Among the Bohemians (62 page)

For Arthur Calder-Marshall, see notes on
Chapter 1
.
Reading Gwen Raverat’s
Period Piece
–
A Cambridge Childhood for the fifth time
, I am still as beguiled by it as I was the first.

4. Dwelling with Beauty

Cecil Beaton was one of the great aesthetes of the century; his
The Glass of Fashion
is a compelling book to which I turned frequently while writing this chapter and the next.
The New Interior Decoration
by Dorothy Todd and Raymond Mortimer also gave a fascinating perspective on the century’s trends.

It was a happy surprise to come across
With Love
, the romantic memoirs of Theodora Fitzgibbon, a cookery writer whom I had long admired.
Some London garrets are described by Arthur Ransome (see
Chapter 1
above), by Kathleen Hale in
A Slender Reputation
– her dashing account of her youthful struggle to be an artist – and by Horace Brodsky in his memoir of his close friend
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
.

By contrast, Lesley Lewis’s
The Private Life of an English Country House
does much to shed light on the fascinating boredom of middle-class existence, while for more of the same I turned to contemporary arbiters of taste: Lady Colin Campbell’s
Etiquette of Good Society
and Mrs H.
J.
Jennings’s
Our Homes and How to Beautify Them
are both documents of their times.
Another social document, but one that also makes terrific reading, is Vita Sackville-West’s
The Edwardians
.
Homes Sweet Homes
by Osbert Lancaster, with its piquant illustrations, mocks the pretentiousness of the home-beautifiers.

For Carrington’s early friendship with Christine Kühlenthal see Ronald Blythe’s
First Friends
(
Chapter 2
, above).
Another discovery was
Drawn from Life
by Stella Bowen, Ford Madox Ford’s lover – Australian, but a naturalised Bohemian.
Aldous Huxley’s
Antic Hay
seems very dated today, but us very contemporary smartness gives it value as a record of 1920s society.

Daphne Fielding’s memoir of Iris Tree,
The Rainbow Picnic
, is another valuable portrait by an affectionate friend.
Mary Butts is a bit-player in several memoirs; she crossed paths with Robert Medley, Douglas Goldring and my father Quentin Bell.
The American editor Christopher Wagstaff collated reminiscences and appreciation of this little-known writer in
A Sacred Quest
.
Ethel Mannin’s description of Gwen Otter’s home comes in
Confessions and Impressions
(see
Chapter 2
).

For information on the Epsteins I read Stephen Gardiner’s impressive biography
Artist Against the Establishment
, as well as Epstein’s own
An Autobiography
.
Vanessa Bell’s pottery obsession and impressions of I Tatti appear in her published letters (see
Chapter 2
).
For Harold Acton’s reminiscences see
Chapter 3
.
Robert Gathorne-Hardy edited two volumes of Ottoline Morrell’s
Memoirs
, which give voice to their passionate and audacious author.
For Ford Madox Ford’s memoirs see
Chapter 3
.

I found Isabelle Anscombe’s interesting and scholarly account of Roger Fry’s enterprise, in
Omega and After
, invaluable.
Sitwell tastes come into Osbert’s autobiography (see
Chapter 3
).

Arthur Ransome’s visit to Gypsy is described in
Bohemia in London
.
Ethel Mannin deciphers the messages of two contrasting interiors in her novels
Ragged Banners
and
Sounding Brass
.

5. Glorious Apparel

Two books, both with the same title, helped my understanding of the gypsy world: Jean-Paul Clébert’s highly scholarly
The Gypsies
, translated by Paul Duff, and Angus Fraser’s more recent account.
As mentioned above, I also found Cecil Beaton’s
The Glass of Fashion
invaluable.
Jan Marsh’s insightful study
Back to the Land
informs this chapter and the next.
For the Neo-pagans I turned to Paul Delany’s account,
The Neo-Pagans
, but my mother Olivier Bell’s inside knowledge of this group was even more precise and considered.

For the section on Augustus John, see above,
Chapter 1
.
The Silent Queen
by Seymour Leslie disclaims any resemblance of its fictional characters to real ones, but I am sceptical.

