’, in the 7 Philip and Mary as they are courting is an various domestic spaces, and which kept Without Speech”, had advocated the August 2006, issue of The New Yorker), enigmatic one. Is the younger couple the attention of the audience seated in nuances and inferences latent in dialogue were partially “clouded by an air of seeking simply to repair the mistakes of as providing the richest sense of lived corruption and defeat” and were the the older one, to make up for the lost time rows above the stage in a small but

15 16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 comfortable theater. Derwent Watson is reminiscence of Greek drama) with The From the APLIST broadly comic as Richard but the two male Rest I’ll Whistle, the idea of monitoring Recent Discussions on the Society’s Email Discussion Group leads, Simon Dutton as John and Pete parents inhibiting younger people’s Ashmore as Philip, both showed romance with The Garden God. Powell’s themselves capable of projecting an plays, I believe, have, as their special From Vincent Domeraski you …” Ill-conceived Idealism, wrapped underlying seriousness and melancholy. theme, a belief in the need for people to We all know that Powell began a novel in Ignorance and served on a bed of Dutton, in particular, incarnated a variety work things out “for themselves”, as the that would end twenty-some years into his Apathy. of moods while still keeping his portrayal “girls” do in Delavacquerie’s anecdote in future. My point is that satisfactorily tying However, just as with God, there are of the role consistent – crucial because, in Hearing Secret Harmonies. There is a up loose ends, given the huge cast of certain strata of society that are equally this play, it is what is behind the talk rather sense both of resolution and freedom at the characters, their stories and the interest, if uncomfortable with the supernatural or than the talk itself that defines the end of both plays – they are comedies, but not always affection, that we had invested occult. Mainly because I think they fear in them, within a credible plot had to be characters. Sophie Ward was pleasantly without traditional ‘comic endings’ of by acknowledging either entity it attractive as Jane, while Candida Benson repair and recuperation. The daunting. While I certainly enjoyed it, I somehow diminishes their (rather tenuous) find the last volume [Hearing Secret displayed an aura of winsome dramatization of Nothing also displayed position at the top of the supposed vulnerability as Mary. Hart, as Liz, and just these qualities, and did so in Harmonies] to be my least favourite. intellectual pecking order. Tristram Wymark, as a waiter whose provocative, entertaining, and winning Scorp is the least believable character for presence airs out the potentially fashion. As far apart as Powell and Green me. Though, as I said, a matter primarily I agree with Shakespeare, there are far, far claustrophobic atmosphere of the three had grown personally in the 1950s and of taste, I think those positions can be greater things in heaven and earth ... For couples, were both entertaining. 1960s, and as divergent as their styles had defended in terms of composition and all his non-croyant-ness, I think Powell did become, their work still exhibited shared character development. I don’t think that understand the power and presence of evil The play ends, as does the book, with the attributes and looked at human experience anything special happened in the 1960s and menace, manipulation and avarice. word “nothing”. In the context of John in analogous ways. and 1970s. In fact it was a dull time. And the series is stronger for it. and Jane’s personal happiness, this seems Boomers don’t know that. comic and deflationary, not nihilistic and All five of us enjoyed the play and shared –––––– –––––– vacant, but it does add a note that makes a pre-theater meal at Bistro 60 From Nick Hay the play, for all its Noel Coward-esque (representative main courses: trout From Doug Russell I have been following this discussion with overtones, more bitter than the amandine and cheese ravioli; I lack the I saw nothing wrong with the last three some interest as I am not one of those who conventional comedy. The last dramatic memory for wine consumed that Powell volumes of Dance and I find Scorp very finds the last novels represent a falling-off. gesture was the flinging of a dead bird showed in his Journals), which was free of plausible whether today or back in the I would not say they are favourites but onto the stage, a clear reference to the the logistical and gastronomic problems 1970s. I have known/do know people like