Among the Bohemians (63 page)

Life for Life’s Sake
, Richard Aldington’s autobiography, tells of a literary life on the Bohemian margins.
Both
The Letters of Liam O’Flaherty
edited by A.
A.
Kelly and O’Flaherty’s two books of memoirs,
Two Years and Shame the Devil
, illumine the life of this Irish writer who began life in the Aran Islands; his time in Fitzrovia and Chelsea was a prelude to worldwide wanderings.
For Kathleen Hale see
Chapter 4
.

Ethel Mannin’s remarks about servants come into
Young in the Twenties
(see
Chapter 2
); Vanessa Bell’s letters to Duncan Grant and Roger Fry are in her published correspondence.
Harold Acton describes his literary sessions with the servants in
Memoirs of an Aesthete
(see
Chapter 3
).
Beatrice Campbell’s household and her memories of Katherine Mansfield feature in
Today We Will Only Gossip
(see above,
Chapter 6
).
Below Stairs
by Margaret Powell is the sane and robust rejoinder of an intelligent working-class woman condemned to serve ignorant employers.
John Higgens kindly told me his mother’s side of the Charleston story.
Naomi Mitchison’s
You May Well Ask
(see
Chapter 2
) gave her angle on the servant issue.

Jeremy Lewis has done an excellent job of unravelling a most complex subject; his biography
Cyril Connolly
has a fascinating chapter entitled ‘Living for Beauty’.
Gerald Brenan’s unkind letter about Carrington is quoted in Gretchen Gerzina’s
Life
, and domesticity at Ham Spray features largely in Carrington’s
Letters
(for both, see
Chapter 1
above).
For Stella Bowen see above,
Chapter 4
.

For Katherine Mansfield’s correspondence I have referred to C.
K.
Stead’s edition of her
Letters and Journals
.
For Caitlin Thomas see
Chapter 1
.
A minor classic, Jessica Mitford’s memoir
Hons and Rebels
is full of the twenties and thirties Zeitgeist, and very funny too.
For Christabel Dennison see above,
Chapter 6
.

Anna Wickham has a walk-on role in many memoirs of the time; my main source was David Garnett’s biographical introduction to her
Selected Poems
.

8. The Open Road

Four books provided this chapter with particularly valuable background.
Two are by Samuel Hynes: both his scholarly and perceptive
The Edwardian Turn of Mind
, and
A War Imagined
; I also recommend Paul Fussell’s thought-provoking study Abroad and Alan A.
Jackson’s satisfyingly factual
The Middle Classes
.

Duncan Grant introduced me as a child to Kenneth Grahame’s
The Wind in the Willows
– arguably a book more for his generation than mine.
For John’s gypsy life, see
Chapter 1
, above.
For Bertrand Russell, see
Chapter 2
, above.
Ethel Mannin’s
All Experience
is imbued with its author’s love of travel, and has a wonderful chapter on flying.
Jessica Mitford describes her xenophobic father in
Hons and Rebels
(see above,
Chapter 7
).

I have referred to the account of the Violet Hunt scandal in
South Lodge
by Douglas Goldring; he knew Ford and Violet well.
The relationship between Rosalind Thornycroft and D.
H.
Lawrence is described in
Time Which Spaces Us Apart
(see above,
Chapter 2
), which also contains Rosalind’s strategy for dealing with fleas.
David Garnett’s autobiography
The Golden Echo
(see above,
Chapter 3
) recounts his pre-Revolutionary journey to Russia.
For George du Maurier’s
Trilby
, see
Chapter 2
, above.
Peter Fryer’s
Mrs Grundy
(see above
Chapter 2
) gives a good account of the activities of the Lord’s Day Observance Society.

For Harold Acton see
Chapter 3
.
Sisley Huddleston’s
Bohemian Literary and Social Life in Paris
(referred to in
Chapter 5
, above) has a rather lofty approach to its subject, but is fall of insider knowledge.
The ephemeral
Fugitive Pieces
by Mary Hutchinson reveals a discerning and literary mind – sadly she did not write anything more substantial.
Angelica Garnett comments on her mother’s francophilia in
Deceived with Kindness
(see
Chapter 3
, above).
For Stella Bowen see
Chapter 4
, above.

