MAGAZINE AUTUMN 2011 / ISSUE 13
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SCOTT’s OTHER HEROES Meredith Hooper on the Northern Party’s remarkable tale of survival
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The London Library Magazine / issue 13
12 One hundred years ago the race to the South Pole drew expeditions from Britain, Norway and Japan. Meredith Hooper’s research into this last great geographical prize has uncovered some forgotten heroes in the shape of Scott’s Northern Party, who struggled to survive in Antarctica with no sign of rescue.
16 By his own admission, Pevsner’s work on The Buildings of England series starved the rest of his existence. Susie Harries examines his motivations, alongside his groundbreaking achievement in cataloguing, county by county, all the architecturally significant buildings in England.
20 An American’s unlikely passion for fox-hunting left the Library with one of its more idiosyncratic collections. Jane Ridley takes us through some of its treasures.
C ontents 5 FROM THE CHAIRMAN 6 Contributors 9 BEHIND THE BOOK Historian David Gilmour on some of the titles he used while researching his new book on the unification of Italy
10 bibliotherapy Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow is the book that the actor Ed Stoppard turns to when he feels discouraged and in need of light relief
12 SCOTT’S OTHER HEROES Victor Campbell’s Northern Party barely survived Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, as Meredith Hooper reveals
16 PEVSNER’S IMMODEST PROPOSAL: SURVEYING THE BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND Susie Harries on the background story and legacy of Pevsner’s remarkable Buildings of England series
20 HIDDEN CORNERS Jane Ridley tells the intriguing tale behind A.H. Higginson’s collection of the literature
25 In this 60th anniversary year of the Festival of Britain, Dunia GarcíaOntiveros explores some of the fascinating Festival publications and memorabilia in the Library’s collection
and journalism of fox-hunting
25 THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN 27 POETRY The winner of this year’s Cosmo Davenport-Hines Prize
28 MEMBERS’ NEWS 36 SPECIAL OFFERS 38 EATING OUT
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f rom the C H A I R M A N When I last wrote the Magazine’s editorial letter, in this same issue a year ago, we were celebrating the completion of Phase 2. Hard hats and hoardings were out and the Library’s magnificent new spaces – which have gone on to win several architectural awards – were well and truly in. That air of celebration was tempered somewhat by the loss of Gift Aid relief on subscriptions, the financial impact of which was severe, as well as the broader effect of the nasty combination of economic stagnation and inflation of which we are all too well aware. That the Library has nevertheless ended the financial year in surplus is a remarkable achievement. I hope my discussion with the Librarian and Treasurer, on pages 28–30, explains how cost-cutting, the new Founders’ Circle and membership growth, together with some considerable good fortune, all contributed to a happier than expected outcome. Times continue to be hard, of course, but I am pleased to report that our proposed increase in subscription fees for 2012, at just 2.3%, will be smaller than last year’s, and about half the rate of inflation.
On the cover
Magdalen (watercolour, 2011) by Gerard Stamp. Reproduced by kind permission of the artist (gerardstamp.com).
Aptly, given the terrain covered in Members’ News, Issue 13 touches repeatedly on themes of tenacity and resilience: Meredith Hooper’s account of the remarkable survival of Scott’s Northern Party and Susie Harries’s tribute to Pevsner’s astonishing Buildings of England series highlight very different kinds of human endurance. In the second instalment of our new Bibliotherapy feature, actor Ed Stoppard tells us about the book he turns to when the world is making him lose his head, and some of the Library’s quirkier treasures are highlighted in Jane Ridley’s Hidden Corners on the remarkable Higginson Collection. As the days become shorter and 2011 gallops on, ordering your London Library Christmas card offers a cheery way to begin preparing for the festive season: see page 33 for this year’s charming design by John Vernon Lord. In the meantime, however, the Library’s AGM beckons. I hope to see many of you for an enlightening evening, preceded by a congenial glass of wine in the Issue Hall, on 1 November.
