The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter

Issue 43, Summer 2011 ISSN 1743-0976

!!! NOW BOOKING !!! 6th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September 2011 Now with addedN avualct ion& Military Club, 4 St James’s Square, London SW1 Invited Speakers: Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, Ferdinand Mount, Simon Vance

See accompanying leaflet, pages 18 & 19 for details

Contribute to the auction, p18 Time to book for the … you don’t Conference ... want to miss it!

Contents From the Secretary’s Desk … 2 Powell in Clubland … 3-7 Alice Delysia … 8-10 Reviews: Powell Parodied … 11-16 Society Notices … 17, 18, 20 Dates for Your Diary … 19 The Black Art of Pricing … 21-22 From the APLIST … 23-27 Cuttings … 28-30 Letters to the Editor … 32-33 Society Merchandise … 34-35 Society Membership … 36

Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 From the Secretary’s Desk The Anthony Powell Society Registered Charity No. 1096873 At long last I get the feeling the conference really is upon us. After The Anthony Powell Society is a charitable months of planning and bursts of activity literary society devoted to the life and works this is where the real work begins to of the English author Anthony Dymoke make it all hang together on the day. Powell, 1905-2000.

This is a time of hard work, cool heads Officers & Executive Committee and, even after all these years, lots of Patron: John MA Powell butterflies in the stomach. Will we get President: Simon Russell Beale, CBE enough bookings? Will we cover our costs? Will anyone let us down at the Hon. Vice-Presidents: Julian Allason last minute? Most importantly, will it be Patric Dickinson, LVO the success for the delegates (you!) the previous conferences have been? *Chairman: Dr Christine Berberich *Hon. Secretary: Dr Keith C Marshall All the Trustees are well aware the *Hon. Treasurer: Dr Derek WJ Miles conference is more expensive than we *Committee Members: would like. Everyone likes cheap. But Dr Nicholas Birns (USA) we have to exist in a commercial world Stephen Holden Jeffrey Manley (USA) without sponsorship or, today, many Paul Nutley negotiable discounts. Thanks to the Tony Robinson good auspices of a couple of members Elwin Taylor (Switzerland) we think we’ve got the best deal we can Membership & Merchandise Officers: while providing a quality event at a Graham & Dorothy Davie quality venue. And in the world of AP, Newsletter & Journal Editor: quality is important. Stephen Holden The first bookings have already landed Hon. Archivist: Noreen Marshall on my desk. But we need many more. All correspondence should be sent to: We need YOUR booking! Help us Hon. Secretary, Anthony Powell Society make this Conference another success 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford story. You really don’t want to miss it! Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Phone: +44 (0) 20 8864 4095 You’ll see on page 18 we also need a Fax: +44 (0) 20 8020 1483 volunteer to take over the merchandise Email: [email protected] part of Graham and Dorothy’s role. We are working on the launch of an online * Members of the Executive Committee and the shop – to help drive up revenue and Society’s legal trustees. All trustees are resident in membership – but we need someone new England or Wales unless stated. to take on the merchandise before we can launch! Cover photograph © John S Monagan 1984 and reproduced by kind permission. Graham and Dorothy manfully stepped © The Anthony Powell Society, 2011 and the in a few years ago to ease my workload. individual authors named. All rights reserved. Now we need someone to develop the Published by The Anthony Powell Society. merchandising further. Why not you? Printed and distributed by Lonsdale Print Solutions, Wellingborough, UK. 2 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 Powell in Clubland Julian Allason explores the milieu of the gentlemen’s clubs to which the novelist and certain of his principal characters belonged

Anthony Powell knew his way around Clubland as well as he did Soho, those two quartiers that appear on the legend of no official map. For they a define a social topography rather than corresponding to the bureaucratic precision of borough or postal district. Clubland is invariably described by lazy gossip columnists as synonymous with St James’s. Yet several of the traditional gentlemen’s clubs in which Powell and some of his characters socialised were – still are – to be found well to the northwest and to the east of St White’s Club James’s Street. The Garrick and the the wit-to-bore ratio,” I was warned before Cavalry & Guards are but two illustrious lunching as a guest there. However my outposts, though they could hardly be amusing neighbour proved to be Eric more disparate in character. And full of Ponsonby, tenth Earl of Bessborough, disparate characters they are, the surely the nephew of “that damned fellow eccentricities of whom have inspired Ponsonby” who trod on General Conyers’ generations of gentlemen novelists. gouty foot during Palace reception duty as For practical purposes let us take the a gentleman-at-arms. A characteristic geographical boundaries to be the Mall to Powellian tease, that. the south. The Turf Club – its membership Piccadilly forms the natural northern being comprised of owners not jockeys – frontier, crossed to view the Royal commands the best view of royal Academy’s summer exhibition or perhaps weddings. One member is reputed to have en route to Sotheby’s salerooms to flog lobbed a bread roll into an open carriage at more of the family silver-gilt. Christie’s, the first wedding of the Prince of Wales characterised as gentlemen playing at (an honorary member here as at White’s). being auctioneers, is better placed in King This sort of behaviour would probably Street, epicentre of St James’s. Sotheby’s attract an armed response today, but one are held to be the opposite: auctioneers can imagine Umfraville attempting it after pretending to be gentlemen. Quite a season bowling with the Newmarket unjustly as the firm’s present and second XI. immediate past chairman are members of The eastern boundary we shall take as White’s, clubland’s senior institution in lower Regent Street, enclosing the clubs age – founded 1693 – and exclusivity. that slumber in St James’s Square. The And by exclusivity one does mean literally Beefsteak falls outside it, but then that. The socialist firebrand Aneurin Clubland proper has always been wary of Bevan was famously kicked down the its custom of taking the next vacant seat at steps of White’s by a member of Brooks’s the dining table. “Something to do with who was just enough of a gentleman to 3 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 then fall upon his sword and resign. When the late gossip columnist Nigel Dempster invented the ‘White’s Shit of the Year Contest’ in Private Eye some members enquired how they could vote. The Aga Khan was the first notional – and entirely undeserving – winner, if memory serves: one suspects the unforgiving Dempster might previously have been on the sharp end of a letter from His Highness’s solicitors.