I found striking examples of the tyrannies of nineteenth-century clothing in Lady Colin Campbell’s
Etiquette of Good Society
, in Viscountess Rhondda’s
This Was My World
, in Gwen Raverat’s
Period Piece
(see above
Chapter 3
), and in James Lees-Milne’s
Another Self
.
The boiled shirt dilemma appears in Wyndham Lewis’s autobiography (see
Chapter 2
above), in Gertler’s letters (see
Chapter 1
above), and in Ottoline Morrell’s memoirs (see
Chapter 4
above).
Lesley Lewis (see above,
Chapter 4
) again demonstrates how suffocating middle-class life could be.

Vanessa Bell boasting about her shabby appearance is in the published edition of her letters (see
Chapter 2
above).
Constantine Fitzgibbon edited a fascinating selection of his friend Dylan Thomas’s
Letters
.
For Rosalind Thornycroft’s ‘advanced’ upbringing see above,
Chapter 2
.
I am again indebted to Nicolette Devas’s memoirs (see above
Chapter 1
), this time for information on the John girls’ lack of underwear.

Eric Gill’s diatribe
Clothes
is as intemperate as one might expect from this unconventional genius.
Edward Carpenter’s polemic
Civilization
:
Its Cause and Cure
makes somewhat beatific reading: not recommended in large doses.
There are two biographies of Philip Heseltine (aka Peter Warlock), one by his friend and contemporary Cecil Gray (himself an interesting semi-Bohemian character), and a recent one by Barry Smith.
For Caitlin Thomas’s and Betty May’s memoirs, see
Chapter 1
.

Most of the information about the Chelsea Arts Ball was gleaned from the pages
of Tom Cross’s diligent tribute
Artists and Bohemians
– 100
years of the Chelsea Arts Club
.
The best account of
The Dreadnought Hoax
comes from the horse’s mouth – that of Adrian Stephen, who participated.
For Arthur Ransome, see Chapter I.

St John Adcock’s combination of doggerel and caricature,
A Book of Bohemians
, is a rare oddity, produced in a limited edition on thick paper.
For Huxley’s
Antic Hay
, see
Chapter 4
.
(And refer to
Beards
by Reginald Reynolds for a niche publication by Ethel Mannin’s second husband!)

When Gilbert Cannan’s
Mendel
came out in 1916 Carrington was furious – because she and Gertler are so recognisable in its pages.
The fictional ‘Oliver’ and ‘Logan’ are the artist John Currie and his girlfriend Dolly Henry.

For Stephen Spender see
Chapter 2
.
Max Beerbohm’s Rede Lecture 1943 was a memory of
Lytton Strachey
, whom he first observed in his unconventional garb at the Savile Club.
Osbert Sitwell’s remarks on tweedy Bohemians are in his memoirs (see above
Chapter 3
).

For H.
G.
Wells’s
Ann Veronica
, see
Chapter 1
above.
Brett’s trousers come into Hignett’s biography (see above,
Chapter 2
).
The words of ‘Augustus John’ were by Harry Graham; the entire song is reprinted in Appendix 5 of Michael Holroyd’s biography.
Ethel Mannin’s smoking habits come into
Young in the Twenties
(see
Chapter 2
).
The Bohemian fashion parade comes from Sisley Huddleston’s
Bohemian Literary and Social Life in Paris
, Angelica Garnett’s
Deceived with Kindness
, Nina Hamnett’s
Is She a Lady
?
and Kathleen Hale’s
A Slender Reputation.

I have retold the Café Royal brawl story which I found in
Café Royal
–
Ninety Years of Bohemia
by Guy Deghy and Keith Waterhouse, a marvellous book which I wish I owned.
Mary Colum’s
Life and the Dream
belongs in the category ‘unmemorable author – valuable social record’, telling it from the Dublin angle.
Roy Campbell’s feud with Peter Quennell goes public in
Broken Record
(see
Chapter 1
above).

The remarkable story of how Gerald Brenan ran away from home is told in his early memoir
A Life of One’s Own
; Havelock Ellis reflects on progress in
My Life
.

6. Feast and Famine

A battered early edition of Mrs
Beeton’s Book of Household Management
sits on my shelf – nearly 1,700 pages of Victorian domestic lore, referred to continually in the writing of this chapter and the next.
The same applies to Caroline Davidson’s
A Woman’s Work is Never Done
.
Naomi Mitchison’s
You May Well Ask
answered many of the questions that I found myself posing regarding shopping, eating and cooking, while for readable scholarship and history John Burnett’s
Plenty and Want
can hardly be bettered.