Bill Emmott Chairman
Published on behalf of The London Library by Royal Academy Enterprises Ltd. Colour reproduction by adtec. Printed by Tradewinds London. Published 14 September 2011 © 2011 The London Library. The opinions in this particular publication do not necessarily reflect the views of The London Library. All reasonable attempts have been made to clear copyright before publication.
Editorial Publishers Jane Grylls and Kim Jenner Editor Mary Scott Design and Production Catherine Cartwright
Editorial Committee David Breuer Lottie Cole Aimée Heuzenroeder Peter Parker Erica Wagner
Advertising Jane Grylls 020 7300 5661 Kim Jenner 020 7300 5658 Emily Pierce 020 7300 5675 Development Office, The London Library Lottie Cole 020 7766 4716 Aimée Heuzenroeder 020 7766 4734
Magazine feedback and editorial enquiries should be addressed to development@londonlibrary.co.uk
THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 5
CONTRIBUTORS
David Gilmour
joined the library in 1981
David Gilmour is the author of prize-winning biographies of George Curzon, Rudyard Kipling and Giuseppe di Lampedusa. He has also written books on Spain and the Middle East, and more recently The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj (2005) and The Pursuit of Italy (2011). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a former Research Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, and currently a Senior Research Associate of Balliol College.
Susie Harries
joined the library in 1967
Susie Harries is a writer specialising in culture, history and the arts. Born in 1951, she read classics and classical philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge, and St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has co-authored seven books with her husband Meirion, including The War Artists (1983), Opera Today (1986), A Pilgrim Soul: a Life of Elisabeth Lutyens (1989). Her most recent book is Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life (2011).
Meredith Hooper
joined the library in 2002
Historian Meredith Hooper’s Antarctic titles range from climate change, with the prize-winning The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica (2008), to exploration history, with, this centenary year, The Longest Winter: Scott’s Other Heroes (June 2011). She has lived and worked in Antarctica. A trustee of both the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the International Polar Foundation, she is a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.
Molly Olguin
Molly Olguin is a ‘study abroad’ student at King’s College London, where she reads English. In the States she attends Williams College, Massachusetts, where she studies creative writing. She is 21 years old, hopelessly in love with London, and last month kissed Oscar Wilde’s angel in a Parisian cemetery.
Jane Ridley
joined the library in 1978
Jane Ridley was a member of the London Library Committee, 1987–91 and 1993–7. As well as a history of fox-hunting (1990), she has published The Young Disraeli (1995) and The Architect and his Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens (2002), which won the Duff Cooper Prize. In 2012 Chatto will bring out her life of Edward VII. She teaches a Master’s course in Biography at the University of Buckingham.
Ed Stoppard
joined the library in 1994
Ed Stoppard read French at Edinburgh University but decided to become an actor. He has played numerous roles on stage, including Hamlet and Konstantin in The Seagull. His film and TV work includes Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Brideshead Revisited and Sir Hallam Holland in Upstairs Downstairs. Forthcoming projects include The Man who put Hitler in the Dock for BBC2 and the film Belle du Seigneur. When not acting, he helps his wife to wrangle their three daughters in south-east London. 6 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART British Drawings and Watercolours
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, R.A. (1901-1979), Red-Breasted Mergansers, Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil 9.7 x 17.1 cm., 3¼ by 6¼ in.
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Juliet Schubart 17 SEPTEMBER – 11 DECEMBER 2011 Tickets 0844 209 0051 www.royalacademy.org.uk Image: Edgar Degas, Two Dancers on the Stage (detail), c. 1874. Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 46 cm. The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London.
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BehinD The
Book
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Historian David Gilmour mined the Library’s History and Biography collections while researching his latest book on Italy David Gilmour, 2011.
Timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, my book The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples (March 2011) goes back to the Romans and the Middle Ages as well as to the nineteenth century in search of clues as to why modern Italy has not become a successful nation state. Cavour and Garibaldi,1860 by Denis Mack Smith (Cambridge 1954). H. Italy. Mack Smith’s first published book should be the starting point for anyone studying the Risorgimento and the unification of Italy. In a brilliant analysis of 1860, the year of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s conquest of Sicily and Naples, the historian destroyed many of the myths surrounding the creation of the new state, above all the reputation of its unscrupulous first prime minister, Camillo Benso di Cavour. Mack Smith’s tireless research combined with clarity of judgement and a prose style permeated with irony made him one of the greatest and most readable of twentieth-century historians. Things I Remember (I miei ricordi) by Massimo d’Azeglio, trans. from the rev. Italian edn. by E.R. Vincent (London 1966). Biog. Azeglio. D’Azeglio (1798–1866) was one of the most attractive figures in the saga of Italian unification: painter, writer, politician and amorist, a man whose talents were too diffuse for him to be really good at anything, even statesmanship, although he was a reasonably successful prime minister of Piedmont. His delightful memoirs reveal that patriots did not have to be solemn or fanatical – he himself deplored the invention of l’homme sérieux in France and thought the deadly sins of pride, envy and avarice a lot more ‘tedious’ and reprehensible than lust, sloth and gluttony. Virgil’s Experience: Nature and History – Times, Names, and Places by Richard
Jenkyns (Oxford 1998). L. Greek & Latin Texts &c., Virgilius Maro. Virgil may have been the first Italian and, if so, maybe the last (except perhaps for Niccolò Machiavelli) for another 1,800 years. As Jenkyns shows in this excellent study, his poetry united martial Rome (‘the great mother of men’) and fertile Italy (‘the great mother of crops’) in a natural partnership beneficial to both. It was not the poet’s fault that his contemporaries found imperialism a more enticing ambition than his early dream of an Italian identity. The Last Bourbons of Naples (1825–1861) by Harold Acton (London 1961). H. Naples. Acton is now remembered more as an aesthete and a friend of Evelyn Waugh than as a historian. Yet his books on the Bourbons of Naples remain a useful corrective to the traditional view – advanced by William Gladstone with a typical lack of nuance – that the southern monarchs were a dynasty of tyrants. Here he shows that they were no worse than their philistine supplanters – the Savoia of Turin, who became kings of united Italy – or indeed the Hanoverian kings of our own islands. I vinti del Risorgimento: Storia e storie di chi combatté per i Borbone di Napoli by Gigi Di Fiore (Turin 2004). H. Naples. For over a century schoolchildren both in Italy and abroad were taught that the unification of Italy had been an exemplary tale of liberty triumphing over tyranny and repression. Di Fiore’s book reminds us that
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the fighting in fact consisted largely of civil wars, and that the principal campaign in 1860 was a conquest by northern armies of the south. It is salutary to read an account seen not from the point of view of Garibaldi and his Redshirts but from the perspective of i vinti, ‘the defeated’ . Francesco Crispi, 1818–1901 by Christopher Duggan (Oxford 2002). Biog. Crispi. Italian historians are seldom eager to turn themselves into biographers, so it is fortunate that there have been a number of fine political biographies written by British scholars. One of the best is Duggan’s life of Francesco Crispi, the Sicilian revolutionary who eventually became Italy’s prime minister and a persistent advocate of colonial and military adventures. It is a laudable portrait both of the statesman himself and of the first 40 years of the Italian state. Italiani, brava gente? by Angelo Del Boca (Vicenza 2005). H. Italy. Italian soldiers used to enjoy the reputation of being brava gente, decent chaps, ‘the good soldier Gino’ , who remained good even in combat – until Del Boca came along, went through the colonial records and demonstrated that it was a myth. As his book shows, Gino never really existed – at least not in the twentieth century – and the brava gente were as adept at massacring as anyone else, both in Africa and the Balkans in the Second World War. The Italian Army reacted by trying to have Del Boca prosecuted for ‘vilifying the Italian soldier’ . THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 9
