Bright Young Things discussion

Welcome to the August non-fiction group read of...

A Year to Remember by Alec Waugh

Enjoy!

Thanks Ally.

I really hope plenty of people read this book. It's another of those perfect BYT book as it's a real delight for anyone interested in the 1930s, and the English artistic and literary scene of that era.

Alec Waugh has a warm and chatty style, and it's no wonder that he was able to make friends easily and that many of these friendships were lifelong.

Alec Waugh wrote this book in the mid 1970s, towards the end of his life, and it is about the year he would most like to be able to live again - 1931.

Looking back Alex decided that 1930 marked the end of the post-war period. 1932 marked the start of the pre-war period and 1931 was a no man's land. Despite describing it as a no man's land, it is clear that it was a remarkable year for Alec: a splendid mix of parties, love affairs, flirtations, travel, political upheaval and intrigue, time spent with his family, and so on.

During the year Alec lived in New York, London, Villefranche (in the South of France), and writes in numerous homes and hotels including Easton Court Hotel, Chagford in Devon, which was run by the American Mrs Caroline Cobb, and her partner, Norman Webb, and where Evelyn Waugh wrote Brideshead Revisited. It was home to Patrick Balfour and numerous bohemian types in the 1930s and 1940s. It was also a year of firsts: Alec's first transatlantic telephone call; the year he became a member of the MCC; and Alec's first Royal garden party.

This charming memoir beautifully captures a bygone age and one that I find endlessly fascinating - and I know plenty of other people here at BYT do too. I had to keep putting the book down as yet another notable individual entered Alec's life to find out more about each new personality. Some I knew well, for example his brother Evelyn, and W Somerset Maugham, however the majority were new to me, and have inspired me to investigate some new literary names from the era (for example C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Theodora Benson and Betty Askwith, Sylvia Thompson, and Carl Van Vechten). It was not just writers that Alec describes, there's also friends, publishers, hoteliers and many more, all of whom made 1931 such a perfect year for him.

I really look forward to hearing what the rest of you make of this charming memoir.

Alec Waugh was perfectly placed to write about things literary in 1931. His father had been involved in publishing all his life, his own career as a novelist was well underway and his brother, Evelyn, was just beginning to make his mark as a literary genius.

I do think reading any memoir from this era how prevalent marital affairs were! Alec seems to delight in falling in and out of love affairs, which seem to cause no great emotional fallout and I liked his sadness at losing those great transatlantic liners. I can imagine they were wonderful chances for assignation and, after all, why not take a couple of weeks to get where you are going?

Susan wrote: "Alec Waugh was perfectly placed to write about things literary in 1931. His father had been involved in publishing all his life, his own career as a novelist was well underway and his brother, Evelyn, was just beginning to make his mark as a literary genius."

Yes, that's a very good point about the family's background in publishing. I wonder what the father's memoir is like. Probably just one for the purists.

Susan wrote: "I do think reading any memoir from this era how prevalent marital affairs were! Alec seems to delight in falling in and out of love affairs, which seem to cause no great emotional fallout and I liked his sadness at losing those great transatlantic liners. I can imagine they were wonderful chances for assignation and, after all, why not take a couple of weeks to get where you are going?"

Yes indeed. Divorce was still relatively tricky in those days. The standard process is amusingly recounted by Alec's brother Evelyn Waugh in A Handful of Dust.

I wonder if if Alec's extra marital affairs really was as pain free as Alec seems to suggest. Either way, an ocean liner is, as you state, a delightful venue for such dalliances. And, lest we forget, another fictional love affair took place between Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited on a transatlantic liner.

I haven't read his fathers memoir, but judging by his diary entries, it was probably important from a literary point of view, but not riveting to read :)

I was interested to read Alec Waugh's take on Oswald Mosley and the elections, which left him out in the cold and made him decide to to start his own party with obviously unfortunate personal repercussions. I know Churchill was under great pressure not to imprison Diana Mosley (I think she was a distant cousin) during the war.

Also, I loved the section on his meetings with Maugham - obviously another author we have read recently in the group.

Yes indeed. I agree wholeheartedly - especially the Mosley stuff. Which also reminds me of this very interesting and surprising article I came across the other day.

Someone at The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society showed it to me.

Barely a page went by in "A Year to Remember" without an interesting anecdote or a new name to conjure with. What a year. What an era. I suspect Alec was quite the charmer.