Occupying most of the north-western Brooks’s block at the top of St James’s Street, White’s was considered in Powell’s day to club’s eclectic mix of Foreign Office be the last stop before Gloucestershire for panjandra, gentleman spies and a Champagne cocktail. This was justified maharajahs amusing, whilst reputedly on the grounds that the Ritz Hotel, in a deprecating the former’s practice of parallel position one street west, then lunching alone with secret telegrams lacked for a bar, and was, according to propped up in special holders furnished by Randolph Churchill, full of hairdressers. the steward. But then this was where so In fact White’s, of which he was a many rounds of the Great Game were member, had and has its own resident rehearsed over brandy and soda. barber, Mr West, who for many years For many years the Travellers’ genus loci shared a surname with the club secretary was Monsignor Alfred Gilbey of the gin (no relation): friends of Powell were thus family, the last Roman Catholic priest to inclined to offer suggestions for provide his own patrimony – upon which improvements to the menu – for which he lived as the sole resident member. there was some scope – while having their Never a natural revolutionary the eminent hair cut under the impression that the monsignor had resigned as chaplain to Wests were one and the same. The Cambridge University after suggestions were duly struggling to cope with the passed upwards and duly enthusiasm of female ignored. students for “the pill”. He Powell joined the wore a frock coat, gaiters Travellers’ Club in Pall and a shovel hat. This was Mall, a magnificent stolen and Gilbey was building on a scale that distressed to see it being would have satisfied even worn by a girl in the street. Donners. If its marbled Insult was added to injury walls could speak they by its combination with would surely whisper miniskirt and boots. colonial secrets overheard Powell was well liked at from Palmerston, Disraeli Brooks’s up on the western and Churchill. Powell side of St James’s, and by appears to have found the Randolph Churchill uncommon consent second 4 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 only to White’s in esteem. He found the erudite company agreeable. Altogether racier was the St James’s Club, later to merge with Brooks’s. Before and during the Second World War there had been the club bore to circumnavigate at the St James’s, Denis Capel-Dunn known as “Young Bloody”. One member, former ambassador John Colvin, recalled him as “a very fat, extremely boring, overwhelmingly ambitious arriviste. His conversations were hideously detailed and humourless”. Powell had the dubious pleasure of working for him for nine Boodle’s weeks in 1943 when Col Capel-Dunn was secretary to the Joint Intelligence Conservative politicians at the Carlton Committee, and had his request to remain which housed ‘Cads’ Corner’; actors and in post another fortnight so that his rank the showier lawyers (thus more QCs than would become substantive refused. solicitors) at the Garrick; progressive “Because my nerves wouldn’t stand it,” his clergy at the National Liberal Club; boss averred. Capel-Dunn didn’t live to bishops and society dons of the Sillery enjoy, or otherwise, his immortalisation as stripe at the Athenaeum. The writer and the inspiration for Widmerpool. It was the adventurer Quentin Crewe recalled historian Desmond Seward, still an active encountering two bishops descending the member of Brooks’s, who, being friendly steps of the Athenaeum in icy weather, one with Powell and knowing of Capel-Dunn’s saying to the other, “Have a care, Bath & reputation, deduced the latter’s Wells, have a care!” contribution to the most memorable It is tempting to guess at the clubs that character in A Dance to the Music of Time. Powell’s characters might have been While the number of scenes in the elected to – or blackballed from. But that sequence of novels that are set in clubland would, I think, be to put the brougham was intentionally limited it could be before the horse. What the novelist found argued that the milieu is influentially in the clubs he visited as a guest were present throughout, almost as an offstage spectra of like-mindedness, but also chorus for which Gilbert & Sullivan had individuals – the club characters – whose provided a parodic precedent. The clubs proclivities ran against the grain of the were where the landed classes, otherwise membership. Thirty years ago it was scattered across the country on their almost impossible to enter the bar of estates, gathered to meet. And met with Boodle’s without being offered a drink by their urban counterparts, the bankers, a Jimmy Brent character whose true role lawyers, literateurs. There are lacunae was to recruit the rich and moderately well however. Few musicians appear to be -off into membership of the Lloyd’s of clubable, for example. One would have London insurance market. Almost all been more likely to encounter a Constant subsequently lost their shirts, and some Lambert in Soho than St James’s. Others their trousers too, many being obliged to huddled together by profession and rank: resign from both Lloyd’s and Boodle’s. 5 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 beyond the pale, although that was not originally the case. But beyond the pale of what? Society as dramatised by Powell survives at its top end on country estates where house parties still gather to shoot, flirt and do pretty much what they have always done. The smarter regiments, despite amalgamation, preserve a concept of honour still found in certain corners of the City – think private banking, wealth management and personal client The Library of the Travellers’ Club, Powell was a member of the Library Committee from 1946 to stockbroking – and in some law firms. 1951, the latter years as its Chairman. Clubland is where such officers and gentlemen, even temporary officers, still Today the “no business” rule is strictly congregate. enforced at Boodle’s and the grander I fear I have made it sound more snobbish clubs. than it is, but clubland has been a Likewise the dress code. When Sir meritocracy since the days of Beau Peregrine Worsthorne, former editor of the Brummel, the grandson of a shopkeeper. Sunday Telegraph and dandy, recently Admission is on the whole by amusement arrived to lunch with a member of value rather than birth, and certainly not Boodle’s the porter was reluctant to admit riches. That is not to say that one does not him. “Send him up,” instructed the find generations of the same families member. “But he is wearing red trousers, recurring in the rolls. Clubs also maintain M’Lord”. Navy worsted, grey flannel, reciprocal arrangements with counterparts narrow pinstripes, cause less of a in Rome, Paris, commotion. Morning dress if attending a New York, San memorial service, but never uniform in a Francisco, and – civilian club. “Too many medals looks heaven help us – like showing off,” a committee member Bogota. So the once explained to me. Cream linen suits atmosphere is are sometimes sighted in hot weather nothing if not conveying a hint of Denholm Elliot cosmopolitan, raffishness. The few clubs like the Garrick though with shared that admit ladies have been wise enough interests peculiar not to rule on female attire. to each. Game shooting, for Boodle’s and several other clubs maintain example. bedrooms that may be booked by country members and their wives, mistresses being Occasionally these frowned upon lest they prove to be the arrangements go spouses of other members. An original entertainingly function is the provision of chambers for wrong, as when the playing of bridge and billiards, though New York’s not poker, the prospect of one member Century bankrupting another now being considered Association was Beau Brummell 6 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 recently overcome by political correctness. from the leftish Reform – sumptuous but A well-whipped majority voted to sever oh, so gloomy – to the Garrick. I fear relations with the liberal London Garrick Leonard Short would not have risen above on the obscure grounds that lady members the pleasant anonymity of the Oxford & there need to be accompanied by a male Cambridge: “Not clubbable enough, member when joining the club table, y’see”. As a guest there I once observed although not to other tables. “Ah! the late legal fixer, Lord Goodman Deliverance from the Manhattan feminists enjoying solitude and his legendary two – actually quite a relief, old boy,” as one dinners. Garrick member put it to me, straightening As for Odo Stevens we can be reasonably that unforgettable salmon and cucumber certain he would have found his niche at tie. the Special Forces Club at their covert Membership is about good conversation, a location near Harrods, where the rules quiet hour with the Sporting Life, and the require “Side arms to be worn discreetly. sort of dinner restaurants no longer serve Automatic weapons to be checked with the but which Powell cherished: potted porter.” I noticed someone very much as shrimps, kedgeree, gulls’ eggs, grouse, one pictures Odo there on my last visit, Welsh rarebit, roly-poly pudding, not also memorable from the sight of an old necessarily served in that order. spy removing his wooden leg to show a Reasonably priced too, since clubs like youthful dining companion its secret White’s own their own freeholds and compartment. Powell would surely have merely aim to break even. shaken his head at a real life scene too rich to be worked into the tapestry of his That said let us consider where Powell, his Dance. Bob Duport, I can confidently say, friends, and certain of his creations might would have remained a member of the have felt at home from home. Evelyn RAC Club to the day he died. As my ever- Waugh was thrilled to be elected to egalitarian wife remarked, “Nice White’s: it still has more dukes in its roll swimming pool. Pity about the members”. than dentists. In fact the dental count hovers around zero. Not too many estate An expanded paper on this subject will be agents either, though a few of the grander given at the Society’s Conference. ■ Tory politicians are members. David Cameron quietly resigned before the last General Election: his father-in-law remains a popular figure. Perhaps Roddy Cutts would have joined after an apprenticeship served at the Carlton Club? Donners would certainly have fitted in. Nick Jenkins would, one assumes, have followed Powell to the Travellers and perhaps joined Brooks’s, enjoying its literary comforts in preparation for looking in upon whichever Soho club Umfraville was presently fronting. Mark Members one can see working his way sideways Travellers’ Club Coffee Room 7 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

(My Great Grandmother Knew) Alice Delysia by David Butler

Or, probably not. Two years ago, I visited Permanent waves a retired relative of my father’s generation Splash me into the caves; to talk about matters of family history. I Everyone loves me as much as Delysia... asked him if he could confirm stories I had Although no more than a mention, the heard that my great-grandmother, Jane reference to Alice Delysia is worthy of Butler, had worked in some backstage note as it is another good example of how capacity at the London Pavilion theatre in careful Anthony Powell was about Piccadilly Circus around the time of the deploying even the most passing cultural Great War. He did recognise the story. He references in an accurate context. told me it was said in the family that Jane Chronologically, the reference is had at one time worked there as the dresser appropriate as Mrs Andriadis’ party took for Alice Delysia, the great French star of place in 1928 or 1929 at which time Alice London revue and musical comedy during was certainly amongst the topmost artistes the First World War and interwar period. of the London scene. In 1932 CB Cochran At that time, he said, it was the practice for wrote: menial staff such as cleaners to be pressed into service as dressers for new or lesser- There is no more popular artist in the known artistes with no personal dresser of English theatre than Delysia, and that their own. Under such circumstances did this is no lightly-made judgment was Jane come to the assistance of the borne out once more by the unknown Delysia, but so pleased was Alice with Jane that she always insisted on Alice Delysia Jane’s help in subsequent stints at the Pavilion, long after she had established herself as a star of the London stage. I heard the story with interest, although I had never come across the name Alice Delysia before. But, as is often the way with these things, a short time later – having embarked upon my second re- reading of Dance – I came across a mention of la Delysia in A Buyer’s Market within the fictional lyric of “Tess of Le Touquet”, as sung by Max Pilgrim at Mrs Andriadis’ party to the disgust of Mr Deacon: I’m Tess of Le Touquet, My morals are flukey, Tossed on the foam, I couldn’t be busier;