they certainly represent a vital part of the throwing of the dead pigeon at the end of that had plagued previous meetings. Now Scorp, Erdleigh and Trelawney. But then, cycle. I find all of the dramatis personae Green’s earlier novel, Party Going – this if only the production of The Garden God Can I just throw in a, probably ignorant, literalises the comment of the Cambridge staged at the College of Arms last plausible in the series. I also find Eddy and Patsy from Ab Fab realistic. suggestion. If we accept Nick Jenkins as a critic Rod Mengham, as quoted by Jeremy December could come over to New York. credible character – a character apart from Treglown in Romancing, that Nothing Sadly though, for many people, it [the Powell – then surely his growing distance appropriates themes from Green’s earlier 1960s and 1970s] is looked upon as a time from and, indeed perhaps reduced Contributions to the Newsletter work. when they, as people not individuals, were sharpness of perception of, contemporary are always welcome and should “defined”. And they were, just not in the events are a necessary part of the character Despite the success of the film adaptations be sent to: of Graham Greene’s work, drama was not way they think they were. And used. It is and the fiction. No-one seems to question a strength of the Brideshead generation Newsletter Editor, Stephen Holden, the difference between reality and his youthful innocence and naivety in A (which, paradoxically, is known by this Anthony Powell Society perceived reality. In the case of the protest Question of Upbringing and A Buyer’s phrase only because of the television 76 Ennismore Avenue years, the perception matters more than the Market. Yet there seems to be a problem dramatization of Evelyn Waugh’s novel). Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK reality. The Ten Years After song “I’d love with his detachment in Hearing Secret to change the world” sort of sums it up for Nothing, in both novel and play form, is Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109 Harmonies. It is Nick who sees and finds me: I’d love to change the world, but I similar to Powell’s plays. It shares the Email: [email protected] correspondences from his own past; who potential incest theme (and its inevitable don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to views the events of the present through his

17 18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 personal past. Surely the whole, no sorry a Widmerpool of Hearing Secret Harmonies I might add that anybody who thinks that From David Hallett part, of the point about Widmerpool and (and maybe also Temporary Kings) as the lust for control, on the one hand, and I’m not sure (even after all this time) how Murtlock, is that Widmerpool has not in credible, although I’m sure there were being a sucker, on the other, do not mix I feel about Murtlock, though I have no this sense “grown-up”. He is incapable of enough people around in late-1960s/early- well together, should read this week’s New trouble accepting Widmerpool falling detachment. He is still dedicated to the 1970s who did/would have acted as Yorker article on Nigerian e-mail fraud. under his influence. As Adam suggested, pursuit of power without the faculties for Widmerpool did. In this instance I feel the The people who are scammed are Powell makes fairly clear in Hearing success (whether he ever had these is a “fault” (if such it be) lies with the reader generally people who are certain of their Secret Harmonies that Widmerpool at first different matter). The strength of and not the author. After all as Trapnel abilities to scam others. thinks the cult will be a means to more detachment is that it enables one to remain observes (in paraphrase): a novel is the –––––– power but, in Murtlock, meets one with a comparatively unmoved, to gain complete truth, the author tells us From Julian Allason stronger will. perspective. But the cost is that one everything there is to know. Keith was sure “there were enough people I’m not sure what this says about me (nor becomes an outsider. It is bleak, –––––– around in late-1960s/early-1970s who did/ how many listers will stop speaking to me somewhat wintry, the season we have From Adam would have acted as Widmerpool did.” reached. It is more intellectual (“of the when I say it!) but I don’t find Gwinnett an I think the real point about Widmerpool is unbelievable character at all. His will” I think the original post suggested), that he thinks that he is in control but Asa Briggs for one. As vice-chancellor of Sussex University in 1968 he winked at obsessive personality is pretty much my less