Anthony Powell News

2011 Christmas Competition

2011-12-01T11:31:00.001Z

2011 Prize Competition

This year contestants are asked to write parody answers to "magazine-style" interview questions as they may have been given by Anthony Powell. Entries must answer at least eight of the following questions; additional questions of your choice may be included.

Favourite childhood book?
Bad book habit?
Do you have an e-reader?
Least favourite book you read this year (so far)?
How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Can you read on the bus?
What is your favourite language to read in?
Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?
Have you ever read a self-help book?
Favourite reading snack?
If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Favourite fictional character?
Favourite fictional villain?
What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Name a book that made you angry.
Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

Maximum three entries per person.
The prize is a year’s membership of the Society or Society merchandise to the same value (please state your preference).

Entries by post, fax or email, with your name & address should be sent to:
2011 Prize Competition, Anthony Powell Society, 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK
Fax: +44 (0)20 8020 1483
Email: comp@anthonypowell.org
by the closing date of 31 January 2012.

The winning entry will be the one which most amuses the AP Society Newsletter Editor.
The winner will be announced in the Spring 2012 Newsletter.

Competition Conditions
The judges’ decision is final and binding. Entry is open to Anthony Powell Society members and non-members. No purchase necessary. Entries must be original and the work of the person submitting them. Maximum three entries per person. No cash alternative. No correspondence will be entered into. The Anthony Powell Society reserves the right to publish the entries but otherwise copyright remains with the author.

Powell–Vanderbilt Letters

2011-11-07T16:19:00.000Z

The Acceptance of Absurdity
Anthony Powell – Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952-1963

Edited by John Saumarez Smith & Jonathan Kooperstein
Paperback; 2011

AP Society Members’ Price: UK £17, Overseas £19.50
Non-Members Price: £19.50 + p&p at cost

We are pleased to have acquired a supply of the following which has just been published …In February 1952 the proprietor of the leading Anglophile bookshop in New York, Robert Vanderbilt Jr, wrote to Anthony Powell suggesting that he should reprint one, possibly two, of Powell's pre-war novels. This led to an animated exchange of letters about the production and sale of Two Novels: Venusberg and Agents & Patients and a longstanding friendship. When Powell became Literary Editor of Punch the correspondence took on a new life as both men helped each other find books to review or sell. The result is a literary kaleidoscope with London and New York equally represented. It also reminds a later generation of the lasting rewards of letter writing.

Copies may be ordered by emailing secretary@anthonypowell.org.

Announcement: Borage & Hellebore

2011-11-06T14:25:00.000Z

The Anthony Powell Society is pleased to announce ...

Borage and Hellebore
The Many Sides of Anthony Powell’s Art

with
Dr Nicholas Birns*
and guests

Conference Room, St James’s Church
Piccadilly, London, W1

Saturday 17 March 2012
1345 hrs

Tickets £10
(includes tea/coffee and cake)

Is A Dance to the Music of Time the only reason to read Anthony Powell?
Or do his other novels, memoirs, journals, reviews, criticism, biography and plays offer a body of work fully the equal of Dance?
Join Nick Birns and guests for an invigorating afternoon debate on whether Anthony Powell was the author of one great work or the great author of many works in multiple genres.

A rare opportunity to hear and debate with one of the world’s experts on Anthony Powell’s works

Members and non-members welcome.

Please book by email to secretary@anthonypowell.org.

* Nick Birns teaches English literature and humanities at Eugene Lang College, the New School, New York and is author of Understanding Anthony Powell (U. South Carolina Press; 2004) and Theory After Theory: An Intellectual History of Literary Theory from 1950 to the Early 21st Century (Broadview; 2010). He is author of several other books as well as papers and reviews in a wide range of publications.

2011-11-04T17:53:00.000Z

For those of you within striking distance of London there are AP Soc London Group two events coming up, one each side of Christmas:

Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch

Saturday 3 December 2011, 1230 for 1300 hrs
Queen’s Head & Artichoke, 30-32 Albany Street, London NW1
Celebrate Powell’s birthday and wedding anniversary with a gastro-pub lunch.
2 courses for £19, 3 courses for £23 (plus service and drinks).

Hon. Secretary’s New Year Breakfast

Saturday 14 January 2012, 0900 hrs
5th Floor Café, Waterstone’s, Piccadilly, London W1
Celebrate the New Year with a difference: an informal Saturday breakfast in a bookshop! There'll be the usual good company, good conversation and good food plus Waterstone’s five floors of books. Waterstones, Piccadilly is in the former Simpson’s tailors building – which Powell surely knew – and is only a few hundred yards from the Ritz.

Both events are pay on the day. Non-members are welcome. Please book by email to secretary@anthonypowell.org.