Yes, I do too :) Also, at that time, he was still very much in touch with his brother. In My Brother Evelyn & Other Profiles (and, if anyone enjoyed 1931, I heartily recommend they read this too), he describes how he gradually found Evelyn harder to get on with as they grew older. Even here, you feel with the saga of Evelyn and his trousers, that he was gradually becoming a little more difficult...

There was an occasion where Alec introduced Evelyn to his American publisher and Evelyn just looked at him, reducing him to silence. Evelyn then got up, bowed and walked away.
Alec was much keener to put people at their ease and no doubt made friends much more easily. Evelyn usually kept those friendships he did make for life, but does seem to have been deliberately disconcerting at times, even quite early on.

He was apparently very rude about America and quite disconcerting towards his publishers there. Nancy Mitford took it one step further - apparently she sailed to New York, stayed 3 hours, said she couldn't stand it and got back on the ship to sail home again! Somerset Maugham thought that writers who went to work in the States during the war were cowards and left France immediately to offer his services.

I can see why the more reserved Evelyn would not like the US as much as the outgoing Alec.
Maugham's reaction was quite a common one at the time, I think. There was a feeling in the country that everyone should be 'doing their bit' for Britain. The British government ironically thought that Maugham would be more use in the US promoting Anglo-American relations.
Nancy Mitford's reaction is extreme, she could have given the country and the people more of a chance considering how long the journey took, but I've said before that the Mitfords all seem to have had tendencies towards extremism and that shows it wasn't just their politics.

Nancy was always quite extreme - well, they all were. I think, of all the sisters, she is the one I like the most - or possibly that is just because I enjoy her novels. She was always more at home in France, as far as I am aware, but she certainly understood and remained friends with Evelyn throughout his life.

I'm not sure I would have liked any of them Susan, but I would also say Nancy was my favourite, for the same reason.

Perhaps not, but I forgive Nancy more. Talking of which, I found this, which is amusing:

http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/ve...

I love it!
As E W says, I think that more or less covers the field.

Such a hypocrite, wasn't he?! I thought you would enjoy it.

In the book Alec Waugh talks about his father's memoir and tries to explain why Arthur Waugh does not mention Evelyn's writing. Does he convince, do you think?
(Alec also states, as if it is an indisputable fact, that Evelyn was on his way to becoming the best writer of his generation. I tend to agree with him, but am not sure it is indisputable; there are other contenders, even if we discount everyone at least ten years older.)

There is no dispute that Evelyn had a much closer relationship with his mother, that his father favoured Alec greatly as a child - which caused Evelyn upset. I am not sure that Evelyn was ever comfortable with his father, or vice versa, and I feel that his father would have preferred Alec to have been the greater success. I am sure Evelyn knew that to be true and I think that relationship affected the one with his brother. Alec felt bad, I feel, about the way he was favoured and was always kindly towards Evelyn - pushing his career and success,etc. Also, I think he was just, generally, a nice person and not jealous of him. Was Evelyn the best writer of his generation? I think he was, but it is not undisputable fact.

Oh, Yah! My copy of A Year To Remember has just arrived.

Greg wrote: "Oh, Yah! My copy of A Year To Remember has just arrived."

Look forward to your thoughts Greg

Nigeyb wrote: "Greg wrote: "Oh, Yah! My copy of A Year To Remember has just arrived."

Look forward to your thoughts Greg"

I'm enjoying this from the start. Straight up, page 9. an interesting fact revealed. Alec Waugh mentions Claud Cockburn, author and journalist for the Times in NY, was the cousin of Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. The Wikipedia information says Claud was the second cousin, once removed, of Alec and Evelyn. Claud Cockburn is the father of Alexander Cockburn, author of 'Corruptions of Empire' which I'm also reading at the moment.
A nice description of New York way of life and the confidence and lifestyle of young working people at that time.
Very interesting insight into the success or failure of a novel which he also references W. Somerset Maugham's advice in 'The Summing Up'. I am going to enjoy this book.

Greg, so glad you are enjoying it. If you do like it, then I heartily recommend My Brother Evelyn & Other Profiles. I actually think that is a better book, but it didn't do anything in the vote. Perhaps this was shorter? Alec Waugh is a very comforting writer, whose easy manner is a pleasure to read (in my opinion). He knew everybody in the world of literature/theatre and is ideally placed to tell us about the years between the wars.