BIBLIOTHERAPY
Actor Ed Stoppard on the book he turns to when he feels like he’s chasing his tail
BLACK SNOW Mikhail Bulgakov I first read the novel Black Snow (1966–7) in Moscow, which was probably the best place to do so. The book involves the reflections of Sergei Leontievich Maxudov, a young proofreader, who is moved to write a novel after experiencing a vivid nightmare. The work is deemed a failure by all who read it, but he is ultimately inspired to adapt it into a play. Remarkably, that play is taken on by the renowned Independent Theatre, where Maxudov is tortured both by the gang of fools and fakes that populate it, and by the intractable production process itself. Bulgakov worked from 1925 to 1936 with the Moscow Art Theatre, run by Konstantin Stanislavski. The characters inhabiting the Independent naturally reflect the great director and those around him. And when I say reflect, I mean satirise, mercilessly. By 1932 Bulgakov had fallen foul of the authorities. His riposte was the play about Molière, The Cabal of Hypocrites (1936), a swipe at his treatment by Stalin’s censor and, after a draining four-year rehearsal period and Stanislavski’s capitulation to the censor’s demands, it opened to scathing reviews and closed seven performances later. Out of this misery was born Black Snow, and Bulgakov’s frustrations and ire pour on to its pages. But such was the nature of the novel, combined with Bulgakov’s premature death in 1940, that it Mikhail Bulgakov, c.1920s. 10 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
was only published in incomplete form in Moskva in 1966–7, finally appearing in full in 1973. There is a heightened quality about Black Snow ; something unreal, if not surreal. At one point the hero finds, during a dinner, that he has stepped on a fallen piece of poached salmon: no explanation, no examination, just the simple observation and onwards. It is possibly because Bulgakov’s descriptions of characters and settings are so detailed and idiosyncratic, that they seem slightly removed from the real world. In any case they end up being very funny. Laugh out loud, curiously, shockingly funny. Chapter 3 is simply entitled ‘I Commit Suicide’ . The word Chekhovian could readily
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Like Maxudov I was an outsider, and found Moscow an alienating city that exuded an oppressive brutality
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apply to his writing. That writer’s work is full of people you can’t quite believe exist. It’s a sleight of hand: they are absolutely recognisable as members of the human race, yet you cannot recall ever meeting anyone quite like them. So it is with Bulgakov. His characters are memorable purely because they inhabit the fringes of human behaviour. They are grotesques: the tantrum-throwing actress, the zen-like House Manager, the backstabbing, bitchy musical director. Politics reigns at the Independent. To Maxudov’s anguish, the sexagenarian leading man and lady of the company are cast as the young lovers. Hell,
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow (1966–7), 2010 edition.
the director of the theatre can’t even get his name right. I can’t imagine why all this should so delight an actor, let alone one stuck in a sweltering Moscow for two months. Like Maxudov I was an outsider, and found it an alienating city that exuded an oppressive brutality. I was lucky enough to be pampered by a film company, but even so I was struck by a sense that the new capitalism had produced a no less ruthless system than had Communism. Maxudov’s struggles, then, offered me both insight and humorous relief. Reverent visits to Bulgakov’s apartment and the Moscow Art Theatre, which also produced much of Chekhov’s work, only added to my enjoyment. I think there is some quintessentially Anglo-Russian quality in Black Snow’s blend of heroic failure, exquisite characters and sardonic hilarity that continues to charm me. I find it very comforting in some way. To misquote Kipling, it is a book that helps me keep my head when the world is making me lose it, for the simple reason that, however discouraging my situation, Maxudov’s is certainly more so. Maybe that’s a Slavic thing, or a Jewish thing. Or maybe the book simply makes me laugh.
London Library September
29/7/11
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Page 1
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SCOTT’S OTHER
HEROES The current centenaries of the race to the South Pole by the Amundsen and Scott expeditions are revealing some unexpected stories of their courageous participants. Meredith Hooper recounts the heroic tale of survival of Scott’s little recognised Northern Party.