Catholic Herald

2011-09-11T16:28:00.000+01:00

There's a nice little squib for Dance by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith in this week's online version of the Catholic Herald.

The 1951 Cheltenham Booker Prize

2011-09-09T14:37:00.000+01:00

Our attention has been drawn to the following session at the upcoming Cheltenham Festival ...

L344 The 1951 Cheltenham Booker Prize
Saturday, October 15, 2011 - 16:00

Which 1951 book deserves to win our very own Booker? You have the vote!
Join Man Booker Prizes Literary Director Ion Trewin and our panel of judges, Amanda Foreman, Natalie Haynes, A L Kennedy, Alex Preston and Erica Wagner, as they debate the merits of Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids and Anthony Powell’s A Question of Upbringing.
With an introduction by John Coldstream.

Annual Lecture Mention in Evening Standard

2011-09-09T14:34:00.000+01:00

The following appeared in the Londoner's Diary of the Evening Standrad on 7 September

A Widmerpool shoo-in
PROFESSOR Vernon Bogdanor is giving the next Anthony Powell Annual Lecture at the Wallace Collection in November on “The Politics of A Dance to the Music of Time”. The Anthony Powell Society has in the past awarded its Widmerpool Award to Derry Irvine, the Labour Lord Chancellor, judged to have behaved in the most Widmerpudlian fashion in the previous year.
Bogdanor, who taught David Cameron at Oxford, would be well-placed to point to a Tory who, as Widmerpool has been described, is a “boring, overwhelmingly ambitious arriviste, whose conversations are hideously detailed and humourless”. Surely John Bercow has got a sporting chance?

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture 2011

2011-07-19T14:20:00.000+01:00

The Anthony Powell Society is pleased to announce ...

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture 2011

in collaboration with

The Wallace Collection

"The Politics of the Dance"

To be given by

Professor Vernon Bogdanor

The Wallace Collection

Manchester Square, London, W1

Friday 18 November 2011 at 1830 hrs

Cost £12.50
(includes a glass of wine after the lecture)

Booking essential
Tickets from the Hon. Secretary on 020 8864 4095
or secretary@anthonypowell.org

The Wallace Collection’s restaurant will be open following the lecture for those who wish to dine
Table booking on 020 7563 9505

Formerly Professor of Government at Oxford, Professor Bogdanor is now Research Professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College, London. He has written a number of books on the British constitution and is now engaged in writing a political history of Britain in the 20th century. He is a frequent contributor to TV, radio and the press.
He regards A Dance to the Music of Time as the finest achievement of English fiction since the war.

Lord Gowrie on Dance

2011-05-28T08:30:00.000+01:00

There’s a long piece by Grey Gowrie on “The End of Dance” in the June 2011 issue of Standpoint magazine. It is printed in full at http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/3937/full. Although I’ve not yet read it (I'm keeping that pleasure for this evening) it looks as if it is heavily based on Lord Gowrie’s 2010 Anthony Powell Lecture (19 November 2010 at The Wallace Collection).

[Note: The text in the online version is correct. Apparently two pages in the print version were transposed.]

Anthony Powell Conference 2011

2011-05-04T21:33:00.000+01:00

The Anthony Powell Society are pleased to announce full details and booking information for the 6th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference on Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September 2011 at the Naval & Military Club, St James's Square, London SW1.

The conference programme contains over a dozen very varied papers on all aspects of Powell’s milieu and work as well as invited talks from Ferdinand Mount (Powell’s nephew), Glenmore Trenear-Harvey and Simon Vance.

There will also be a buffet reception, a guided pub crawl of Fitzrovia, bus tour of London places associated with AP and a finally Sunday Lunch.

Rather than reproduce all the conference details here you can find them on the Conference 2011 page of the Anthony Powell Society website and in the downloadable Booking Leaflet. Members and non-members are equally welcome at what promises to be a great weekend.

We very much hope to see you there!

AP Photograph for Auction

2011-03-09T11:03:00.000Z

The following lot is in Bonham's (New Bond Street, London) sale Papers & Portraits: The Roy Davids Collection Part II on 29 March 2011.

-----------
Lot No: 184
POWELL, ANTHONY (1905-2000, novelist)
PORTRAIT BY LUCINDA DOUGLAS-MENZIES (b. 1956), vintage photograph, silver print, half-length, in the background his Georgian house, The Chantry, near Frome, Somerset, photographer's stamp, and her signature and name of sitter and date 11 April 1988 in pencil on verso, framed and glazed, size of image 11 x 11 inches (27 x 27 cm), overall size 19 x 18½ inches (48 x 47 cm), 11 April 1988

Estimate: £400 - 500, € 470 - 590

Footnote:
This portrait was taken on 11 April 1988 at The Chantry, Near Frome, Somerset, and was exhibited at Lucinda Douglas-Menzies's exhibition Portraits of Luminaries at the Stephen Bartley Gallery, London, in 1988. An example of it is in the National Portrait Gallery.
-----------

All enquiries to Bonham's, please.