Marvellous Greg. If you're anything like me you'll be looking names up every few pages. Keep us posted with your progress and your thoughts.

Thanks Susan for the recommendation, the more I read this book, the closer to the top of the to-read list goes 'My Brother Evelyn'.

I'm so impressed with Alec Waugh's easy charming style. I had to smile at the elegant way he describes why he was getting a definite kick out of his lectures.

Nigeyb, yes, absolutely taking notes to look into.

I realised today, in another book I've recently started, a biography on Paul Bowles. At the same time Alec Waugh was arriving in New York, Paul Bowles was leaving his native NY for Europe to meet Gertrude Stein, Andre Gide, Jean Cocteau, Hemingway. Bowles was 20 years old, he'd arrive with no introduction and knock on their door. Not only was he invariably asked in but more often would be asked to stay there.

I've usually got several books going at the same time, I find moving from one to another gives me a chance to process and integrate what I've just read. One book often compliments and illuminates another. Several books I'm reading at the moment are of the the same time period, the early thirties. A Year To Remember - Reminiscence of 1931, the Paul Bowles bio. and The History of Surrealism. I'm re-reading The History of Surrealism again after almost forty years. Reading this incredibly well written book has given me another perspective on A Year To Remember, a reminiscence of a year between two world wars, recovering from one and heading into another, even worse to come. A lot of lights are coming on for me while reading these two books.
Many books have been written as the result of the effects from experiencing the first and second world wars, and for different reasons. Mervyn Peake wrote Gormenghast as a result of the horror of WWII, Steinbeck wrote Cannery Row for some light relief for the troops, and Brideshead Revisited for similar reasons, to create something charming after what everyone went through.

Alec Waugh's reminiscences were of the same time as when the Surrealists were forming and writing their manifestos. The first world war was self-evident that the system in western civilisation wasn't working. The Surrealists were disgusted at the carnage and loss of life to the military machine of all the nations involved. This gives me a different outlook when reading Alec Waugh's charming reflections of his enviable lifestyle. This is non the less enjoyable and appreciative but with an underlying un-nerved sense of trepidation of what is just over the horizon for him and millions more.

I'm enjoying both these books, they compliment each other in a strange way that I couldn't have foreseen. Now to read on.

Thanks Greg. I always enjoy your thoughts and insights.

Burning curiosity, please, does anyone know who the unnamed painter is? Pages 124 - P.137.

Greg wrote: "I'm re-reading The History of Surrealism again after almost forty years. Reading this incredibly well written book has given me another perspective on A Year To Remember, a reminiscence of a year between two world wars, recovering from one and heading into another, even worse to come. A lot of lights are coming on for me while reading these two books.."

I've not heard of The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau before Greg. How accessible is it to someone with only limited knowledge of art history?

Nigeyb wrote: "Greg wrote: "I'm re-reading The History of Surrealism again after almost forty years. Reading this incredibly well written book has given me another perspective on A Year To Remember, a reminiscenc..."

Well Nigeyb, to answer your question, firstly, any book on Surrealism written circa 1960s-'70s that I've read are all by superb, excellent writers who obviously love their subject and art history in general and are very well researched. A good number of art history writers around that time were women. One of my favourites is 'Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute' by Anna Balakian.
Back in my youth, teens & early twenties, I was mostly interested in Surrealism, (as well as the Renaissance artists).

Surrealism is like a delta that opens out into many other areas, genres, and is tied to the history of the time. Surrealism involved visual artists, poets, writers, the theatre, politics. Surrealism was a trail I followed to discover The Aesthetes, The Symbolists and writers like J.K. Huysmans, Eastern mysticism, the history and politics of the 20th century.

Now, to getting around to answering your question. Maurice Nadeau's THoS is a wonderful introduction to expanding one's understanding of, not only how important and influential the movement was, but to see the context of how European history gave birth to Surrealism. Ezra Pound said that "The artist is the antennae of the race." The Surrealists were responding to the madness and despair of the senseless carnage of war and the economic instability that caused it. And also exploring the unconscious and the human condition.

The book is very clearly written and I think anybody with a limited knowledge of art history should find it interesting. It can also be a handy arrow to have in one's quiver when trapped in a boring social situation, ha, ha!
One can read any book on art history and see any art movement is absolutely a part of the history of its time.