8 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 demonstration which greeted her dressing room, one was always in appearance [in The Cat and the danger of stepping on crawling Fiddle in 1932] on the first night at babies. She adopted, temporarily, the Palace.1 numerous children. Two she still maintains and educates.3 Moreover, the parallels noted by Dance scholars between Max Pilgrim and the real With due allowance made for the theatrical life theatrical star Douglas Byng are fraternity’s penchant for mutual significant as Byng was a longtime friend admiration, it does seem that Alice was a of Alice; they co-starred together for the more than usually good egg. Cochran also first time in 1925 in Noel Coward’s revue writes rather charmingly of her On With the Dance at the London Pavilion, extravagance, noting that: in which Alice sang Coward’s first musical She was most extravagant, although hit “Poor Little Rich Girl” in duet with she would never admit it ... Every Hermione Baddeley; and they would both Saturday afternoon there was a queue go on to be active in ENSA, entertaining outside her dressing room waiting for the troops during the Second World War. instalments on rugs, furs, shawls, The lyric of “Tess of Le Touquet” suggests pictures, and all sorts of useful and that Alice Delysia’s popularity with the useless articles which she had bought public was a matter of common consent on the instalment plan.4 and this also rings true: contemporary As for her popularity as a performer, it is memoirs as well as obituary notices refer possible to get an idea of her cheeky, repeatedly to the affection in which the endearing style from a voice recording of British public held her, an affection which Alice singing “You’d Be Surprised”, from seems to have sprung from the her 1920 appearance in Afgar, which can combination of her spirit-lifting wartime be found on the YouTube website. performances, an embodiment of the Entente Cordiale, tireless charity work, Alice Delysia was born Alice Henriette and an endearing public personality, which Lapize in March 1889 in Paris. She made The Times described as combining an her first stage appearance as a chorus girl “inimitable sense of humour, a striking at the Moulin Rouge in 1903 before going presence, a touch of diablerie and to work in New York in 1905 as one of the charming singing voice”.2 In his first Gibson girls in The Catch of the Season. volume of memoirs published in 1925, CB After a period away from the stage, she Cochran wrote at some length in praise of was talent spotted by the theatrical Delysia’s generosity in the face of wartime impresario CB Cochran working in a small hardships: French theatre in 1913, and brought to London where she scored a great success I doubt if any artist threw herself into in Cochran’s first West End revue, Odds the good work more than did Delysia. and Ends, at the Ambassadors Theatre. There was scarcely a war charity Her rendition of the recruitment song “Oh, matinee at which she did not appear. We Don’t Want to Lose You” in the show Never a day passed, not even a was said to be much copied but never Sunday, when she did not entertain paralleled. Odds and Ends ran for over the wounded soldiers. Her home was 500 performances. (Sadly Alice’s an asylum for French refugees, and connection to Dance does not extend to on matinee days, going to her 9 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 another big wartime success, The Maid of second time, to a Free French naval the Mountains at Daly’s, at a performance commander named Rene Kolb-Bernard, of which Ted Jeavons got more than he who became a diplomat in post-war France bargained for from a flirtation with and with whom Alice therefore spent much Mildred Blaides. Daly’s was the preserve of her later life in diplomatic posts of fellow-star Miss Jose Collins.) Further overseas. She died in Brighton in 1979 at revue successes followed and in 1918, the age of 89. Cochran took over the London Pavilion, By that time, my great-grandmother Jane converting it from music hall to theatre in was long gone, for she had died in 1953 at the process, because he needed to find a the ripe age of 84. So will I ever establish venue large enough to accommodate the truth about Jane’s connection with burgeoning audiences and the rising pay Alice Delysia? Probably not. These tales demands of stars like Alice. As You Were, often contain a grain of truth, but it has to his first revue at the Pavilion, was also a be admitted that Alice was already a big triumph, running for over a year. star when she first appeared at the London Notable performances after the first war Pavilion in 1918 and would not by that included Afgar, a musical comedy in stage have required a stand-in dresser to be which Delysia played to acclaim in both found for her. Tantalisingly, in 1963 the London and New York, Mayfair and publisher William Heinemann Montmartre in 1922 which was blighted commissioned a writer, Alan Dent, to work by Alice’s withdrawal through illness, and with Alice on her memoirs and they Noel Coward’s On with the Dance in solicited help from the public in providing 1925. She continued in revue through the reminiscences or anecdotes that might later 1920s and was also cast in straight contribute to the work. Sadly though, the plays, the first of which – Her Past, a farce memoir never saw the light of day and a by Frederick Jackson – she took on in recent enquiry to the Heinemann archivist 1929. In 1928 she married, in London, revealed that the manuscript had been Georges Denis, a newspaperman, and in returned to Mr Dent unused. Several 1933 came what the Oxford Dictionary of weeks ago, however, I purchased online a National Biography describes as “her last first edition copy of CB Cochran’s 1925 major theatrical success” with Mother of memoir The Secrets of a Showman which I Pearl, a musical comedy adapted for the knew contained a print portrait of Alice, as stage by AP Herbert. She continued, well as references both to her and many though, to be active on the London stage other stars of the period. When I turned to until the outbreak of war. She divorced in the page containing her picture, a number 1938. Upon the outbreak of the Second of press cuttings from 1979 fluttered to the World War, Alice threw herself once again floor, all obituary notices recalling Alice’s into troop entertainment, joining ENSA life. I wonder what Mrs Erdleigh would and embarking on extensive tours through have made of it. ■

Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. 1 According to The Times “her [wartime] CB Cochran, I Had Almost Forgotten, Hutchinson, 1932 tour in the Middle East lasted 2 years and 2 The Times, 19 February 1963 her salary was £10 a week” but she 3 CB Cochran, The Secrets of a Showman, declined opportunities to return to the Heinemann, 1925 comparative comforts of the London 4 Ibid. 5 stage.5 In 1944 she got married for a The Times, 16 November 1979 10 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Powell Parodied : Book Reviews Craig Brown, The Marsh-Marlowe Letters (Prion Books, London, 2001) Craig Brown, The Lost Diaries (Fourth Estate, London, 2010) John Crace, Brideshead Abbreviated: The Digested Read of the Twentieth Century (Random House, London, 2010) Reviewed by Jeffrey Manley

Craig Brown is probably England’s most he had amassed his own collection. popular contemporary parodist. He has Unlike much of his other work, these been publishing parodies since the 1980s “letters” apparently did not appear in in several newspapers and literary periodicals before being published in book journals, but most notably in Private Eye, form. Brown describes them as a sort of where he wrote a “Diary” column novel. This description would be based purporting to be snippets from the diaries, primarily on the narrative told in the letters memoirs, letters, etc., of various writers of the marital difficulties of the two and celebrities, including Anthony Powell, correspondents, which actually become who became one of his favourite targets. intertwined at one point. He has published over a dozen collections Powell is mentioned frequently by both under various names. One of his earliest Marsh and Marlowe. The correspondence was The Marsh-Marlowe Letters, first dates from the 1980s, after Dance had published in 1984. In an introduction to been completed, and mentions of Powell the 2001 Prion Humour Classics edition, usually begin with a reference to his he explains that he began it as something writing followed by what becomes a catch of a lark after being given a set of The phrase: “(still read today, I wonder?)”. Lyttleton/Hart-Davis Letters by Hugh One comic context in which Powell Massingberd. These contained a features is Gerald Marsh’s interest in correspondence between George Lyttleton, notable middle lines of novels, as opposed a retired Eton classics master, and Rupert to the usual fascination with famous first Hart-Davis, a publisher who had been his and last lines. Gerald (the retired school pupil. The collection appeared in several master) proposes a sentence of Powell’s volumes and spanned the years 1955-1962. taken from the exact centre of the middle Brown found the letters “distinctive and novel in the Dance series, here identified parodiable” and couldn’t stop writing until by Gerald as A Spot of Varnish: Hogwash entered the room, and, having entered, decided, upon entry, having viewed all there was, and some of what was not, to be seen, to remove himself, once more, from the room by the same route through which he had, so recently, entered. Harvey Marlowe (the publisher and former pupil) responds that, although that is Satirist and critic Craig Brown splendid as a middle sentence, he prefers 11 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 (still read today, I wonder?) who bags the blessed quote – O, How the Wheel Becomes It! – for his new yarn. Powell’s book by that name (surely his worst title) was published in June 1983 although Harvey’s letter is dated in April of that year. Indeed, Harvey had quoted the same line in another context in an earlier letter, not mentioning Powell [36]. Brown has something of a field day with fictitious book titles in much the same way Powell had done in his own books. Harvey received admiration for his editing of Roy Hattersley’s Love Poems and other books in Powell’s cycle such as The Gerald quotes a reference to aging taken Problem with Boaters or The Upright Art from the twelfth volume of Malcolm which he finds to be “drier”. He also Muggeridge’s autobiography, My Infernal identifies his favourite middle sentence to Egotism. Perhaps the best of these is the be that from Norman Mailer’s The working title given by Harvey to a memoir Executioner’s Song: by Mother Teresa, Nun Too Good, or that proposed by Gerald for his life’s work ‘Yes, I guess I did’ which, in context, Pass the Fruitcake, Iris: A Collection of carries the same kind of punch as the Catchphrases and Gaffes from the Golden celebrated fifth paragraph in chapter Age of Music Hall Assembled by Gerald two of Northanger Abbey. [19-22] Marsh, Esq. At another point Harvey offers a rambling This short book is well worth reading on a circumlocution, as if written by Powell, wet afternoon or moderately long train trailing over half a page and described as journey. It can easily be read at one rather how Powell would have put “the tired old long sitting. Although it was published proverb ‘It never rains but it pours’” [35- during Powell’s lifetime, when he was still 6]. The two of them agree [105] that writing his Journals, there is no reference Powell’s spelling is admirable and to his having read it, although he must responsible for such a dedicated league of have been told about it. If he did read it, readers as was commanded by “A Dance he must surely have enjoyed it. to the Music of Tim” (sic). More recently, Brown has published a Harvey, the publisher, mentions that he collection of his parody diary columns was trying to help one of his authors find a written for Private Eye and other phrase from Shakespeare to use as a book periodicals. These are purportedly written title. Chancing upon a phrase by various authors, politicians, and which, while not first or even second celebrities from the worlds of show class, at least had the quality of business, journalism or other lesser fields having [been thought to have had] No of endeavour. The premise of the title of Previous Owners … we are caught the collection, The Lost Diaries, seems to short by none other than Tony Powell be that they were entries which had been