Books & Breakfast

2011-02-25T12:30:00.000Z

Anthony Powell Society London Group

Books and Breakfast

Saturday 2 April 2011
0930 to 1130 hrs

5th Floor Café, Waterstone’s, Piccadilly, London W1

Come and enjoy a meeting with a difference … an informal Saturday breakfast in a bookshop! There’ll be the usual good company, good conversation and good food plus Waterstone’s five floors of books. Waterstone's, Piccadilly is in the former Simpson’s tailors building – which Powell surely knew and is only a hundred yards or so from the Ritz.

Afterwards why not visit the excellent Arts & Crafts Market at St James’s Piccadilly?

Non-members welcome.
Please book with the Hon. Secretary.

6th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference 2011

2010-12-15T09:50:00.000Z

Sixth Biennial Anthony Powell Conference

Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September 2011
Naval & Military Club, 4 St James's Square, London W1, UK

The Anthony Powell Society is pleased to announce the sixth international conference, dedicated to the work, life and times of Anthony Powell, is to be held in the grand and elegant surroundings of the Naval & Military Club, one of London's most prestigious gentlemen's clubs. The club's premises are the former home of Nancy Astor, the first British woman Member of Parliament.

Call for Papers

The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for the discussion of Powell, his life and his works. The organisers hope to attract Powell academics, aficionados, enthusiasts and newcomers to his work alike. Papers and discussions during the conference might include, but are by no means limited to:

* the influence of London on Powell's writing
* the London literary and social scene in Powell's time
* Powell's literary friendships
* Powell and biography
* the importance of the publishing industry to Powell and his friends
* the influence of art on Powell and his literary contemporaries

Papers that directly address the conference theme of Anthony Powell's Literary London will be especially welcome. Prospective speakers are invited to submit for review abstracts of not more than 300 words. Submissions may be made by email, fax or by post accompanied by the form on the full Call for Papers (or equivalent information). Submissions must be received by Friday 7 January 2011.

Outline Proposed Programme

Plenary sessions: Friday & Saturday
Reception: Friday evening
Events: Friday afternoon, Saturday evening & Sunday morning

Pre-Registration
If you are not submitting a paper but wish to receive further information about the conference and be placed on the priority mailing list please email your name, and mailing address to conference@anthonypowell.org.

Further conference details and booking is expected to be available in Spring 2011.

Dance Available as an E-Book

2010-11-25T17:03:00.000Z

On 1 December the University of Chicago Press will be publishing e-books of each of the twelve individual novels of Dance – and for the month of December they'll be giving away the first, A Question of Upbringing, free.

Starting on 1st December, people will be able to go to pretty much any place that sells e-books or to the U of C site http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/powell to get their free copy of the first book. The rest of the volumes will be $8.00 apiece.

Sadly this release is not available outside the United States. We eagerly await a UK release.

Anthony Powell Society Events, 2011

2010-11-24T20:20:00.000Z

Thus far the following dates have been arranged for AP Society events in 2011. Further dates and events will be announced in due course.

London Group Quarterly Pub Meets
Saturday 12 February 2011
Saturday 14 May 2011
Saturday 13 August 2011
Saturday 5 November 2011
Venue: The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1
Time: 1230 to 1530 hrs
Join us for good drink, good food, good company and Powell chat in a Victorian pub which AP would have known. Open to members & non-members. Booking not required.

Sixth Biennial Anthony Powell Conference
Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September 2011
Venue: Naval & Military Club, 4 St James's Square, London, W1
Time: 0900 hrs
Sixth international conference, dedicated to the work, life and times of Anthony Powell. Open to members & non-members. Further details on the website: 2011 Conference page or Call for Papers or by email from the Conference Office.

11th AP Society Annual General Meeting
Saturday 22 October 2011
Venue: tba (probably central London)
Time: 1400 hrs
The AGM will be followed at 1500hrs by a talk. Members only at the AGM; all welcome at the talk.

London Group Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch
Saturday 3 December 2011
Venue: Central London, tba
Time: 1200 for 1230 hrs
The London Group's annual celebration of Powell's birthday and marriage. Open to members & non-members.

Further details of all events may be obtained from Keith Marshall.

NY Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch

2010-11-24T20:09:00.000Z

Friday 17 December 2010
NY & NE USA Group Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch

Venue: Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, USA
Time: 1200 noon

The lunch was established by the late Bill Warren, President of the Grolier Club during the 1990s, and guests will be able to visit current Grolier exhibitions. The program will include presentations about Bill's scholarly enthusiasm for Powell's writing and about his success as a collector of AP's books and manuscripts.