C
aptain Robert Falcon Scott began unloading his British Antarctic Expedition from his ship Terra Nova on to the sea-ice on 4 January 1911: first off were 33 excited dogs, 2 of his 3 experimental motorised tractors and 19 Manchurian ponies. In the glaring summer sun, they began hauling sledgeloads of everything considered necessary for surviving and exploring in Antarctica across the sea-ice to the black-grit beach at Cape Evans, Ross Island, where the
12 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
headquarters hut would be built: coal and fodder, a ton of tobacco, hair socks, whisky, frying pans, iron bedsteads and reindeerskin sleeping bags, a cooking stove and an acetylene lighting plant. Alongside, in time-honoured British tradition, teams from the 31-strong shore party harnessed themselves up and man-hauled loaded sledges from ship to shore. Scott was here to get to the South Pole. To stand where the earth spun on its axis, where every direction pointed north. Crucially, to be the first. As a young Royal Navy Lieutenant during his 1901–4 Antarctic expedition, Scott had struggled south across the vast Ross Ice Shelf with two companions including Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton. Determined to claim the prize, Shackleton returned in 1908, discovering a route up a glacier through daunting mountains to reach an austere plateau. The North Pole was located in an ice-covered ocean but here, it seemed, the South Pole was high on an ice sheet. In January 1909, exhausted and bitterly hungry, Shackleton with three companions retreated, perhaps eight
days from their goal. Now, returned with his new expedition to the vast wedge of territory he considered his sphere of interest, Scott intended to repeat Shackleton’s route but with more men, animals and resources. The world’s press published rumours of other contenders, pushed the idea of a race. Pole-getting was glamorous, heroic, international, the stuff of popular news. An American challenge was reported. Lieutenant Nobu Shirase with his Japanese Antarctic Expedition was definitely planning a dash to the Pole. But for Scott, his attempt to achieve the Pole was ‘to secure for the British Empire the honour of that achievement’ . If he didn’t succeed the first time, he would try again. In addition to reaching the Pole, Scott wanted his expedition to explore and
Left Map of the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. Above Unloading fodder from Terra Nova at the ice edge, January 1911. All images apart from the map © Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.
conduct scientific research, those two established aims of all major expeditions to the largely unknown southern continent. As part of this strategy, a separate party would go east to explore King Edward VII Land, at the far end of the great Ross Ice Shelf. Led by Lieutenant Victor Campbell, this six-man Eastern Party, fully equipped as a subset of Scott’s main expedition, would be on their own for up to two years. Ten days after Scott came ashore on Ross Island, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, with 8 men, around 120 dogs and enough equipment for a year, landed at the Bay of Whales, a great indent in the face of the Ross Ice Shelf, with the explicit intention of competing for the Pole. Amundsen had cabled Scott his decision to head south in October 1910, but had not specified where he intended to land. Maps of Antarctica showed a generalised blob, much of the coast guesswork only. Known landing places were few. Scott and the officers he had confided in assumed nothing would be known of the Norwegians until they themselves arrived back north, to civilisation, and news. Just after midnight on 4 February 1911, Terra Nova, having failed to get Campbell’s party ashore at King Edward VII Land, was returning west, along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Rounding an ice point into the Bay of Whales, the officer of the watch saw to his astonishment a small ship moored to the ice edge ahead. Everyone rushed up on deck. To the knowledgeable, the three masts and no funnel could only mean one thing: Amundsen’s famous Norwegian polar vessel Fram. Campbell set off with the Eastern Party’s number two, Royal Naval surgeon Murray Levick, and his geologist, 24-year-old Raymond Priestley, to investigate. Skiing towards a dark spot that turned out to be an abandoned depot, Campbell, a Norwegian speaker who spent his summers hunting and fishing in Norway, found out from the night watchman of Fram that Amundsen and his men were a few miles inland, settling into their hut. In the morning the two expeditions visited each other, everyone happy to see different faces and have new conversations. ‘We found them all men of the very best type, & got on very well,’ wrote Levick, and they all ate flapjacks and drank coffee in Amundsen’s newly
Campbell and his party at Cape Adare, 17 December 1911. Standing, from left: George Abbott, Harry Dickason, Frank Browning. Seated, from left: Raymond Priestley, Victor Campbell, Murray Levick.