12 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 left out of the published versions of the appearing. The first volume of Powell’s writers’ diaries, letters, memoirs, etc., but, Journals was issued in 1995 and it would if so, the opportunity is missed for some be interesting to know whether Brown’s further satire when no effort is made to parodies of Powell appeared only on or explain how the “editor” managed to after that date. One suspects that they did, “find” these entries. Brown says that these but Brown may also have taken aim at were written over a period of 21 years Powell’s memoirs. Since the writing in the which would date them from having first Journals often sailed recklessly close to begun to appear in about 1989. They are self-parody, they would have been easy arranged by month and day but the year of targets for Brown. Most of the Powell their publication is omitted. In many cases entries relate to his assessments of a they contain information relating to the writer’s work after he has reread it. month and day under which they are Perhaps the best of these is the entry for 2 collected (e.g. 9/11, Christmas etc.), but it July: is often necessary to know what year they Reread Hamlet by Shakespeare, a appeared to understand fully the context of competent but unreliable author, the humour. For example, there are though now rather dated and always references to the “Prime Minister” in some prone to wordiness. Never to my entries but, without knowing the year in mind managed a novel. Hamlet is a which they were published, the identity of not uninteresting play, but the plot is the particular holder of that office cannot flawed. The Danes are really be known. In another instance, there is an extremely minor royalty, even by entry from the “diary” of VS Naipaul on Scandinavian standards, scarcely 28 March in which he says he has worth a lengthy play … Prince heard of the death of Anthony Powell. Hamlet wouldn’t have lasted long in This was not an easy entry for me to Pratt’s where Danish royalty is taken write. I was the man’s friend for with a fairly hefty pinch of salt. many years. But now that he is dead ‘Hamlet,’ a peculiar name – any I find he has nothing more to say to relation one wonders to the me. Fotherington-Hamlets of Much Hadham? … I would guess Powell died on 28 March 2000, but it Shakespeare stole many of his more seems unlikely that this entry was notable lines from the immortal titles published in that year as it would have in my own ‘Dance to the Music of been somewhat tasteless in that context. Time’ sequence. But I should hate to More likely, it was written and published pass judgement. after 2007, the year in which Naipaul’s memoirs (A Writer’s People) appeared. This manages to press several buttons in These included his dismissive opinion of Powell’s Journal entries – literature, the writings of Powell, among many genealogy, clubland snobbishness, others. assuredness of his own stature in relation to others. A similar swipe is taken at There are several entries from Powell’s Graham Greene: “diaries” as well. These seem to be intended as a send up of Powell’s Journals Pretty thin stuff. Deeply unpleasant which were being published during the fellow … highly conceited: he period Brown’s cod diaries were loathed handing out praise to his 13 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 contemporaries, retaining all his What small success she had didn’t warmest approval for his own works. last. She never married, whereas I have been married twice. She is little In this case, however, Brown’s parody is read except by sodomites. so close to Powell’s own assessment of Greene and his work as to risk merging Brown also particularly enjoys sending up into it. The entry continues, however, in a Powell’s niece Antonia Fraser and her manner that rescues its identity as a send husband Harold Pinter. Their entries are up: among the most numerous as well as the funniest in the book. Fraser is usually in a Later reread various fan letters position of explaining away some example confirming that I am the leading of Pinter’s bad behaviour. On a trip to novelist of my generation. Why is it, Cuba, Pinter complains to Castro that the one wonders, that my fans are so American press has refused to publish his unusually percipient? Or is it the poem “Crap” and cites that as an example other way round, and do the of the American suppression of free unusually percipient tend to be my speech. Antonia joins in, fans? One of life’s deeper questions. Must explore further. I adore free speech, don’t you? … So much better than expensive speech, There are also several Powell one-line especially at a time when things are literary reassessments: Huckleberry Finn so pricy! My new Jean Muir culottes is “very American”; Yeats’ poetry is “very cost me £600 – and that was in the Irish”; Dostoyevsky has “no light touch”. sale. There are also recollections of a dinner party and a Buckingham Palace reception Pinter is usually given a slow build in a that ring very true to descriptions of such poem or speech or even, in the December events in the Journals. entries, a Christmas carol, in which he ends with some inflammatorily profane Powell’s friend VS Naipaul is one of denunciation of US policy. Here is a Brown’s most frequent targets. His entries typical example: (one of which is quoted above) usually begin with a reference to the anniversary The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea of the death of another artist or historic In a beautiful pea-green boat. figure followed by Naipaul’s usually They took some honey, and plenty of money clueless dismissiveness of that that Because they were fucking Yanks person’s accomplishments in contrast to Sucking the shit out of the arse of the poor. Naipaul’s own. Joan of Arc was Other diaries that may be of interest to ruthlessly ambitious. She would do Powell fans are those of James Lees-Milne anything for immortality. It was she (particularly the ones in which he who built that bonfire, climbed up on describes his arrival in heaven as though it and set it to light. A typical he was inspecting a property for the attention-seeker, with nothing to National Trust) and Cecil Beaton (who show for it. finds almost every place and person he visits below his standards). The diaries of Perhaps the best is Jane Austen: Martin Amis, Clive James and Christopher Hitchens (all of whom happen to be admirers of Powell) are also worth a look.

14 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 Another take on parody is in the recent collection of John Crace’s digested classic columns from the Guardian. These are published as Brideshead Abbreviated, although Waugh’s novel is only one among the 100 that are included. Crace set out to digest the 100 “classic reads” of the 20th Century as well as to parody them. In many cases his offerings are more digest John Crace than parody. But even in those where he does not parody the style of the writer in And don’t miss the diaries of the royal question, he offers satirical comments on family and its hangers-on, as well as the that style or the characters and plot of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. George novel in question. He selects ten classics Lyttleton and Rupert Hart-Davis also get for each decade of the century, and they all another mention similar to their satirisation seem to fall into an acceptable canon in The Marsh-Marlowe Letters. Finally, except for the last 15 years where Brown’s versions of Isaiah Berlin’s canonization is perhaps a bit premature. correspondence brilliantly send up his Oddly missing from the list is anything by pious duplicity. Graham Greene, David Lodge, Norman Mailer or Gunter Grass. These “diaries” are enjoyable to read, especially if one is familiar with the works Crace offers a digest of Powell’s A of the target. There are, however, many Question of Upbringing as one of his 10 diaries for “celebrities” who are not classics of the 1950s. He manages to primarily writers but TV, film or political include a decent summary of the book in personalities. Many of these will be three pages (the usual length for most unfamiliar to North American readers entries). But this is one where he doesn’t (such as this reviewer). Who, for example, attempt to parody the novelist’s prose; are Gyles Brandreth (is he related, one wonders, to the Eton-educated Dr. Brandreth?), Max Clifford, Katie Price, Liz Jones, Nicholas Haslam, and Janet Street-Porter? Without knowing more about their personalities or why they are celebrated, the parodies of their writing fall rather flat. At nearly 400 pages, this is not a page-turner in the same sense as The Marsh-Marlowe Letters. On the other hand, browsing is not facilitated by the way the book is organized. One cannot, for example, easily read all the Powell or Naipaul or Fraser-Pinter entries together. An index might have helped, but there is none. Still, the parodies are no less funny for all that and will produce their intended laughter from most readers. James Lees-Milne 15 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 instead he offers wry comments on the artfully applied to later novels in Powell’s work. He pokes fun at Powell’s conceit in Dance cycle): not naming his school (“there is only one I had unwittingly stumbled on to the so I need not be so vulgar as to name it”) enemy’s lair. I quickly found some and university (“there are only two”). He explosives, blew a hole in a wall and also satirizes Powell’s narrator as lacking hid in a dovecote before running 20 any character of his own: miles to the derelict cottage of a it might have been better if I had roadman I had befriended earlier … I learned the value of having an could sense my exploits would emotional exterior world or anything already have stretched the credulity approaching a personality … I had no of a 9-year-old. thoughts of my own on the subject Sometimes he seems to morph into a but continued my impression of a writer for BBC TV comedienne Catherine parasitic tabula rasa … to someone Tate as in his digests of The Catcher in the of my great sensitivities – not to Rye (“I wasn’t that bovvered what I did mention lack of charisma – this was a …”) and A Quartet in Autumn (“What a major life event. fucking liberty,” repeated by one of the In summarizing the France chapter, the elderly women characters). narrator concludes that “I – like you, I As with Brown’s Lost Diaries, Crace’s suspect – had long since tired of such a collection is not something to be read dull episode”. And he offers an ironic cover-to-cover. But it is easier to browse comment on Sillery’s tea parties, “Quite than Brown’s collection because it has a why I was considered interesting enough table of contents that facilitates selective to be invited was never entirely clear”. A reading. I recommend starting with the similar approach is taken to the digests of books you’ve read, then moving to the The Great Gatsby, Brideshead Revisited ones familiar from having read another and Lucky Jim. work by the same writer or through Perhaps the best entries are those where dramatization and then, if you’re still the summarization is itself a parody. In enjoying it, you can proceed with those Henry James’ A Golden Bowl he describes about which you know relatively little. Of the three sentences of breathtakingly collections meaningless construction, a under review, construction given over to a detailed the one most deconstruction of every nuance in rewarding for each regard, a regard to which anyone Powell fans is else in their right mind would not likely to be The have devoted more than a second. Marsh-Marlowe That is a comment on James as if written Letters, which by James himself. Crace takes the mickey is also a good out of John Buchan’s The Thirty Nine place to start if Steps by emphasizing improbable you’ve read coincidences (an approach he might have nothing else by Craig Brown. ■

16 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Society Notices

Retracing Braddock-alias-Thorne Society’s archives. Comfortable walking shoes should be worn. Anoraks optional. by Jeff Manley At the end of the tour the group will The Society is pleased to announce an adjourn to an appropriate venue for lunch. important research expedition into Those interested may wish to join an literary archeology. On the day optional one-hour guided tour provided by following the conference (Monday, 5 Eton College covering the older parts of September 2011 at 1030 am) Jeff Manley the college and the Chapel after lunch will lead an expedition to discover the (1400 and 1515) at a cost of £6.50 (£5.50 trail taken by the schoolboy characters in seniors). If there is sufficient interest, a A Question of Upbringing, including longer more specialized tour may be (hopefully) the sites of the arrest of their arranged. housemaster Lawrence Langton Le Bas and the garage-cum-refreshments-shack. Participation is limited to 14. Please contact Jeff Manley before 1st August to The expedition will note other places of reserve a space: [email protected] or interest mentioned in Powell’s novels 5900 Osceola Road, Bethesda, MD such as the Eton Police Station, Walpole 20816, USA. A donation of £2.00 for the House (where AP lived as a student) and Society will be collected. Name, address/ the “Widmerpool wall” from BDFR. email and number of persons participating There will be a trek of about 2½-3 miles, should be provided in advance. Required mostly along public footpaths. Estimated reading: QU, Chapter 1 and “Follow the duration 2-3 hours. Photographic Eton Wick Road”, Newsletter, No 42, evidence will be collected for the Spring 2011, p10. ■

Annual General Meeting 2011 Motions for discussion at the AGM must also reach the Hon. Secretary by Monday 1 August Notice is hereby given that the 11th 2011. They must be clearly worded, proposed by Annual General Meeting of The at least two members and contain a statement in support of the motion which will be published to Anthony Powell Society will be held on members. Saturday 22 October 2011 at 1400 hrs in the Meeting Room of St James’s The AGM agenda and voting papers will be Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1 included with the Autumn Newsletter in early September. Proxy votes must reach the Hon. Nominations for the three Executive Officers Secretary by Monday 17 October 2011. (Chairman, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer) and up to six Executive Committee Members must The AGM will be followed by a talk reach the Hon. Secretary by Monday 1 August Note: Members of the Executive Committee 2011. Candidates must be proposed by two (three officers and six committee members) are members, indicate their willingness to stand and the Society’s legal trustees. Those elected must provide a short biographical statement. not be barred from being trustees under English Nominations will be accepted by email, post or law and a majority of the trustees must be fax. ordinarily resident in England and Wales.