Advanced booking essential; reservations limited to 35. Please book soonest with Ed Bock.

OUT NOW : Dance Music

2010-11-22T19:59:00.000Z

We are pleased to announce availability of the Society’s latest publication:

Jeff Manley et al., Dance Music: A Guide to the Musical References in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time
Paperback. 156 pages.

Price if purchased from the Society ...
AP Society Members: UK: £7, Overseas: £11.50 (including p&p).
Non-members: as members but p&p extra at cost.

Alphabetical guide to musical references that appear Dance. The references are discussed within their context in the novels as well as the historical and critical positions they occupy in the various types music they represent. An essential adjunct to Hilary Spurling's Handbook.

"Powell throws into Dance a huge variety of musical allusions, both classical and popular. This guide is most impressively researched; it is a fascinating and inestimable companion. It gathers together a wealth of references, many identifiable but in danger of being forgotten; some tantalisingly allusive but now revealed in context. It fills in the background in a way I’ve found fascinating and from which I’ve learnt so much. It will prove invaluable in years to come when the music of Powell’s era will be even more underplayed and undervalued than it is nowadays, a decade after his death. Jeff Manley has done a wonderful job keeping these musical references alive and preserving their meaning.” Paul Guinery

Available now via Amazon or by email from the Society.

Jeff and and his team (Nick Birns, Ed Bock, John Gould, Paul Guinery, Peter Kislinger and Prue Raper) have done a magnificent job! Well done to them.

FT Recognise the Anthony Powell Society

2010-07-22T14:15:00.000+01:00

There's a nice small squib for the Anthony Powell Society on the Financial Times's Reconnoisseur webpages.

Complete Dance Audio Book

2010-07-21T21:57:00.001+01:00

This is fantastic news! I knew it was on the way, but it has arrived much sooner than expected.

Audible have today released a complete, unabridged, audio book of Dance, read by Simon Vance who has an excellent (English) voice. So far the recordings are available only via Audible’s download facility, which means you have to install their “file manager” on your PC to play what are essentially MP3 files, although they should be able to be ported to your iPod or similar (although I haven’t yet tested this).

The recordings are issued (and are purchased) in four trilogies, with each trilogy containing a separate MP3 file for each book. Beware these are large downloads (average 100MB per file, and there are 12 of them!) unless you have a fast broadband connection.

What is amazing is that the recordings are not expensive. Each trilogy is just $34.95 from www.audible.com or £27.59 from www.audible.co.uk, unless you already subscribe to Audible when they are hugely discounted. As Audible is an Amazon company expect to see these appear eventually on Amazon. I’m told there will be a CD version available later in the year.

This is an astonishing 80 hours of audio, so clearly I've not yet been able to listen to it all, but from the little snippets I have heard the recordings are most excellent.

Now, where else can you get 80 hours of quality audio for under $140 or £110 ????

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture

2010-06-04T15:35:00.000+01:00

We are pleased to announce ...

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture

in collaboration with

The Wallace Collection

"The End of the Dance"

To be given by

The Earl of Gowrie

The Wallace Collection

Manchester Square, London, W1

Friday 19 November 2010 at 1830 hrs

Cost £12.50

(includes a glass of wine)

Booking essential. Tickets from the Hon. Secretary on 020 8864 4095 or secretary@anthonypowell.org

The Wallace Collection’s restaurant will be open following the lecture for those who wish to dine. Table booking on 020 7563 9505

Lord Gowrie will discuss the end of the Dance sequence, its relationship to contemporary experiences of the ’60s and to the finale of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu.

Lord Gowrie held several posts in Margaret Thatcher’s government including a period as Minister for the Arts. He is also a former Chairman of the Arts Council and of Sotheby’s. A friend of the Powells, he has long been a devotee of Dance.

Bodleian Library Tour, Saturday 19 June - CANCELLED

2010-06-04T15:17:00.000+01:00

We regret that it has been necessary to cancel the scheduled tour of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. We hope to rearrange the tour for a future date.

