Patrick Leigh Fermour
The Enigmatic Edwardian, the Life of Reginald First Viscount Esher by James Lees-Milne. Enigmatic indeed, and absorbing. After wondering how subli- mated were the hot house Etonian friendships that blossomed in the armchairs of the translator of `Heraclitus' in the 1880s, and of the long sequence of passionate but faithful attachments for the rest of Lord Esher's life, the reader becom- es utterly absorbed in his close involve- ment with Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, indeed the whole dynasty, until his death in 1930. Every important or interesting figure comes on stage. How did this ephebe from Greek Mythology turn into the quietly predominant frock-coated proconsular-courtier figure and supreme eminence grise of palace and cabinet and secret council, smoothly admonishing the abashed Britannia of Beerbohm's famous cartoon? James Lees-Milne sorts out all the strands in captivating style. Impossible to put down.
Best of Friends. The Brenan-Partridge Letters, edited by Xan Fielding. Unlike some, I am fascinated by cliques — Chis- wick, the Clapham sect, the Puseyites, the Souls, the Coterie and, above all, by Bloomsbury. These letters often cog into it, starting frenzied searches for dates and cross references in Virginia Woolf, Car- rington's letters and Frances Partridge, and quantities of missing tesserae about Lytton Strachey drop into their slots. But it is the heroes of these Andalusian-Wiltshire ex- changes — two highly intelligent, literate, original, brave, vigorous and articulate friends who capture our interest. They only clashed — in a very un-Esher like way over Carrington (who was a friend of Esher's daughter Dorothy) and over ab- stract principles and they always made it up. A fascinating book very well edited and annotated.
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