Greg wrote: "The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau is a wonderful introduction to expanding one's understanding of, not only how important and influential the movement was, but to see the context of how European history gave birth to Surrealism. Ezra Pound said that "The artist is the antennae of the race." The Surrealists were responding to the madness and despair of the senseless carnage of war and the economic instability that caused it. And also exploring the unconscious and the human condition."

Thanks Greg. I realise, reading your wonderfully informative and helpful response, that I need to know more about twentieth century art movements. Part of my attraction with the early part of the twentieth century is that it was such a fertile time for ideas and social change. The art movements embody this culture of dynamism, change and excitement. I am gratified to notice that my library service has a copy of The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau. I shall borrow it as some point - though not sure when. I have an ever growing pile that includes the behemoth that is Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford which I need to start soon, in readiness for November's BYT discussion.

Greg wrote: "Any book on Surrealism written circa 1960s-70s that I've read are all by superb, excellent writers who obviously love their subject and art history in general and are very well researched. A good number of art history writers around that time were women. One of my favourites is Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute by Anna Balakian."

Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute by Anna Balakian is not in my library and is fairly pricey, though cheaper copies are available from the US. Which would you say is the better starting point? Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute by Anna Balakian or The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau?

Greg wrote: "Surrealism is like a delta that opens out into many other areas, genres, and is tied to the history of the time. Surrealism involved visual artists, poets, writers, the theatre, politics. Surrealism was a trail I followed to discover The Aesthetes, The Symbolists and writers like J.K. Huysmans, Eastern mysticism, the history and politics of the 20th century."

You have a way of enthusing me Greg. It's a delta that I need to explore.

Greg wrote: "One can read any book on art history and see any art movement is absolutely a part of the history of its time. "

Yes. I see that.

Greg wrote: "It can also be a handy arrow to have in one's quiver when trapped in a boring social situation, ha, ha! "

Arrows to puncture boring social situations. What would a surrealist's arrow look like I wonder?

Nigeyb wrote: "Greg wrote: "The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau is a wonderful introduction to expanding one's understanding of, not only how important and influential the movement was, but to see the con..."

Nigeyb, It is a worry, all these books rapidly piling up. I had ten on the go and have decided to get down to not more than two at a time. I'm now finishing the Paul Bowles bio I mentioned earlier which is of the same time as Alec Waugh's A Year to Remember. Now this is interesting, I've just read on p.181, Paul Bowles reminiscing in 1997 that (drumroll…) "The Tangier to which I wandered in my dream was the Tangier of 1931."

I read both the books on Surrealism around forty years ago, yikes!, these were magic years of discovery for me. I can vividly remember that I loved both books, I'd recommend either, probably the Maurice Nadeau if it is easier to obtain from the library. Another thought, I know you're very interested in London, I'd recommend any book about the artist Francis Bacon. I recommend David Sylvester's Interviews with Francis Bacon, 1962-1979. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

What would a Surrealist's arrow look like? That question is profound, Nigeyb. It is both a question and a philosophical statement. And you've just written a one line Surrealist poem. I think we should print it out and have it framed on the wall to think about each day. I can see a chap in a green cap leaping out of Sherwood Forest asking that question, someone resembling Michael Palin.

Greg wrote: "What would a Surrealist's arrow look like? That question is profound, Nigeyb. It is both a question and a philosophical statement. And you've just written a one line Surrealist poem. I think we should print it out and have it framed on the wall to think about each day. I can see a chap in a green cap leaping out of Sherwood Forest asking that question, someone resembling Michael Palin. "

That had me laughing out loud Greg.

Greg wrote: "I know you're very interested in London, I'd recommend any book about the artist Francis Bacon. I recommend David Sylvester's The Brutality of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon"

What a coincidence. Only last night I resolved to read a biography of Francis Bacon (off the back of Dog Days in Soho: One Man's Adventures in 1950s Bohemia and the podcast about Henrietta Moraes (the "Queen Of Soho" - and Bacon's muse) we discussed over at The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society).



All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I added The Gilded Gutter Life Of Francis Bacon: The Authorized Biography by Daniel Farson to a Xmas Wish List which probably means a kindly relative will probably buy it for me for Xmas.

And, as mentioned, I will also read The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau as it's relatively easy for me to get hold of. I look forward to it.

Thanks, as ever, Greg.