emotional; it is part of Nick’s journey. never is. Also, as is mentioned rather such high jinks as faculty absent own (though we obsess over different frequently in the last novels (and probably I am quite prepared for this speculation to demonstrating in Grosvenor Square and a specific things!). before, I don’t remember), magic is be shot down but offer it as a case for the student “occupation” of the library, ultimately an attempt to gain control over Re Pamela’s demise, I’m exploring her defence however weak. thereby rendering work impossible for the all of life by harnessing some higher character through Ariosto and am thinking –––––– majority of students, a number of whose power. This is a consistent aspect of at the moment that her death might seem university careers were wrecked in From Keith Marshall Widmerpool throughout his career. He forced to a naturalistically-inclined In response we’ve had many conversations consequence. I wonder if Powell might grovels in front of rugby and cricket audience (ah, the heresy of naturalism!), here and elsewhere about the validity of players in school, in front of the monarchy, not have had Briggs in mind, although the but may be entirely in harmony with her Powell’s perception of the 1960s and latter was far from alone in such in front of the military, in front of Uncle antecedents in medieval and early 1970s. I am one of those who find the connivance. Joe Stalin and the communist party, and Renaissance romance poetry. final trilogy the weakest of the four, and ultimately, in front of Scorpio Murtlock, –––––– Hearing Secret Harmonies the weakest I also liked Keith’s recollection of all with the aim of gaining power and From John O’Brien book overall. This is largely because Trapnel’s take on the issue: of course it all influence for himself. Powell isn’t “Great one for the punishments, Lord Powell does not paint the 1960s and 1970s happened this way and is utterly plausible inconsistent, he just doubts that the free as I experienced them (as a teenager and a Widmerpool,” someone remarks about because Powell said so. and happy hippies were all that free and Ken’s enthusiasm for Murtlock’s enforced student). But why should Powell’s view –––––– happy. cross country runs. That part at least has coincide with mine? At the time when the ring of truth given Widmerpool’s From James Hearing Secret Harmonies was set I was I might mention that while some people I think there may be a trans-Atlantic aspect personality. around 19-20, whereas Powell was more who took prominent roles in flaky hippy to reactions to Gwinnett. Jenkins says that like 65. So Powell and I are bound to have movements lost their brains and ended up –––––– the first thing you noticed about Russell very different views on and perceptions of on the streets, a good many made millions From Adam was his shoes. Speaking as an American that time, even if our experiences were the and are now extremely respectable people. To express one more point, probably child of the sixties, even in that era I same (which they weren’t). Just because Recently an artist and professor at the badly, if Widmerpool had actually seen would have noted the pencil moustache Hearing Secret Harmonies is weak for me, Ontario School of Art died, to great “Uncle Joe” gain domination over Western and the blue eyeglasses first. doesn’t mean it is weak for everyone or acclaim. He had been well known in the Europe, he would almost certainly have any less valid. And Jenkins’s (and 1960s and 1970s for the wild orgies held been purged – possibly by being tortured But the Elizabethan Pamela is a very interesting question. Did she show any Powell’s) detachment is a consistent theme with his students at his house (rather like and executed. Even without the signs of it before meeting Gwinnett? Or throughout the 12 volumes, just as is Lord Widmerpool). Widmerpool may abdication, he would only have been, at was it meeting him and encountering his Widmerpool’s power craze. The former have lost out in the flaky hippy cult, but best, a minor hanger-on of the King. Most preoccupations that showed her a coherent has, as Nick Hay observes, developed; the his nose had correctly smelled the new of his causes were to some degree self- way to see herself? latter hasn’t. Personally I don’t find the source of advancement. destructive. 19 20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #24

