Byronic romance
Sir: I have not seen your issue containing Robert Byron's diary (22 August), but should like to comment upon words con- cerning myself, apparently quoted in it. It is inconceivable that my sister Unity, who knew me and my opinions so well, could have talked the rubbish Byron pretends she did. The mother of four little children (even if, unlike me, she were brave enough) could never contemplate suicide. Tragic though I thought England's declara- tion of war against Germany to be, when no British interest was involved, and tragic though its consequences have been for England, Europe and the world, my hus- band and children were my first concern.
As to dictatorship, this is a fantasy, a question too long to discuss in a letter.
My old friend Robert Byron was an intelligent man, but spies, as we know from experience, even though they may be called 'intelligence agents', are prone to every sort of lie, as Malcom Muggeridge observes in his memoirs. Their imagination runs away with them.
Politics were not his forte, and my only quarrel with Byron was an aesthetic one; I never could take very seriously a man who announced that the Parthenon was like a row of herring bones. He was violently anti-classic, and hence perhaps exagger- atedly romantic. He is romancing in his diary.
Diana Mosley
Temple de la Gloire, 91400 Orsay, France
Previous page