Two novels based on Côte d’ Azur society in the twenties both drip with satire – but still ooze first-hand experience:
Mediterranean Blues
by Yvonne Kapp, and The Rock Pool by Cyril Connolly.
For a biography of Connolly, see above,
Chapter 7
.
David Gascoyne comments on literary expatriatism in his youthful
Paris Journal
.
Gone Abroad
by Douglas Goldring is a collection of the author’s travel journalism.
For O’Flaherty’s
Letters
, see above,
Chapter 7
.
Julian Trevelyan’s autobiography
Indigo Days
has a buoyant, open-minded quality which makes one warm to the author.

Gerald Brenan’s journey to the Balkans is in
A Life of One’s Own
(see notes on
Chapter 5
).
Paul Nash’s walking tour in the Lake District appears in Ronald Blythe’s
First Friends
(see above,
Chapter 2
); the section on the ‘crazy walkers’ was culled from Alison Thomas (see above
Chapter 2
) and from Michael Holroyd’s biography of Augustus John.
Romilly John gives a good description of his father as a driver in
The Seventh Child
.
Philip O’Connor’s days as a tramp come into
Memoirs of a Public Baby
(see above,
Chapter 3
).

Five Women and a Caravan
by Marion Russell is yet another social document disguised as a memoir; the description of Evelyn Waugh’s caravan holiday comes into his published
Diaries
; my source for information on Brian Howard is the volume of tributes,
Portrait of a Failure
edited by Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster.
Only insatiable researchers like me would ever read Eleanor
Smith’s Flamenco
, which is,I fear, doomed to literary oblivion.

A Rabbit in the Air
by David Garnett has certain qualities in common with
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
– a soul-stirring passion for mechanical gadgets.
Sybille Bedford emerges from
Jigsaw
as a true cosmopolitan; see notes on
Chapter 6
.

9. Evenings of Friendliness

Yet again, Peter Fryer’s
Mrs Grundy
was helpful in giving social background; so too was Alan Hodge’s and Robert Graves’s excellent resumé of the period (mostly garnered from newspaper sources),
The Long Weekend
.
London’s Latin Quarter
by Kenneth Hare proved useful; so did Robert Machray’s
The Night Side of London
(see notes on
Chapter 6
).
For Deghy and Waterhouse’s excellent book on the Café Royal, see notes on
Chapter 5
.
Hugh David’s thorough and amusing account of
The Fitzrovians
has not yet been supplanted, while
Bohemians
–
The Glamorous Outlaws
by Elizabeth Wilson is a thorough academic account of the phenomenon.

David Garnett’s optimistic remarks about life in the twenties appear in Volume 2 of his memoirs,
The Familiar Faces
; for Arthur Ransome, see
Chapter 1
.

In
All Trivial Fond Records
and
Brought Up and Brought Out
Allanah Harper and Mary Clive (both upper-class girls with Bohemian aspirations) respectively recall their ghastly debutante days; upper-class social life is also meticulously portrayed in Vita Sackville-West’s
The. Edwardians
(see notes on
Chapter 4
).
Iris Tree’s clandestine life is described by Daphne Fielding in
The Rainbow Picnic
(see above
Chapter 4
); ‘Iris of Memories’ is reprinted in Hugh Ford’s compilation of tributes,
Nancy Cunard
–
Brave Poet, Indomitable Rebel
.

For Stella Bowen, see notes on
Chapter 4
.
C.
R.
W.
Ncvinson’s recollections of the Armistice come into
Paint and Prejudice
(see notes on
Chapter 3
).
Monty Shearman’s famous party at the Adelphi is re-created from composite sources – Osbert Sitwell, Beatrice Campbell and Nina Hamnett.
Sisley Huddleston (see
Chapter 8
, above) describes his friend Ezra l’ound dancing the Charleston.

The five ‘typical’ parties were taken from Carrington’s
Letters
; a combination of Romilly John’s and Viva King’s memoirs;
The Familiar Faces
by David Garnett (which has a whole chapter on parties of the period); Miranda Seymour’s biography
of Robert Graves; and Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster’s
Portrait of a Failure
, about Brian Howard.

Juliette Huxley’s
Leaves of the Tulip Tree
gives a behind-the-scenes account of life at Garsington.
Glimpses of Frederick Ashton’s life come from Julie Kavanagh’s biography
Secret Muses
; of Rudolph Vesey’s parties from
Musical Chairs
by Cecil Gray.
Other contributors to the party scene were Julian Trevelyan, Peter Quennell, Harold Acton, Kathleen Hale, Constant Lambert, Beatrice Campbell, Carrington and Vanessa Bell.
Nina Hamnett’s
Is She a Lady?
(see
Chapter 1
, above) is the source for the striptease story and the dope fiend story.