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Degrees Centenary Newsletter Audio Tapes of Dance Basho, DT Suzuki, Dante, Vonnegut, The bumper 120-page Copies of the following audio From Simon Barnes Heller, Dylan. None of these was on the celebratory Powell Centenary tapes of Simon Callow I was shocked by Mike Jay’s review of English Language and Literature syllabus: Newsletter (issue 21; reading (abridged) volumes Some Poets, Artists and ‘A Reference for but I was more interested in literature than December 2005). of Dance: Mellors’ in the Spring Newsletter. He in marks. I wrote, all the time, but seldom UK Price: £6 • A Question of Upbringing writes: “One wonders how Powell only essays. I was more interested in trying to Overseas Price: £7 • The Kindly Ones won a Third at Oxford when he was so make, rather than analyse literature. interested in history ...” Has the Oxford Conference • The Valley of Bones achievement-orientated society What Sillery says of the first year is true of Proceedings • The Soldier’s Art overwhelmed even the Anthony Powell the entire undergraduate experience: it is Collected papers from the Per tape. UK price: £3 Society Newsletter? Are we all slaves to “a great period of discovery – and self- 2003 conference at Balliol Overseas price: £4 Widmerpudlian values? discovery too. What do you say, College, Oxford. UK Price: Wallace Collection Poster Vaalkiipaa?” An undergraduate can, in the £8 Overseas Price: £9 In Brideshead Revisited, cousin Jasper The Wallace Collection’s space of a two or three weeks, discover a tells Charles Rider: “You want either a Eton Conference Proceedings 48.5 x 67.5 cm (half life-size) poster of new poet, a new world view, a new first or a fourth. There is no value in Papers from the 2001 conference; limited Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time. morality, a new way of writing, a lifelong anything in between. Time spent on a edition of 250 numbered copies signed by Mailed in a poster tube. Picture, page 8. friend and a life-changing lover. While good second is time thrown away.” I took the Society’s Patron. UK Price: £9 UK Price: £6 Overseas Price: £7.50 Widmerpool, had he gone to university, a third myself, a fourth being, alas, Overseas Price: £10 would have strained and sweated for a Fitzrovia: London’s Bohemia unobtainable. And I was, and remain, good second, some us take thirds. Written by Michael Bakewell and interested in literature, to the extent of Writing about Anthony Powell The talks given at the 2004 AGM by published in the National Portrait Gallery having written fifteen books, anyway. The only degree worth getting is a first or George Lilley, Michael Barber and Nick “Character Sketches” series this small a third. Admittedly, I have never heard In fact, in the years I was at Bristol Birns, introduced by Christine Berberich. volume contains snapshot biographies of this view echoed by someone with a first. University, literature filled most waking UK Price: £4 Overseas Price: £5 Fitzrovian characters including Powell and and many sleeping hours. Among the PS. The parrot called Widmerpool should many of his friends. UK price: £4.50 The Master and The Congressman writers I spent time with were Flaubert, of course be taught to say “Oui, Overseas price: £7 A 40 page monograph by John Monagan Borges, Hesse, Dostoyevsky, Homer, Widmerpool.” describing his meetings with AP. Society Postcard UK Price: £4 Overseas Price: £5 B&W postcard of Powell with his cat Trelawney. Picture, page 21. Pack of 5. BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance A friend bought me the first three of this sequence UK Price: £2 Overseas Price: £3 Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 [Dance] for my birthday one year. I was sceptical at between 1979-82. 26 one-hour episodes. Wallace Collection Postcard first, but was soon won over by some of the most For copyright reasons, available to The Wallace Collection’s luxurious magical prose in the English language. Powell members only. postcard of Poussin’s A Dance to the made me care about these old Etonians and titled Single CD of 26 MP3 files. Price: £3 + Music of Time. Picture, page 8. ladies, this crew of bohemians, charlatans, whingers, Donation: £8 minimum (Total £11) Pack of 5. UK Price: £2 Overseas malcontents and survivors. He created some of the 26 Audio CDs. Price: £26 + Donation: Price: £3 most complex villains in all literature, and transports £44 minimum (Total £70) the reader to a fully realized world – a world I Newsletter Back Numbers (CD prices apply to both UK & overseas) revisit whenever I can. Back numbers of Newsletter issues 6, 8 to Society Bookmarks 20, 22 and 23 are still available. Per copy. [Ian Rankin in The Good Book Guide, March 2000] Pack of 10. UK price: £1 Overseas price: £2 UK Price: £1 Overseas Price: £1.50

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