REMINDER: Upcoming Events

2010-05-19T16:30:00.000+01:00

Tickets are still available for the next two Anthony Powell Society events:

----------
AP Society 10th Birthday & 50th Anniversary of Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant
Tuesday 1 June 2010
As seems appropriate we are visiting one of London’s renowned Chinese restaurants

Meet: 1830 for 1900 hrs at Beehive, 126 Crawford St, London W1
Dine: 1930 hrs at Phoenix Palace Chinese Restaurant, 5 Glentworth Street, London NW1

We will meet in the Beehive for a quick pre-prandial drink and then take the 3 minute walk to the restaurant.
Cost £30 for 4 course set menu, including service but not drinks.
Advanced booking advised so we can ensure we have a large enough table.
----------

----------
Bodleian Library Tour and Oxford Pub Lunch
Saturday 19 June 2010

Meet: 1015 hrs prompt at Bodleian Library Main Entrance
Cost: £12 per person for the tour

The Bodleian is one of the great libraries of the world and was an essential research resource for Powell’s biography of John Aubrey. The 1½ hour guided tour will include the basement and reading rooms.
After the tour we’ll adjourn across the road to the King’s Arms for pub lunch.
Even if you can’t come on the tour you will be welcome to join us in the pub.
Advanced booking essential for the tour as places are strictly limited.
----------

Members & non-members are welcome at both events.
Please conact Keith Marshall.for further details and booking.

Extraordinary London Pub Meet, Saturday 26 June - CANCELLED

2010-05-19T16:18:00.000+01:00

We regret that for personal reasons Nick Birns has had to cancel his planned trip to London. The Extraordinary London Pub Meet on 26 June, at which Nick was to lead discussion of What’s Become of Waring is therefore cancelled. We hope to reschedule this meeting for a future date.

Keith Marshall
Hon. Secretary
Anthony Powell Society

Weblogs on Dance

2010-04-22T10:27:00.000+01:00

It's been an interesting few days in the Powell corner of the websphere with at least two weblogs writing about Dance.

First of all Max Cairnduff at Pechorin's Journal has reviewed the whole of Dance as a summary of his reading the sequence and to conclude his associated sequence of reviews. Here are links to all Max's reviews (well the ones I've found) in antichronological order:

In addition at {THE GREAT WHITE SPACE} we find Reggie Oliver nominating Dance his choice as The Book I Would Like To Be Buried With

Enjoy!

Collage Event, Saturday 24 April - CANCELLED

2010-04-16T13:43:00.000+01:00

It is with regret that I am cancelling the Collage Event planned for Saturday 24 April, due to a lack of participants. This is the first time I recall cancelling an Society event due to lack of interest; this is disappointing!

If, and only if, there is sufficient interest expressed (and that means I need at least 12 people interested) I will consider rearranging the event for mid-July (the exact date will depend, in part, on finding a venue). If you are interested you need to contact me and tell me, please, by Friday 14 May.

Keith Marshall
Hon. Secretary
Anthony Powell Society

Powell-related Photographs Online

2010-01-25T16:00:00.000Z

Those of you who take photographs, and no doubt others, will be aware of the Flickr image sharing site, www.flickr.com.

We are pleased to announce that there is now a Flickr group called "Anthony Powell" for photos etc. relating to the Anthony Powell Society and indeed Powell himself, as its description says:

This group is for images relating to the English author Anthony Powell (1905-2000) and the Anthony Powell Society. It is intended that the group include not just images of Powell himself but also people, places or objects related to Powell, his life and his work and the activities of the Anthony Powell Society ...

Please observe copyright and other legal restrictions on images; for instance do not post images of Powell which are owned by image libraries, newspapers, etc. Images which are believed to contravene copyright rules, or which have no obvious connection to Anthony Powell, will be removed.

Basic membership of Flickr is free and there is a small annual charge for "enhanced" membership. Anyone on Flickr may join the "Anthony Powell" group and add images. Currently only some of my photos are there. So if you're on Flickr, or interested in photography, please join the group and contribute.

Anthony Powell Society Events 2010

2010-01-25T15:52:00.000Z

We are delighted to announce the following Society events for 2010; hopefully there will be others to follow.

Saturday 13 February 2010
London Group Quarterly Pub Meet
Venue: The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1
Time: 1230 to 1530 hrs
Join us for good drink, good food, good company and Powell chat in a Victorian pub which AP would have known. Open to members & non-members. Booking not required. Further details from Keith Marshall.

Saturday 24 April 2010
St George's Day & AP Soc 10th Anniversary Collage Event
Venue: The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London, W1
Time: 1230-1630 hrs
Come along and learn about collage, one of AP's artistic pastimes. Make your own collage and help us build a large communal collage to celebrate AP and the Society's 10th Birthday. The session will be led by artist Laura Miller. Buy your own lunch; tea/coffee and biscuits provided. Small charge on the day to cover room hire, materials and refreshments. Members & non-members welcome. For further details & booking contact Keith Marshall.

Saturday 8 May 2010
London Group Quarterly Pub Meet
Details as Saturday 13 February

Tuesday 1 June 2010
Society 10th Birthday & 50th Anniversary of Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
Time: evening
As seems appropriate we will visit one of London's renowned Chinese restaurants. Members & non-members welcome. Details to follow. For further details & booking contact Keith Marshall.