Osbert Sitwell describes the Golden Calf in his memoir
Great Morning
.
Elsa Lanchester, founder of the Cave of Harmony, wrote a memoir entitled
Charles Laughton and I
.
Michael Luke’s
David Tennant and the Gargoyle Years
sheds light on David Tennant’s Bohemian sanctum.

Nancy Cunard’s ‘Ode to the Eiffel Tower’ was first published in her collection
Sublunary
; there are good descriptions of the restaurant and its proprietor Stulik in many memoirs of the time –I particularly liked Viva King’s account in
The Weeping and the Laughter
, and Ruthven Todd’s memories of Stulik in
Fitzrovia and the Road to the York Minster
, an exhibition catalogue for a show at the Parkin Gallery in 1973.
For Betty May see
Chapter 1
, above.
For Constantine Fitzgibbon’s
Life of Dylan Thomas
see notes on
Chapter 7
; for his edition of Thomas’s letters see
Chapter 5
.
For Caitlin Thomas, see
Chapter 1
.

Beatrice Campbell tells the story of Gertler’s misdeeds in
Today We Will Only Gossip
(see
Chapter 6
).
Julian Trevelyan’s experiences with mescaline are recounted in
Indigo Days
(see
Chapter 8
); Augustus John describes trying hashish in his memoir
Chiaroscuro
.
David Garnett’s melodrama
Dope Darling
(published under the pseudonym Leda Burke) is not the kind of book the author would have been proud to show his Bloomsbury friends; actually it’s quite a racy little read.

Ragged Banners
by Ethel Mannin is a novel about idealism, its hero an archetypal Bohemian poet.
Three lines of poetry are quoted from ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas.
Roy Campbell’s challenging declaration is to be found in the pages of
Broken Record
.
The final quote comes from the last page of Arthur Ransome’s
Bohemia in London
.

Epilogue

Liam O’Flaherty’s lament for the Bohemia of his youth is published in A.
A.
Kelly’s edition of O’Flaherty’s
Letters
(see
Chapter 7
, above).
Carrington mourns Lytton’s death in the diary she wrote before killing herself, published in her
Letters
(see
Chapter 1
, above).
Katherine Mansfield’s plea for integrity is published in Claire Tomalin’s revelatory biography
A Secret Life
.
For Mary Butts see
Chapter 4
, above.
For a life of Roy Campbell, see Peter Alexander’s
Critical Biography
.
Nicolette Devas’s obsequies on Dylan Thomas, and her own reflections on growing older, appear in
Two Flamboyant Fathers
(see notes on
Chapter 1
).

The biography of Arthur Ransome by Hugh Brogan describes his comfortable middle years and old age.
Ethel Mannin’s last autobiographical foray was
Sunset over Dartmoor
.
For Viva King’s memoirs see notes on
Chapter 2
; for Jeremy Lewis’s biography of
Cyril Connolly
see
Chapter 7
; for lives of Robert Graves see notes on
Chapter 1
.

In
The Interior Castle
Gerald Brenan is well served by his biographer Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, who knew him well.
Michael Holroyd’s biography of
Augustus John
painstakingly sees the old reprobate through to the end.
Harold Acton’s second volume of autobiography,
More Memoirs of an Aesthete
, is as cultured and readable as the first.
For Ottoline Morrell I have referred yet again to Miranda Seymour’s biography (see
Chapter 2
).
Chloё Baynes has the last word on her mother, Rosalind Thornycroft, in
Time Which Spaces Us Apart
(see notes on
Chapter 2
).

Frances Spalding has done full justice to my grandmother
Vanessa Bell
in her fine biography.
For Robert Medley, see
Chapter 2
.
For Stella Bowen’s memoirs see
Chapter 4
.
For Nancy Cunard see
Chapter 2
.
Kathleen Hale’s memoirs
A Slender Reputation
contain a marvellous photograph of the septuagenarian in her Moroccan necklace.
Daphne Fielding’s haunting image of Iris Tree in her later years is in her biography
The Rainbow Picnic
.
Betty May’s last word on her life appears in the concluding paragraph of
Tiger Woman
, leaving one frustrated to know more.