17 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Society Notices

Conference Bound Newsletter Auction Want a bound copy of the first 10 As an additional attraction at the years of this Newsletter? Conference in September we plan to hold Now you can! a charity auction, with all the proceeds We are planning to print a limited going towards the Society’s plans to have number of case-bound sets of Newsletter a commemorative plaque to AP erected issues 1 to 41. Each set (almost 1200 in London. pages) will consist of four volumes. It is most likely that the auction will be Sets will be available to members at held during the Buffet Reception on the cost by advance subscription only. Friday evening of the conference. The final price will depend on how many sets are ordered but is expected to The Hon. Secretary would like to hear be around £80-£90 per set (plus p&p). from anyone willing to donate items of This would compare favourably with the Powellian interest to be auctioned. ■ cost of unbound back numbers were they all available. Only the number of sets ordered in advance will be printed. If you wish to reserve a set of case- WANTED bound Newsletters please contact the Hon. Secretary enclosing a £10 URGENT deposit, as soon as possible. The appropriate number of sets will be Merchandise Officer ordered for delivery (and final payment) later in 2011. ■ With the impending implementation of the Society’s online shop, Graham & Dorothy need to hand over their merchandise role to another volunteer. Recurring Credit Card Are you that volunteer? Are you Transactions organised, able to use email and the Due to the current banking regulations we internet, able to store the merchandise are no longer able to process automatically and based in the UK? recurring payments or store full credit card The Society needs you NOW! authorisation details. Without a volunteer we will not be able Hence we are no longer permitted to to open the online shop and increase process instructions such as “Please Society revenue. charge the card number you have on file” unless at least the (correct) 3-digit card Please contact the Hon. Secretary as security code (CVC) is provided. ■ soon as possible. ■

18 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Dates for Your Diary

London Quarterly Pub Meets !!! NOW BOOKING !!! Saturday 13 August 2011 Saturday 5 November 2011 6th Biennial Anthony The Audley, Mount Street, London W1 Powell Conference, 2011 1230 to 1530 hrs Good beer, good pub food and informal Anthony Powell’s conversation in a Victorian pub AP Literary London would have known. Why not bring Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September something AP-related to interest us? 2011 Members & non-members welcome. Further details from the Hon. Secretary. Naval & Military Club 4 St James’s Square, London, SW1 We are delighted to have the Annual General Meeting 2011 opportunity to hold the conference in Saturday 22 October 2011 the elegant surroundings of one 1400 hrs of London’s most prestigious Meeting Room, St James’s Church, gentlemen’s clubs. 197 Piccadilly, London W1 The AGM will be followed by a talk. Now with added auction Non-members are welcome at the talk. Invited Speakers Further details on page 17. Glenmore Trenear-Harvey There’s also a rather good arts & crafts Ferdinand Mount, Simon Vance market in St James’s Churchyard, so you We have a stunning selection of papers: can solve those Christmas present everything from Powell’s relations with problems early! other writers, through an enquiry into the Planchette episode to costume in London Group Annual Dance. Powell Birthday Lunch A Booking Leaflet is enclosed with this Saturday 3 December 2011 Newsletter. 1230 for 1300 hrs Outline Programme Queen’s Head & Artichoke Plenary sessions: Friday & Saturday 30-32 Albany Street, London NW1 Reception: Friday evening Events: Charity Auction, Fitzrovia Pub The same venue and arrangements as last Crawl, Coach Tour of AP’s London, year. Bookings now open. Non- Sunday Lunch members welcome. More details to follow or from the Hon. Secretary. Some accommodation has been reserved at the Club and is bookable Non-members welcome. Further details direct by delegates. when available from the Hon. Secretary. 19 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Society Notices

Local Groups Subscriptions London Group Members are reminded that annual Area: London & SE England subscriptions are payable on 1 April Contact: Keith Marshall and that rates remain unchanged this Email: [email protected] year (see back page for current rates). NY & NE USA Group Those whose membership has expired Area: New York & NE USA will be removed from the membership Contact: Leatrice Fountain list at the end of September. Email: [email protected] Reminders are a drain on our Great Lakes Group resources, with each overseas Area: Chicago area, USA reminder costing in excess of £1 – a Contact: Joanne Edmonds significant sum when we send out Email: [email protected] anything up to 50 second and third reminders most years! Baltic Group Area: Sweden & Finland Members are also reminded that Contact: Regina Rehbinder subscriptions, membership enquiries Email: reginarehbinder and merchandise requests should be @hotmail.com sent to Graham & Dorothy Davie at: Toronto Group Anthony Powell Society Memberships Area: Toronto, Canada Beckhouse Cottage, Kendal Road Contact: Joan Williams Hellifield, Skipton Email: [email protected] North Yorkshire, BD23 4HS, UK Please contact the Hon. Secretary if Email: [email protected] you wish to make contact with a group Phone: +44 (0) 1729 851 836 and don’t have email. If you wish to Fax: +44 (0) 20 8020 1483 start a local group the Hon. Secretary can advise on the number of members in your area.

Contributions to the Newsletter and Copy Deadlines Journal are always welcome and Newsletter #44, Autumn 2011 should be sent to: Copy Deadline: 12 August 2011 Newsletter & Journal Editor, Publication Date: 2 September 2011 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #45, Winter 2011 76 Ennismore Avenue Copy Deadline: 11 November 2011 Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK Publication Date: 2 December 2011 Fax: +44 (0)20 8020 1483 Secret Harmonies, 2011 Email: [email protected] Copy Deadline: 9 September 2011 Publication Date: 21 October 2011

20 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

The Black Art of Pricing Things by Keith Marshall

Over the years I have become aware that of the event) before we could print the many people don’t fully appreciate why booking leaflets, before any money merchandise, events, etc. cost what they changed hands and long before we know do – it is one of those things that for most what the actual costs will be. people is shrouded in fog. Indeed a few So write down all the costs as best you years ago I wouldn’t have known either. know them. The venue will generally But then I got a lot of practice building charge a per person cost for each attendee, project costings at work and translated that which should be agreed and fixed in a into pricing for the Society. So I thought it contract of some form – you probably might be instructive for members to have negotiated this, and got committed to a an idea of how I go about it. (This is all minimum number, months ago! Multiply self-taught, so it is my personal method this per head cost by the number of people and may not be technically the best way to attending – which will be more than the do things, but it works.) number of tickets you will sell because There are two very important lessons right there will always be guests who don’t pay here at the outset. Firstly this is all about but for whom you are charged (eg. invited realism, not dreams or wishes. Second is speakers). Do the same with any other per that although this realism is largely capita costs you have. And keep a running common sense it does involve rather more total. than is always obvious. It isn’t as simple Now add in all your fixed costs. The cost as Joe buys a box of 50 lemons from Fred of room hire. The cost of hiring AV for £10 and sells them on at 20p each. equipment. How much is printing flyers That leads to bankruptcy for Joe. going to cost? And mailing flyers to I’ll use a conference type event as the people. Printing and mailing tickets. framework here as it contains both fixed Don’t forget the cost of envelopes, and variable costs, but the principles apply postage, phone calls … and anything else to pricing anything from conferences to relevant you can think of! These latter lemons, aircraft carriers to socks. sound like silly amounts but they soon add up and can make a big difference. The first things you need are some basic (Alternatively you have to know that the assumptions. The most important of these cost of items like postage will be paid is how many tickets you are going to sell. from central funds – effectively a subsidy.) Because how many you sell will massively affect the price you charge. The problem Most important is not to forget you will be is that you often have to do this calculation paying VAT (tax) on much of this; ensure before you know what the real costs will you include the VAT too. I did forget the be (more assumptions) and certainly VAT once. It made a big dent in the before you can sell any tickets. balance sheet. And did I get a rocket! In the case of this year’s conference in Now for some extra realism! How certain September, we had to finalise the delegate are you that these costs are correct and pricing in March (six months in advance there’ll be no increases or surprise bills? 21 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Do you need to add some contingency in Generally we now round this up, so the case of cost overruns? What would cost of the ticket becomes £28 or £30, so happen if the government suddenly everyone gets to deal in round numbers increased VAT from 20% to 30%? As a (much easier for all) and you get a tiny bit general rule most people add 10% to the extra contingency. running total of costs to cover contingency. Now sell your tickets! If you sell more In the case of the 2011 conference we tickets than expected you start making haven’t done this as the Trustees have some extra profit as your fixed costs get agreed to underwrite any cost increases/ spread more thinly over more tickets. But overruns from the Society’s reserve funds. if you don’t sell enough tickets you make a That’s one reason we have reserve funds. loss. If you are very lucky you might have some Remember … You will get this wrong sponsorship, or a subsidy from the sometimes! The more you do it the better Treasurer, or some advertising revenue. If you get. You get a feel for how many so deduct this amount from your running tickets you will actually sell – rather than total. what your wildest dreams tell you. You Now you have your gross cost, which if get better too by keeping a note of the you divide it by the number of tickets actual costs incurred and value of sales you’re going to sell, gives you the base made – a balance sheet for the event! break-even price. You do, of course, know Then you can see where you lost money or accurately how many tickets you’ll sell more hopefully how much profit you don’t you? No? Neither do I. That’s part made, and why. You will also get a feel of the black art and another reason for for whether you habitually over- or under- adding that contingency. price things. I know I tend to over-price, so I try to compensate for this by not being Now comes the nice bit, for the Treasurer too conservative when putting the costs anyway … Profit! Do you want to make a together. profit? How much – 10% – 50% – 100%? Or are you aiming just to break even? If So, yes, it is an art, but hopefully one you’re planning for profit add that which is now slightly less shrouded in percentage to your break-even ticket price. fog. ■ Again in the case of the 2011 conference we are aiming purely to break even. And we’re almost there. Some people, but not all, will pay by credit card, for which we pay a fee based on the transaction amount (ie. what the ticket sells for). So finally you need to add a small amount (say 1-2%) to the break-even price to cover this. (The alterative is to surcharge those paying by credit card, which no-one likes.) At last you have the ticket price, except that it will be a silly amount like £27.39.