Saturday 19 June 2010
Bodleian Library Tour & Oxford Pub Lunch
Meet: Bodleian Library Main Entrance
Time: 1015 hrs prompt
Cost: £12 per person for the tour
The Bodleian is one of the great libraries of the world and was an essential research resource for Powell's biography of John Aubrey. The 1½ hour guided tour will include the basement and reading rooms. After the tour we adjourn across the road to the King's Arms for pub lunch. Even if you can't come on the tour you will be welcome to join us in the pub. All welcome. Advanced booking (with payment) essential as places are strictly limited. For further details & booking contact Keith Marshall.

Saturday 26 June 2010
Extraordinary London Group Pub Meet
Venue: The Audley, Mount Street, London, W1
Time: 1230 to 1530 hrs
Special Guest: Dr Nicholas Birns, the leading expert of Powell's work, will lead discussion of What's Become of Waring
Join us for good drink, good food, good company and Powell chat in a Victorian pub which AP would have known. Open to members & non-members. Booking not required. Further details from Keith Marshall.

Saturday 14 August 2010
London Group Quarterly Pub Meet
Details as Saturday 13 February

Saturday 23 October 2010
Whitechapel Bell Foundry Tour
Venue: Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 32/34 Whitechapel Road, London E1
Time: 0930 hrs
Cost: £10 per person
The Guinness Book of Records lists the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as Britain's oldest manufacturing company, having been established in 1570 (during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I) and being in continuous business ever since. An unusual tour of this working foundry which is a genuine part of Britain's cultural heritage and gives an intriguing look at the quintessentially English art of bell-ringing. All welcome. Advanced booking (with payment) essential as places are strictly limited. For further details & booking contact Keith Marshall.

Saturday 23 October 2010
10th Annual General Meeting
Venue: V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green Road, London, E2
Time: 1400 hrs
AGM will be followed at 1500hrs with a talk "Anthony Powell's Edwardian Childhood" by Noreen Marshall, Senior Curator, V&A Museum of Childhood.
Members only at the AGM; all welcome at the talk. Further details from Keith Marshall.

Saturday 13 November 2010
London Group Quarterly Pub Meet
Details as Saturday 13 February

Saturday 4 December 2010
London Group Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch
Venue: tba
Time: 1200 for 1230 hrs
The London Group's annual celebration of Powell's birthday and marriage. The venue will be a moderately priced restaurant, probably in central London. Open to members & non-members. Further details when available from Keith Marshall.

AP Soc London Group: AP Birthday Lunch

2009-11-25T17:14:00.002Z

Anthony Powell Birthday Lunch

Saturday 5 December 2009

Spaghetti House, 20 Sicilian Avenue, London WC1

1215 for 1230 hrs

Following the success of last year’s Birthday Lunch we will again visit the Spaghetti House in Sicilian Avenue.

If you wish to come, please contact the Hon. Secretary, secretary@anthonypowell.org, so we can ensure we have a large enough table.

Non-members are welcome.

Why not join us for the usual convivial time: good food, good wine and good conversation – and follow it with a cultural stroll round AP-land, a visit to the British Museum or a little light Christmas shopping?

Reminder: Anthony Powell Annual Lecture 2009

2009-11-25T17:10:00.002Z

A reminder that the 2009 Anthony Powell Lecture is this Saturday, 28 November. Tickets are still available from The Wallace Collection. Full details here.

Dance on Channel 4 On Demand

2009-10-25T14:27:00.002Z

The 1997 Channel 4 films of A Dance to the Music of Time are now available to view, free, via Channel 4's On Demand service at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-dance-to-the-music-of-time/4od. Currently though they are only available to UK viewers and have to be viewed online.

We understand, however, that Channel 4 have plans to port their entire back list to You Tube, when presumably the videos would be accessible world-wide.

OUT NOW: John Gould, Dance Class

2009-08-30T17:00:00.005+01:00

Dance Class
American High School students Encounter Dance

by John Gould
with a Foreword by Dr Nicholas Birns

Dance Class offers an extraordinary collection of essays about Anthony Powell’s great comic novel from John’s two courses (2001-2 and 2007-8) teaching Dance to senior high school students. The young authors discuss issues of character, plot and theme; investigate historical background; chart personal relevance; parody characters and situations; even write a treatment for a drama. This book reveals fresh new ways of looking at Dance.

Published by iUniverse and being launched at the Washington Conference.

Order now from iUniverse.com, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. ISBN 9781440129032. Cover price $18.95.

We are grateful to John for pledging the royalties from this book to the Society.

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture 2009

2009-08-30T16:47:00.004+01:00

Anthony Powell Annual Lecture 2009

Saturday 28 November 2009

Anthony Powell's Dance:
One Historian's Inspiration, Exasperation, Consolation

to be given by David Kynaston

Venue: The Wallace Collection
Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, W1

Time: 1830 hrs

Booking essential: Tickets £10 (which includes a glass of wine after the lecture) from The Wallace Collection on 020 7563 9551 or booking@wallacecollection.org.

