Reading the 20th Century discussion

The latest Backlisted Podcast is a discussion about...


Hemlock and After by Angus Wilson

More info here...

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/85...

Anyone read any Angus Wilson?

He's been on my radar for ages but I have yet to get to him

We've had a bit of a discussion about him over at The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Angus Wilson had an amazing life. It's well worth listening to just to find out more about his life and achievements.

Needless to say it also made me very keen to read Hemlock and After

I have a copy, as yet unread, of 'A Bit Off the Map' by Angus Wilson...




'A Bit Off the Map' by Angus Wilson

Because any book with a character who is a mentally subnormal teddy boy who drifts around cafes, infatuated with an untalented, artistic crowd sounds unmissable.



Seen on this page...

https://www.counter-currents.com/2015...

..which contains this description of the book...

By late 1957 a consensus had formed among the bien-pensants that the “messiahs of the milk bars” were little more than quasi-fascist hooligans. This comes out in a short story of the period, “A Bit off the Map,” title story of a collection by Angus Wilson (a friend and patron of Colin’s, but no relation).

It is a black comedy about London subcultures colliding. There is a dim teddy-boy male prostitute named Kennie, who has attached himself, mascot-like, to a gang of espresso-bar bohemians in Soho, known as “The Crowd.” As the evening progresses, they migrate to a birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then to North London where some grandées of the lit world are holding court (Edith Sitwell, perhaps, and Cyril Connolly). The party dribbles off and Kennie ends up on a bench in Hampstead Heath, where he kills a crazy old man.

Leader of The Crowd is the philosopher Huggett (obviously modeled on Colin Wilson), while next in line is poet-novelist Reg (a stand-in for Bill Hopkins). Kennie describes them:

Reg believes in Power and what he says is Shit in the face of humanity—if millions have to be liquidated what’s it matter? most people are never alive anyway but Huggett believes in Power and Leadership for the Regeneration of the World.

Reg is writing a novel with a character named Rawston, who is supposed to personify of indestrucible “Heroic Will” (this would be Plowart, of course, from The Divine and the Decay).

The Crowd is so transparently Colin Wilson and friends that the author feels obliged to “lampshade” the fact with this tongue-in-cheek disclaimer, spoken by teddy-boy Kennie:

The Crowd’s not the same as the Angry young men which you read about. Someone said it was and Huggett got very angry, because it’s by Love and Leadership that the Will works. And all these angry young men believe in democracy and freedom and a lot of stuff that Huggett says just gets in the way of real thinking.

Colin and Bill seemed to have enjoyed this cartoon depiction of them. Technically, you might say, it wasn’t really about them. It was more of a “meta-caricature,” a send-up of the way popular journalism had been portraying them.

He looks very interesting, Nigeyb. I will certainly download the Backlisted episode and enjoy learning about 'new' authors that you can discover, fully formed, as it were.

Hemlock and After sounds excellent - a novel set in a writers retreat/centre - what's not to like?! I recall Evelyn Waugh's brother, Alec, writing about visiting somewhere similar in America. When you search for Angus Wilson that novel comes up first, showing the growing popularity of Backlisted. I have noticed our local Waterstones often highlights books they mention in the window.

By the way, I was going to add the Patrick Hamilton novel at 99p in the Hamilton thread and couldn't find it. Is it too early for my ageing eyes, or could it be that we don't have one?! Possibly the former, but I feel this must be addressed, if not...

I don't think we have one yet. I should set one up.

I've just read a short story by Angus Wilson ..Mummy to the Rescue as part of the Short Story Club , here on GR .

It was pretty impressive , exploring Freudian psychology with more than a twist of darkness .

There's a documentary about him "Skating on Thin Ice " on YouTube and explores his life , work and his disappearance from the literary memory . ...
And as an aside , I have the same wallpaper in my bedroom as Murdoch does
in her study ...