22 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

From the APLIST Recent Conversation from the Society’s Email Discussion Group

From Andrew Clarke One of the two influences admitted by E Bosworth Deacon – “Bosie” to his friends – was the mid-19th century French painter have rejected a commission for a fish- Puvis de Chavannes. restaurant in Brighton or similar purlieus. And Picasso is said to have been From what I can gather on the web, this fascinated by Puvis’ “Poor Fisherman”, extraordinary artist was wildly popular just as Whistler found something to say during his life, and is claimed to have about Deacon. influenced many aspiring artists, just as the catalogue of the Deacon retrospective What strikes me about Puvis is that : would claim that this neglected artist was a a. This is the man who put the morte into major influence on Patrick Proctor, Francis nature morte. The landscape in which Bacon and David Hockney, for example. his wraith-like figures find themselves Puvis was also renowned for his murals, is moribund. although like Deacon he would no doubt b. The people within these waste lands seem curiously detached from one another. c. While the females tend to be pale and almost lifeless, the men and boys have plenty of life in them. All in all a mixture of emotional morbidity and homoeroticism that’s just right for Bosworth. ■ –––––– From Elizabeth Babcock Puvis de Chavannes wasn’t trying for any kind of realism, not even the kind of hyper -romantic realism of the Pre-Raphaelites. Deacon might have enjoyed the male figures and obscure symbolism in his paintings, but I picture Deacon’s works as being more highly coloured, for one thing, and certainly less graceful – if you can’t portray the human body with conviction, better settle for symbolic form – Powell makes it clear that Deacon’s figures sometimes had “something wrong” with The City of Paris after the Siege them. ■ by Puvis de Chavannes 23 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

From Andrew Clarke I also see Puvis as a symbolist, very much so. It’s what he seems to be symbolising that I’m concerned about, as well as why Deacon regarded him so highly. And if Deacon’s canvases were more colourful, he might owe that to the painter whom he regarded as his master, Simeon Solomon ... It’s hard to know how “symbolist” Deacon was; I’ve always had the impression that he preferred genre paintings of classical subjects, a theme that ties in well with De Tabley’s poetry and Le Bas’ taste for Victorian Hellenism. I wonder if the Le Bacchus by Simeon Solomon Bas poems which their author thought accounted for a later lack of were awfully good but someone else integration. thought awfully bad were also in the style [BM (Penguin), 9] of Andrew Young or Lord De Tabley? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. What on earth is “moral separateness” here? It doesn’t seem to be “moral” in the It would be easy to oversimplify these usual sense. Perhaps Powell means influences upon Deacon by lumping them something more like “a refined sensibility all together as homosexual painters. That’s together with the capability to discern and implied, certainly, but what Nick observes discriminate”, as someone like FR Leavis in A Buyer’s Market is that Deacon should would talk about the moral sense of Henry have been another fair-to-average Nineties James. painter, but that he had somehow lost his way. ■ The “lack of integration” is partly –––––– explained a little later, although, characteristically, Powell does not give us From Andrew Clarke any too-simple explanations: Here is what Powell wrote: I could not help pondering once again In fact Puvis de Chavannes and the discrepancy that existed between Simeon Solomon, the last of whom I a style of painting that must have think he regarded as his master, were been unfashionable, and at best aridly the only painters I ever heard him academic, even in his early days; and speak of with unqualified approval. its contrast with the revolutionary Nature had no doubt intended him to principles that he preached and – in be in some manner an adjunct to the spheres other than aesthetic – so some art movement of the Eighteen- considerable extent practiced. I Nineties; but somehow Mr Deacon wondered once again whether this had missed that spirit in his youth, a apparent inconsistency of approach, moral separateness that perhaps that had once disconcerted me, symbolised antipathetic sides of his 24 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 nature; or whether his life and work and judgement at some point coalesced with each other, resulting in a standpoint that was really all of a piece – as he himself certainly would have said – that made a work of art. [BM, 12-13] Puvis de Chavannes and Simeon Solomon may have been many things, but it’s difficult to regard either of them as “aridly academic”. Something has gone badly wrong with the Bosworthian sensibility and I find myself more in agreement with the first of Nick’s alternatives. Whatever it was, it has certainly killed his imagination [BM, 13]. But here is another extraordinary comment: Powell portrays Deacon’s vegetarianism I suppose it could be argued that and other unusual beliefs and activities as upon such debris of classical imagery isolating him from normal society the foundations of at least certain (particularly during his Parisian period), a specific elements of twentieth separateness of which he is more or less century art came to be built. proud, even defiant (in contrast with Who is Nick thinking of here? Braque? Widmerpool who wants very much to Cocteau? belong). The “moral” quality of Deacon’s separateness refers to the fact that the It would be easy to describe Deacon as issues that Deacon has with society all one of those bohemian artists who are have a moral aspect: the leftist politics, the 100% bohemian and 0% artist, to be found pacifism, his art belonging to an earlier era in large quantities in the bars of Soho and (and having a homoerotic quality), even Dublin, and there’s an element of that too, the vegetarianism. Deacon portrays but Nick, in prose of almost Proustian himself and, in fact, is at odds morally complexity, is trying to focus on with the mainstream. In the US these kind something else ... of issues are referred to somewhat Any suggestions? ■ obliquely as “social issues” but they are also moral issues. –––––– “Lack of integration” refers to the fact not From Michael Henle only that Deacon held beliefs and Here are my interpretations: preferences at odds with each other and “Moral separateness”: The “separateness” not well reconciled within his personality. is easy. Deacon is one of a number of The most glaring example is Deacon’s Powell’s characters, most notably fevered interest in high society and royalty Widmerpool, who seem at odds with their despite his professed distain for them. community, who do not quite fit in. These warring aspects of his nature are 25 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 brought out strongly at Milly Andriadis’ thing. Actually socialism, of a somewhat party. Fabian variety, seems to have been part of “the spirit of the Nineties”, as was Puvis de Chavannes and Simeon Solomon Catholicism – it’s hard to imagine Aubrey as “arid academics”? Arid, I think, Beardsley finding consolation in the because of the pale colours, stiff, writings of the austere St Alphonsus awkwardly posed figures, and anaemic Liguori, but he did. compositions; academic because of their interest in portraying antiquity. [“Puvis de Chavannes and Simeon Solomon as ‘arid academics’? Arid, I I have no idea what Powell was thinking, think, because of the pale colours, stiff, but to my own eyes Picasso’s Blue and awkwardly posed figures, and anaemic Rose Periods paintings have a strong compositions; academic because of their affinity with the works of Puvis de interest in portraying antiquity”. – from Chavannes at least. ■ Michael Henle’s comment above.] –––––– Puvis, perhaps, although an interest in From Nick Birns antiquity doesn’t necessarily lead to I address a similar quote in A Buyer’s academic art. Besides, I think the Market on page 99 of Understanding awkwardness may have other Anthony Powell: psychological causes – a sense of social breakdown, perhaps. Solomon, I disagree, In a key passage in chapter 3, Jenkins because he has the brilliant colouring of reflects on Barnby’s paintings the Pre-Raphaelites and I don’t find his possessing ‘a rather deceptive air of compositions stilted at all. ■ emancipation that seemed in those years a kind of neo-classicism, –––––– suggesting essentially that same From James Doyle impact brought home to me by Paris Interesting the affection that Nick feels for in the days when we had met Mr everyone and anyone who attempts to Deacon in the Louvre: an atmosphere achieve – however grotesque he finds the I can still think of as excitingly results – some degree of integration peculiar to that time’. ■ through the arts. The catalogue of –––––– indefensible artistic endeavours that nevertheless seem to generate a wry tip of From Bobb Menk the hat is pretty extensive: Tokenhouse, My own take on this is that “aridly Duport’s collecting, Conyers’ ’cello, academic at best” is a description of Stringham’s caricatures, Odo’s verse. Deacon’s own style with “even in HIS Appreciators also, like anyone who has early days” pointing back to Deacon & not “done his bit” in the war, seem to enjoy a those by whom he was influenced. ■ degree of leniency. Maclintick for –––––– example, is a wreck, and a disobliging one, but seems to me to get marks for sincerity, From Andrew Clarke The moral separateness is not from his almost an added measure of empathy “community” – and what is Deacon’s because his failure is so complete. community? – but from “the spirit of the Duport’s opera-loving counts for him. eighteen-nineties”. That’s quite a different When Templer, who had boasted of never 26 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43 reading a book for pleasure in his life was seen as something quite shocking, quotes a snatch of verse it momentarily almost treasonable at that time. suggests to Nick a whole new window on Then of course, and most appropriately for someone he thought he knew pretty Dance, there was the continuation of well. ■ Victorian Hellenism, but in a more –––––– consciously sensuous way, and the locus From Michael Henle classicus is probably “Cynara” which You absolutely are right about Simeon today sounds almost like parody, but there Solomon. His work does not lack colour. you are. This Greek manner may or may not have been accompanied by Greek And in A Buyer’s Market, Nick’s reference Love, as Mr Deacon calls it. to “moral separateness” does refer immediately back to the eighteen-nineties. Poor dear Edgar seems to have some But “later lack of integration” broadens the nebulous sense of “making things new” – reference, I think, to include subsequent the vegetarianism, the socialism, the times up to the present of the novel. ■ contempt for the Royal Academy, even the Greek Love. But he didn’t have the –––––– creative force to produce Beardsley “The From Andrew Clarke Ascension of St Rose of Lima” so he Looking at Puvis, the women tend to look finished up with “The Boyhood of Cyrus” like the ghost of Virginia Woolf while and flogging probably homoerotic some of the men look like Tom of Finland. sketches of Grecian youths to Big Iron Looking at Solomon, the faces are largely Men from the provinces. epicene in the Pre-Raphaelite manner, but I have the feeling that buried deep in none the less sensuous for that. Dance, Nick is feeling his way towards a The really big issue, I suppose, is what theory of psychological types, without Nick meant by “the spirit of the eighteen- ever quite getting there, to avoid a pièce à nineties”, and it would be easy to dismiss thèse. ■ that as The Yellow Book and poor dear Oscar. Christmas Crossword Solution One useful starting point, or lowest common denominator, might be to consider the period as one seeking quite consciously to “make things new”, to be the antithesis of the great Victorians who immediately preceded them. Hence the arts and craftiness, the socialism, the cultivation of an irreverent pose, as did PDO and the incomparable Max, the slightly self conscious savouring of the Sweets of Sin. Not to mention the influence of Verlaine, those delicate little poems about the streets of London, for example. Even converting to Catholicism