David Kynaston is author of the widely acclaimed Austerity Britain, first part of Tales of a New Jerusalem, his multi-volume social history of post-war Britain. Volume 2, Family Britain, covering the period 1951-57, will be published in early November.

David has said he "envisaged the project as owing something to two types of artistic inspiration: the thickly textured panorama of a 19th century "loose, baggy monster" realist novel, with perhaps a dash of Frith's Derby Day painting; and the roman-fleuve of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time novels".

In his lecture David offers a personal response to Powell's sequence and reflects on the value of historical fiction.

Austerity Britain won the Yorkshire Post award for best non-fiction book in 2008.

UPDATE: 5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference

2009-08-30T16:43:00.001+01:00

Conference places are still available.

See earlier entries for details.

UPDATE: 5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference

2009-06-07T16:25:00.003+01:00

Alison Lurie now booked to speak at conference

10% DISCOUNT
on all bookings received and paid between 1 June and 14 July

----ooOoo----

5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference
Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September 2009
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Provisional Programme
Thursday evening : Intro. Session with Buffet Dinner; speaker Alan Furst
Friday all day & Saturday morning : Conference Plenary Sessions plus a visit to the Powell-related materials in the John Monagan archive of GU Library
Saturday afternoon : Literary sightseeing tour of Washington, DC

Nick Birns has put together a sparkling array of speakers including Rick Rylance, Mark Facknitz and Alan Furst

Also included: a gala buffet dinner, visit to the Powell-related materials in the John Monagan archive of Georgetown University Library and a literary sightseeing tour of Washington, DC

Full details may be found in the booking leaflet or on the AP website

Powell and Simon Russell Beale

2009-05-23T11:29:00.002+01:00

There’s an interesting piece by Valerie Grove in today’s Times on AP Soc President Simon Russell Beale and his love of books. It includes:

He hadn’t read Anthony Powell before he played the awful Widmerpool, but so definitive was his performance that he was asked to speak at Powell’s memorial service. He read from A Dance to the Music of Time about “new news every day ... of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres” and so pleased the Powellites that he was invited to be president of the Anthony Powell Society.

The full article can be found here.

New Anthony Powell Website

2009-05-07T18:50:00.003+01:00

We are please to announce that after a long gestation the new Anthony Powell website is now live.

While there isn’t a lot of new content (yet), apart from John Gould’s pages from his Dance classes at Andover which we are now hosting, the site has had a complete makeover, within the existing branding, And hopefully there will be new pages to come over the coming weeks/months once we’re happy the new site is bedded in and stress tested. We think we’ve pretty well tested it all, but if you find anything broken, please tell us so we can fix it.

You’ll also notice that we have added eBay as an associate, so those of you who use eBay, if you navigate there through the link on the homepage then the Society should get a small contribution from your purchases. Similarly for our existing associates Amazon, Amazon UK and Abebooks.

I’d like to thank Gordon Kirk for all the hours he’s put into the new site.

Anthony Powell Society Revised Subscriptions

2009-04-13T16:09:00.002+01:00

Membership and subscriptions for the Anthony Powell Society have been updated. The new details may be found on the Society's website.

Tour of Bodleian Library

2009-04-13T15:54:00.002+01:00

We are pleased to announce ...

Tour of Bodleian Library, Oxford & Pub Lunch
Saturday 27 June 2009
Meet: 1015 hrs prompt, Bodleian Library Main Entrance
Cost: £12 per person for the tour

The Bodleian is one of the great libraries of the world and was an essential research resource for Powell’s biography of John Aubrey. The tour, which will last about 1½ hours, will include the basement and reading rooms.

Following the tour we will adjourn across the road to the King’s Arms. Even if you can’t come on the tour you will be welcome to join us at the King’s Arms for drink, food, good company and Powell chat.

Advanced booking (with payment) essential for the tour as places are strictly limited; please contact the Hon. Secretary. All welcome.

Collage for Fun Afternoon

2009-04-13T15:46:00.003+01:00

We are pleased to announce ...

Collage for Fun Afternoon

Saturday 30 May 2009

The Wheatsheaf, Rathbone Place, London, W1

1330 to 1630 hrs

Collage, which was one of Powell’s passions, is an often neglected artistic technique. Artist Laura Miller will lead a practical session on collaging for fun. There will be a small charge on the day for materials and refreshments. All welcome. Advanced booking advised (if only so we order enough tea and biscuits!). For further details and booking please contact the Hon. Secretary.

5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference

2009-04-13T15:04:00.003+01:00

We are pleased to announce that the 5th Anthony Powell Conference is open for booking!