And his obituary was written by Paul Bailey , another great and forgotten writer

Thanks Hester


I've still yet to read any AW despite my Spidey senses emphatically telling me we'd get on famously

I will have a look, Hester. A lot of his books seem to have been reprinted and I would like to try him. Thanks.

I'm going to have a look too . I found the documentary very interesting (although it was Drabble not Murdoch with the fabulous Morris wallpaper). He championed Woolf , Compton Burnett and others on the creative writing course he founded with Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia in 1970 . He kept pushing his fiction to the boundaries and his ideas didn't chime with the New Kids in town . Martin Amis wrote a scathing review of his last novel, very much in the tone of a new pretender to the throne . He was also a contemporary of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park and suffered a nervous breakdown , after which his writing career began , his recovery aided by extensive psychotherapy .

I am interested in mid century novelists that have difficult childhoods and are also born into poverty , but are gifted with intelligence that allows them to breach the glass ceiling into the elite world of the arts , How do they find the bravery and courage to write beyond a sense of their own victimhood and forge new territories ? How do they avoid being labelled as token representatives of another world ? What do they sacrifice in the necessary assimilation into a culture that belittles or exoticises their pedigree ?
How did homosexuals navigate a world where their sexuality was a crime ?
Denis Potter , that fellow traveller , dramatised one of his novels , maybe more , and I am thinking if it was good enough for Denis why is he still forgotten ?

I've only vaguely heard of his Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and had filed Wilson mentally with Malcolm Bradbury - not having read either of them.

Interesting assessment of him here from the Guardian archives:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Hester wrote: "I'm going to have a look too . I found the documentary very interesting (although it was Drabble not Murdoch with the fabulous Morris wallpaper). He championed Woolf , Compton Burnett and others on..."

Wilson was educated at Westminster i.e. a public school then Oxford so doesn't really fit the bill when it comes to mid-century writers from poorer backgrounds. But might be worth trying Late Call, I tried Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and struggled, but read Late Call when Faber reissued it as one of their lost vintage/classics. I struggled with aspects of that one too but there were some very good bits.

If you're interested in what it was like to be queer in England pre-1966 then loads of books around that cover that.

https://www.gaystheword.co.uk/queer-h...

Incidentally why would someone with a working-class background who then became a lit/arts celebrity etc necessarily view themselves as a victim? Many simply viewed rich people as posh tossers - and in the 1950s/60s when working-class writers were in the ascendent as increasingly irrelevant.

This is off-topic but, Alwynne, your list reminded me of a book I've got my eye on wondered if you've read it or know anything of the author?

Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion by Eleanor Medhurst

I read Anglo-Saxon Attitudes some time in the last year or so. I'm not familiar enough with the British literature of the period to give more than an opinion on whether I liked it. It is a satire and enjoyed it, but my lack of background would prevent me from saying much more. I would not be able to distinguish the author from others of the same ilk,

Roman Clodia wrote: "This is off-topic but, Alwynne, your list reminded me of a book I've got my eye on wondered if you've read it or know anything of the author?

[book:Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion|1978124..."

I can't decide. I followed her blog for a long time https://dressingdykes.com/
and I think this may just be a rewrite/compilation of various posts. I haven't seen the book in the wild yet so I'll probably decide once I can get a look at it, read some extracts.

She covered some really interesting territory in the blog but her writing can be a bit clunky and her analysis not that sophisticated. Probably not that dissimilar to Charlie Porter? Maybe sample some blog posts and see what you think?

Thanks all


Very interested in finding out more about AW

Please update this thread with any more insights

Alwynne wrote: "I followed her blog for a long time https://dressingdykes.com/"

Ah, thanks - great link! I haven't seen it in the shops yet either, saw it being discussed on LitHub. Good point about Charlie Porter - some of the reviews of this say it's too academic, others that it's not academic enough. It's on my library list for the moment.

Sorry for the diversion from Angus Wilson, everyone.