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The Guardian asked 45 writers what From an article by Brian Turner, book they would choose to give to a “Drinking in the Words”, about friend on World Book Night (the bookshop-cafes, in the Sydney occasion of the giveaway of 1 million Morning Herald, 20 March 2011: books under some sort of scheme to distribute 25 selected titles). Ian Barter Books is a grand second-hand Rankin would give a copy of Dance bookshop housed in the former Victorian (or the first 2 volumes): -era railway station at Alnwick, Britain, an hour’s drive north of Newcastle upon When I was a student, a friend gave me Tyne. Behind the cash desk – in the the first two volumes of Anthony former parcels room – hangs an iconic Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time WWII framed poster, “Keep calm and (Arrow) for my birthday. I started carry on”, discovered in a box of books reading the first book, thinking: not sure bought at auction. This aptly describes I’m going to like this. All snobby the no-fuss atmosphere of the self-serve privilege and a world I won’t be tea and coffee parlour (20 pence in the interested in. By volume two, I was honesty box, please) in the former station hooked. Widmerpool and the others waiting room, replete with free were such good company, and the newspapers, plush armchairs and sofa. writing was elegant and concise, so I Savour its English quaintness and select bought the rest of the books in the a book from the Bizarre Books section series. ■ (alongside the model railway) – say Coins of the British Empire, Tea Bag Folding or Secrets of Lock Picking, or From the “Londoner’s Diary” in the even the 2010 winner of the British Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, Rowan Somerville’s London Evening Standard, 8 March The Shape of Her. 2011: Prepare a cup of tea for yourself, settle Astonishing news in the spring down into a sofa beneath the painted newsletter of the Anthony Powell ceiling mural of 33 life-size writers, who Society. A member of the society, Colin beam down upon you approvingly. Donald, argues that Freddie Mercury was a Powell fan. He quotes the 1986 song, Time your visit for an author talk held in It’s a Kind of Magic: “I’m hearing secret the ladies’ waiting room (blazing harmonies/It’s a kind of magic”. fireplace during winter) and stay Hearing Secret Harmonies, published in overnight at a B&B to spend time 1975, was the last volume in Powell’s A trawling the bookshelves of one of Dance to the Music of Time. How Britain’s largest, yet one of its most heartening to discover that members of curious, bookshops. Queen must have been Powellites. Suggested bedside reading: Anthony [See also page 33 – Ed.] ■ Powell’s Books Do Furnish a Room. ■

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From an article by John Walsh in The is too “good” to make it work, his fortunes Independent, 5 April 2011 “Can dwindle further and his wife Amy leaves Journalists Ever Be Heroes?”: him. Milvain gets a job on The Current and marries Amy. In the struggle between Starting from the proposition that, if Art and Hackery the latter triumphs, to someone writes for a living he or she must loud boos from the reader. aspire to write the finest possible prose about the most worthwhile subjects, authors A direct descendant of Milvain is “Books” in the past have dealt with the ethical Bagshaw in Books Do Furnish a Room, the th chasm that separates the out-and-out hack 10 book in Anthony Powell’s 12-volume from the fine and subtle poet he or she roman-fleuve, A Dance to the Music of could become. Time. Bagshaw is the apotheosis of the hack journalist, omni-competent in The dichotomy appeared most vividly in mediocrity of all kinds: “He possessed that print 120 years ago, with the publication of opportune facility for turning out several New Grub Street by George Gissing. thousand words on any subject whatever at Ranged against each other, in Gissing’s the shortest possible notice: politics; sport; 1891 work, are the figures of Edward books; finance; science; art; fashion – as he Riordan and Jasper Milvain. The former is himself said, ‘War, Famine, Pestilence or a high-minded chap determined to make his Death on a Pale Horse’. All were equal reputation as a serious novelist and refuse when it came to Bagshaw’s typewriter. He to compromise with the world of could take on anything, and – to be fair – “commercial” fiction or newspapers what he produced, even off the cuff, was (Gissing was just the same). The latter is a no worse than was to be read most of the shameless, money-grabbing opportunist, time. You never wondered how on earth who knocks off articles as though on a the stuff had ever managed to be printed”. production line. “Your successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman,” he tells Here we see Powell expressing his Gissing- his sisters. “He thinks first and foremost of like distaste for the kind of writing that the markets; when one kind of goods comes too easily. Without mental struggle, begins to go off slackly, he is ready with and time set aside for mature reflection, he something new and appetising”. It’s a implies, writing can’t be any good. The battle of the hack versus the heavyweight. good stuff should be left to the novelists. When Reardon, on the brink of financial Journalists are just too damn free (or rather ruin, tries his hand at a schlockly novel, he “facile”) with words.

The nearest some women get to Men who talked or slept with her being faithful to their husband is were often found frozen to death. making it unpleasant for their lover. Anthony Powell Anthony Powell A Writer’s Notebook The Valley of Bones

29 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

From Bonhams sale Papers and From a review by Jacob Heilbrunn of Portraits: The Roy Davids Charles Cumming’s novel The Trinity Collection Part II on 29 March Six in the New York Times, 18 March 2011: 2011: Lot No. 184 The five spies from Trinity College, POWELL, ANTHONY (1905-2000, Cambridge, may have betrayed their novelist) country during the cold war, but they PORTRAIT BY LUCINDA DOUGLAS performed an indisputable service for -MENZIES (b. 1956), vintage British literature. A number of works photograph, silver print, half-length, in have either been inspired or enlivened by the background his Georgian house, The the misdeeds of Kim Philby, John Chantry, near Frome, Somerset, Cairncross, Guy Burgess, Donald photographer’s stamp, and her signature Maclean and Anthony Blunt. In and name of sitter and date 11 April Anthony Powell’s panoramic A Dance to 1988 in pencil on verso, framed and the Music of Time, for example, Lord glazed, size of image 11 x 11 inches (27 Widmerpool gets into political hot water x 27 cm), overall size 19 x 18½ inches for what his wife derisively calls ‘his (48 x 47 cm), 11 April 1988 little under-the-counter Communist games’. ■ Sold for £384 inclusive of Buyer’s Premium Footnote: This portrait was taken on 11 April 1988 at The Chantry, Near Frome, Somerset, Grolier Club and was exhibited at Lucinda Douglas- Several Menzies’s exhibition Portraits of members Luminaries at the Stephen Bartley pointed out Gallery, London, in 1988. An example that the of it is in the National Portrait Gallery. ■ illustration on page 18 of Newsletter 42 was in fact of the old premises of the Grolier Club, New York. The new Grolier Club building is shown on the left. We apologise for the error. ■

