Anthony Powell: A LifeIn the first full-length biography of Anthony Powell, Michael Barber--publisher, journalist, and man-about-town--takes a close look at the man and the writer. He finds someone whose temperament was often at war with his upbringing. The son of an army officer, educated at Eton and Oxford, Powell chose as his closest friends people like Malcolm Muggeridge and the composer Constant Lambert, who were not out of the top drawer, or the one below it. Although happily married for more than sixty years to Lady Violet Pakenham, the daughter of an earl, he admitted that he had always been attracted by girls who looked as if they'd slept under a bush for a week. Powell believed that creative writing was, like alchemy, a mysterious, indefinable process by which experience became art. Michael Barber focuses on the experience that provided Powell with his raw material. He pays particular attention to the entre-deux-guerres, that sharply divided cultural interlude when the artists and good-timers with whom Powell identified in the twenties were followed, in the thirties, by the politicians and the prigs. Amusing, candid, and highly entertaining, this is a delightfully readable account of the author |
Contents
In the Beginning | 1 |
The Best of Schools | 13 |
Oxford Blues | 33 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Afternoon Afternoon Men Alan Alan Pryce-Jones Anthony Powell appeared Army asked Aubrey Balliol became Bowra Bradnum called Chantry characters Connolly's Constant Lambert Copyright 2004 Cyril Connolly Daintrey Dance death described Diaries drink Duckworth English Estate of Violet Eton Etonian Evelyn Waugh father George girls Goodhart Greene Harold Acton Heinemann Higham Ibid interview Jenkins Jenkins's John Heygate Journals Kingsley Amis knew Lady Lambert later letter literary lived London lunch Maclaren-Ross Malcolm Muggeridge Mark Boxer marriage married Memoirs Moreland never Nicolson Nina Nina Hamnett novel novelist officer once Orwell Oxford Pamela party Peter Quennell Philip Powell Powell says Powell thought Powell's Pryce-Jones published Punch Quennell Question of Upbringing readers Review seems Simon Raven someone sort Stringham talk Templer thing told Tony took Twenties Violet Powell volume Wheatley Widmerpool wife writing wrote young