One of my favourite memoirs,
Today We Will Only Gossip
by the spirited Beatrice Campbell, lives up to its irresistible title; she recounts the dreadful tale of Katherine
Mansfield and the blocked sink.
The emphasis on food makes Sybille Bedford’s ‘biographical novel’
Jigsaw
all the more enjoyable.
For Lesley Lewis see
Chapter 4
.
The chapter on ‘Edwardian Glitter’ in
Architect Errant
by Clough Williams-Ellis is particularly vivid.
Harold Acton confirms his reputation as a sensualist in
Memoirs of an Aesthete
(see
Chapter 3
); his cook problem also makes comic reading.

For the finer points of cutlery I turned again to Lady Colin Campbell (see
Chapter 4
) and to that indomitable aristocrat Lady Troubridge’s
The Book of Etiquette
.

Vanessa Bell’s account of the Brandon camp is in the published edition of her letters.
For Stella Bowen see
Chapter 4
above.
Both Roy Campbell’s recipe for bouillabaisse and his story about Stuart Gray and the mouldy kipper appear in
Light on a Dark Horse
.
The picture of food at Aldemey Manor is a composite one gleaned from the Johns’ many friends: Nicolette Devas, Kathleen Hale, Gerald Brenan, Igor Anrep and from Romilly John’s memoir (see
Chapter 3
).
Information about Ida John comes from Michael Holroyd’s biography and from Alison Thomas (see above
Chapter 2
).
In her letters (see above,
Chapter 1
) Carrington regularly describes meals; she also often refers to the servant problem.

For Rosalind Thornycroft see
Chapter 2
above.
I found good examples of artistic vegetarians in Clifford Bax’s memoir
Inland Far
and Robert Medley’s
Drawn from the Life
(see above
Chapter 2
).

Anthony Powell refers to Cyril Connolly’s cook problem in the third volume of his memoirs,
Faces in My Time
.
Life on Ditchling Common was vividly evoked in Fiona MacCarthy’s riveting biography of
Eric Gill
.
For Gertler, Ransome and Caitlin Thomas see
Chapter 1
.
For Brett, see notes on
Chapter 2
.

Dodie Smith’s
I Capture the Castle
is the kind of novel I would recommend to romantically inclined teenagers – but I enjoyed it almost as much.
Osbert Sitwell is perhaps rather hard on Roger Fry in
Laughter in the Next Room
; other versions have Fry as an original and intrepid cook.
Mrs J.
G.
Frazer’s
First Aid to the Setvantless
is pure delight; who
was
she writing for?

Read about the Eiffel Tower in almost any memoir of the tens, twenties or thirties.
A good round-up of Soho bistros appears in Robert Machray’s
The Night Side of London
.
Nina Hamnett and the butter-throwing episode appears in
Laughing Torso
(see
Chapter 1
).
For Kathleen Hale and Gaudier-Brzeska see
Chapter 4
.

George Moore’s
A Modern Lover
was a book in advance of its time, banned by the circulating libraries as indecent; today this outspoken novelist is almost forgotten.

Richard Garnett drew my attention to
Christahel Who
?
by Jane Spottiswoode.
He pointed out, rightly, that Christabel exemplified an unromantic aspect of Bohemia that deserved investigating.

7. New Brooms

Mrs Beeton – see above,
Chapter 6
– was essential here.
I also found
A Very Great Profession
, Nicola Beauman’s study of women’s fiction from 1914–39, rational and stimulating – particularly
Chapter 4
on domesticity.
For Lesley Lewis and Mrs J.
G.
Frazer, see above, Chapters 4 and 6.
For Ursula Bloom see above,
Chapter 1
.

Thorpe Athelney appears in Somerset Maugham’s
Of Human Bondage
, see
Chapter 1
.
Constantine Fitzgibbon’s
Life
of Dylan Thomas was, from my point of view, the best of the bunch, being written by someone who knew the poet and his pubs at first hand.
Andrew Motion’s account of a blighted dynasty,
The Lamberts
, told me much about Constant’s Fitzrovia.
For Nicolette Devas, see
Chapter 1
.
Ottoline Morrell’s visit to Wissett comes into the second volume of her memoirs (see above,
Chapter 4
).
For Tristram Hillier, see above,
Chapter 2
.
For Gerald Brenan’s
Jack Robinson
, see above
Chapter 1
.