30 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

War left, on the one hand, a passionate desire to tackle a lot of work; on the other, never to do any work again. It was a state of mind Evelyn Waugh Conference Robert Burton ... would have well understood. Irresolution appealed to Downside School and Abbey him as one of the myriad forms of Somerset, UK Melancholy, although he was, of course, concerned in the main with no 16-19 August 2011 mere temporary depression or fidgetiness, but a “chronic or Each day there will be at least one continued disease, a settled humour”. session for the presentation of papers Still, post-war melancholy might have and discussion. Evelyn Waugh’s rated a short subsection in the great grandson Alexander Waugh, a work: The Anatomy of Melancholy. distinguished author in his own right, Anthony Powell will preside. Books Do Furnish a Room There will be at least two excursions, one to Combe Florey, Evelyn Waugh’s last house and the site of his grave. Other possibilities are Bath and Mells Manor, near Frome, where Waugh was often a guest of the Asquiths. Registration is $100 for members and $150 for nonmembers; limited accommodation (room and board) is available at Downside School for $75 Anthony Powell Resides Here per day for members and $90 per day for CRAWFORD DOYLE BOOKSELLERS nonmembers. Non-US registrants may seeks and sells early editions of pay equivalent amounts in local Anthony Powell’s works together with currencies in the UK, EU, Japan, those of other distinguished British Canada, India and Australia and New authors such as Evelyn Waugh, PG Zealand. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf, Henry Green and James Lees-Milne. For information see In addition to rare books, we offer a http://www.evelynwaughsociety.org complete collection of new books in and click on membership our store near the Metropolitan Museum. Catalogs upon request. To register and for more information, 1082 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10028 please contact: Open seven days per week Telephone: 212 289 2345 Dr John H Wilson Email: [email protected] Department of English Member, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Lock Haven University Association of America, Inc. Lock Haven PA 17745, USA Email: [email protected]

31 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Letters to the Editor

From Andrew Clarke so bold, or so delicious has been printed these many years”. “Oh, he has not changed,” said Mr Amarinth. “That is so wonderful. He The book features the characters of never develops at all. He alone Esmé Amarinth (Wilde), and Lord understands the beauty of rigidity, the Reginald “Reggie” Hastings exquisite severity of the statuesque (Douglas). The words put in the nature. Men always fall into the mouths of the hero and his young absurdity of endeavouring to develop friend in the story are mostly the mind, to push it violently forward gathered from the sayings of their in this direction or in that. The mind originals. Robert Hichens spent should be receptive, a harp waiting to nearly a year “in the company of the catch the winds, a pool ready to be men” and was able to accurately ruffled, not a bustling busybody, recreate the atmosphere and forever trotting about on the relationship between Oscar and pavement looking for a new bun shop. Bosie. It should not deliberately run to seek The book was withdrawn from sensations, but it should never avoid circulation in 1895, but by that time one; it should never put one aside the damage had been done. Wilde from an absurd sense of right and soon stood three consecutive trials for wrong. Every sensation is valuable. Gross Indecency and was sentenced Sensations are the details that build to two years at hard labour. The up the stories of our lives”. Green Carnation was one of the [Robert Hichens, The Green works used against him by the Carnation (1894), cited by Holbrook prosecution. Jackson in The Eighteen Nineties (Pelican, 1939), p66] Was “the Decadence” in Powell’s mind when he named St John Clarke’s novel? Here is the Wikipedia stub: Was Fields of Amarinth also a succès de The Green Carnation, first published scandale in its day, that being why Le Bas anonymously in 1894, was a was so sniffy about Nick’s reading it? We scandalous novel by Robert Hichens remember Le Bas’s pained reaction to whose lead characters are closely Stringham’s quoting a villanelle by the based on Oscar Wilde and Lord original of Esmé Amarinth. Is there also Alfred Douglas – also known as the faintest of suggestions that St John ‘Bosie’, whom the author personally Clarke may still have a whiff of the knew. It was an instant succès de Nineties about him? ■ scandale on both sides of the Atlantic. The reviewer for The London Anthony Powell’s A Dance to The Music Observer wrote, “The Green of Time … “a sort of up market Mrs Dales Diary” Carnation will be read and discussed by everyone ... nothing so impudent, [Robert Robinson; BBC Radio 4; “Brain of Britain”; unknown date]

32 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

From Robert Beasecker From Terry Empson I’ve just come across Blackwell’s A Apropos Colin Donald’s noticing Freddy Catalogue of Books from the Library of Mercury’s reference to the last volume of Dennis Wheatley (Oxford, 1979). It Dance, do we exclude the possibility that contains 2274 priced items, from Harold it was in fact Burton that Mercury had in Acton to Stefan Zweig. Among these are mind? Thousand year rages, flames 15 Powell first editions, including all 12 burning one’s Dance titles, Afternoon Men, Two Plays, insides and so on and Infants of the Spring. All are seem more likely inscribed by Powell to “Dennis Wheatley” to derive from or later to “Dennis”. The earliest Burton than from inscriptions are from the autumn of 1970 Powell. Burton and continue up to the time of Wheatley’s himself writes death in late 1977. kindly of Mercury, One of them, Books Do Furnish a Room, claiming that also includes a 21 January 1972 Powell “Mercurialists are letter to Wheatley in which the former solitary, much in contemplation, subtle, asks for assistance: poets, philosophers ...” Queen fans will Briefly, the situation is this; the new know the truth or otherwise of this. ■ book opens with Widmerpool involved in trouble with his East/ West commercial/cultural activities, in which he has given something e Quarterly Review serious away to a Communist A classic journal of ideas and culture power ... Ideally, I would like www.quarterly-review.org something then to happen that gets Founded by Walter Scott, Robert him out of the bag ... but it did occur Southey and George Canning, the to me that you might have a Quarterly Review (1809-1967) was one suggestion. of the most inuential journals in A copy of Wheatley’s subsequent reply to British history. Revived in 2007, the Powell is also included, but unfortunately QR Mark II follows its great predecessor Blackwell’s is content only to give the in providing uncensored political tantalizing statement, “Wheatley reply of analysis and stimulating cultural January 26 lists several suggestions for the critique – from abortion to Zimbabwe, development of the plot”. It would be via Nosferatu and Powell. Contributors interesting to know if Powell used one of include Rowan Williams, Richard Body, Wheatley’s ideas. Wheatley’s name does Ezra Mishan, Tito Perdue, Kirkpatrick not appear in the indexes of Powell’s Sale, Keith Waldrop, Rupert Sheldrake, memoirs. Taki and many others. The 1979 prices: most expensive was the Complimentary sample copies and copy of Afternoon Men (£150); Books Do subscriptions available by calling Furnish a Room with the Powell letter was +44 (0) 1507 339 056 or £100; the rest of the Dance series was email to [email protected] priced from £45 to £60. ■ 33 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Society Merchandise

Jeff Manley et al.; Dance Music BBC Radio Dramatisation of Dance A 150-page guide to the musical references Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in Dance; compiled in the style of between 1979-82. 26 one-hour episodes. Spurling’s Handbook. Single CD containing 26 MP3 files. For UK: £7 Overseas: £9.50 copyright reasons available to Society members only. John Gould; Dance Class UK & Overseas: £11 (£3 + minimum £8 American High School student essays from Donation) John’s teaching of Dance at Philips Academy. Perceptive insights. Audio Cassette Tapes of Dance UK: £11.50 Overseas: £15 Simon Callow reading (abridged) volumes of Dance: Centenary Conference Proceedings A Question of Upbringing Collected papers from the 2005 centenary The Kindly Ones conference at The Wallace Collection, The Valley of Bones London. The Soldier’s Art UK: £11 Overseas: £15 UK: £2.50 each Overseas: £4 each Oxford Conference Proceedings Michael Bakewell, Fitzrovia: London’s Collected papers from the 2003 conference Bohemia at Balliol College, Oxford. Published in the National Portrait Gallery UK: £7 Overseas: £11 “Character Sketches” series. Snapshot Eton Conference Proceedings biographies of Fitzrovian characters Papers from the 2001 conference. Copies including Powell and many of his friends. signed by the Society’s Patron. UK: £5 Overseas: £7.50 UK: £6.50 Overseas: £9.50 Society Postcard Writing about Anthony Powell B&W postcard of Powell with his cat The talks given at the 2004 AGM by Trelawney. Pack of 5. Picture page 25. George Lilley, Michael Barber and Nick UK: £1.50 Overseas: £2.50 Birns; introduced by Christine Berberich. Wallace Collection Poussin Postcard UK: £4 Overseas: £5.50 The Wallace Collection’s postcard of The Master and The Congressman Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time. A 40-page monograph by John Monagan Pack of 5. Picture page 22. describing his meetings with Powell. UK: £2.50 Overseas: £4 UK: £4 Overseas: £5.50 Wallace Collection Poussin Poster Secret Harmonies: Journal of the The Wallace Collection’s ½ life-size poster Anthony Powell Society of Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time. All issues available. Sent in a poster tube. Picture page 22. UK: £5.50 Overseas: £7.50 each UK: £7 Overseas: £9 Centenary Newsletter Newsletter Back Numbers 120-page celebratory Centenary Newsletter Back numbers of Newsletter issues 9 to 19, (issue 21; December 2005). 22 to 29 and 31 onwards are available. UK: £5 Overseas: £7.50 UK: £2 each Overseas: £3.50 each 34 Anthony Powell Society Newsletter #43

Society Merchandise

Pricing Notes. The prices shown are the Ordering. Please send your order to: Society members’ prices as of April 2011 Anthony Powell Society Merchandise and are inclusive of postage and packing. Beckhouse Cottage, Kendal Road, Please note the different UK and Hellifield, Skipton North Yorkshire, overseas prices which reflect the BD23 4HS, UK additional cost of overseas postage. Phone: +44 (0) 1729 851 836 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8020 1483 Non-members will be charged the Email: [email protected] overseas price shown plus postage & Payment may be by cheque (UK funds packing at cost. drawn on a UK bank), Visa, Mastercard or online using PayPal to [email protected].

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