5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference
Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September 2009
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Nick Birns has put together a sparkling array of speakers including Rick Rylance, Mark Facknitz and Alan Furst

Also included: a gala buffet dinner, visit to the Powell-related materials in the John Monagan archive of Georgetown University Library and a literary sightseeing tour of Washington, DC

Full details may be found in the booking leaflet or on the AP website

UK Channel 4 Films of Dance

2009-01-28T18:20:00.001Z

I have just been informed that the 4 Channel 4 films of Dance from 10 years ago are currently available in the UK on Virgin Media Cable TV’s “catch up on demand” service. Sadly I can’t see that this is available online; it is after all a pay service.

AP Soc Christmas Prize Competition

2008-12-21T09:47:00.002Z

For this year’s Christmas competition contestants are asked to give the author and title of a novel (real or imaginary) from the Dance sequence but written by a well-known author other than Powell

For example:
Arthur Conan-Doyle, The Case of the Jogging Rat
Agatha Christie, Death in the Pavilion

Maximum 5 entries per person

The prize is a year’s membership of the Society or Society merchandise to the same value (please state your preference)

Entries, with your name & address should be sent to:
Christmas 2008 Competition, Anthony Powell Society, 76 Ennismore Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 0JW, UK
Fax: +44 (0)20 8864 6109
Email: comp@anthonypowell.org
to arrive by 31 January 2009

The winning entry will be the one which most amuses the Hon. Secretary. The winner will be announced in the Spring 2009 Newsletter

Competition Conditions. The judges’ decision is final and binding. Entry is open to Anthony Powell Society members and non-members. No purchase necessary. Entries must be original and the work of the person submitting them. Maximum five entries per person. No cash alternative. No correspondence will be entered into. The Anthony Powell Society reserves the right to publish the entries but otherwise copyright remains with the author.

AP Sighting

2008-05-02T19:02:00.003+01:00

While I don't intend to post every sighting of Anthony Powell in this new weblog, this one from former New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, in the Sydney Morning Herald was somewhat unexpected.

Dance - A New Radio Dramatisation

2008-04-05T18:28:00.003+01:00

There's a new six part dramatisation of A Dance to the Music of Time starting on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow (Sunday 6 April) at 1500hrs UK time. Episodes are to be repeated the following Saturday at 2100 hrs. It also looks as if each episode will be available on listen again for 7 days after the broadcast.

The dramatisation by Michael Butt (in six 1 hour episodes) is part of the BBC's "Classic Serial" series. The cast includes Corin Redgrave (as Jenkins) and Anthony Hoskyns (as Widmerpool). Full cast list at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/classic_serial.shtml.

I don't know any more than this, except for the usual puff in Radio Times.

Osbert Lancaster Exhibition

2008-03-29T18:50:00.005Z

I've know for some time that this was being planned, but I now see that The Wallace Collection in London has on its website information about their Osbert Lancaster exhibition which is coming up this Autumn.

As Lancaster and Powell were good friends, it is likely that the exhibition will be of interest to AP aficionados, although I don't know if there will be any AP material.

Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster

Thursday 2nd October 2008 - Sunday 11th January 2009

Osbert Lancaster was one of the most famous artistic personalities of his day, renowned as an architectural satirist, illustrator, theatre designer and cartoonist. This exhibition, which marks the centenary of his birth, will celebrate the astonishing range of Lancaster as an artist and as a chronicler of style and fashion, drawing on an unparalleled archive of original designs, illustrations, works on paper, sketchbooks, theatre sets and photographs, none of which have ever been previously exhibited.
Admission Free

For further information keep an eye on the Wallace's exhibition page.

Sale of Engravings

2008-03-29T15:45:00.003Z

Hurrah! No sooner have we started the new AP News weblog, than along comes the first piece of news!

I am today told that there is to be a sale of a few engravings from among Powell's papers. They are being auctioned on 10 April 2008 by Duke's of Dorchester, UK as a single lot. Details of the sale will be on www.AntiquesTradeGazette.com a week before the auction; or contact Duke's on +44 (0)1305 265 080.

Apparently it is unlikely that the engravings "have any link with AP's writing although [some were] probably purchased by AP [... they] might have appeal for Classicists; they are all certainly decorative".

Welcome!

2008-03-29T11:51:00.004Z

Welcome to the all new Anthony Powell Society news weblog.

This site replaces the previous Anthony Powell news web logs here and here, which will eventually be withdrawn.

News isn't always predictable or regular, so if you're visiting us early in our life here do not be surprised if content is a little sparse; please be patient and return later. Or alternatively subscribe to the RSS feed.

You can find out more about English author Anthony Powell and the Anthony Powell Society on our main website at http://www.anthonypowell.org/.