completed hut. Members of Fram’s crew, including Amundsen, who were ‘very friendly, but didn’t give away much or get much’ , lunched on board Terra Nova. Old newspapers were handed over to the news-hungry Amundsen. But there was no doubt about the competition. ‘It will be a race & I am sure we shall have to do all we can to be first,’ wrote Petty Officer George Abbott, one of the Eastern Party’s three lower-deck men. Each side assessed the other’s equipment. ‘All the Norwegians were dressed in sealskins,’ commented Abbott, ‘and it was very noticeable that our fellows were wearing ordinary clothing’ . Campbell still desperately wanted to explore King Edward VII Land. If he built his hut at the Bay of Whales, he and his men could travel directly over the Ice Shelf to enter the new land from the side, the next spring. But opinion on Terra Nova overruled him. Amundsen was already in place. In accordance with Scott’s latest instructions, Campbell and his men must now go north to explore another unknown section of Antarctica of interest to Scott, the coast due west of Cape Adare. Campbell was profoundly reluctant. Having dedicated two, possibly three, years of his time and expertise free of any cost to Scott, Campbell rated his chances
of achieving anything of value to the north extremely low. In deciding to build his hut on the ice-shelf, Amundsen was making a bold move. The route from here to the Pole was unknown. High mountains could bar his way: no one knew. But he was closer than Scott’s starting point on Ross Island. The sooner Scott got the news of Amundsen’s whereabouts, the better. After lunch, everyone back on board, Terra Nova departed. Campbell would leave a report for Scott, then be dropped off somewhere along the northern coast. But steaming along past tumbled and crevassed glaciers, past cliffs of ice and sheer rock, it was obvious that the northern coast was as inaccessible as Campbell had feared. Mountains rose like ramparts, the shore was pounded by a heavy swell laced with lumps of broken pack. The short summer closing down, opportunities for finding his party a base fast shrinking, Campbell was forced to land in the very place he most emphatically did not want to be, the long low beach near the tip of Cape Adare where an expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink had spent the first Antarctic winter ashore, in 1899. Hemmed in by mountains, the sea-ice too treacherous to THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 13
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From top Roald Amundsen and his men with Campbell and his party, 4 February 1911; inside a stranded iceberg, Cape Adare, May 1911; Priestley, Dickason and Campbell in front of their tent, summer sledging, January 1912.
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trust, his pebbly spit the home to perhaps three-quarters of a million nesting penguins, Borchgrevink had failed to break out and explore. Terra Nova was about to spend the winter in New Zealand. Given the gloomy prospect ahead, Campbell adjusted his orders as received from Scott. On her return to Antarctica next summer, Terra Nova would collect the Eastern Party and drop them somewhere suitable as she went south to Cape Evans. Campbell would have five to six weeks to do what his expedition had been set up to achieve: explore, and collect specimens and fossils in untouched territory. It wasn’t long, but it was something. Just as hoped, on 3 January 1912 Terra Nova arrived. The Eastern Party tumbled on board, glad to leave behind nearly a year of adventures and misadventures, frustrations, failed hopes and small successes. On 6 January they were put ashore about two-thirds of the way down the Victoria Land coast with enough equipment for their short summer sledging trip and, because Campbell was a cautious and careful leader, emergency rations in case the ship was late picking them up on the agreed date, 18 February. But Terra Nova never collected the Eastern Party. Unknown to the six waiting men crowded in their two small tents, pack-ice beyond the horizon prevented the ship reaching them despite four attempts. Watching always for the sight of smoke, the three officers went through their options. An unexpected bitter wind had started blowing, sweeping down the glacier behind the tents, cutting through thin summer clothing, inflicting the first painful frostbites. The wind didn’t stop. It made them think of the winter ahead. Safety was the hut at Cape Evans, long weeks of travel down the coast, the time and distance depending on the state of the sea-ice over which they would need to man-haul their heavy sledges. They had been away for 13 months. Their equipment was worn, sledges battered from hard use, their boots falling to bits. There was no option. Walk they must. But in front of them the sea remained obstinately open. Until the sea-ice formed, they would have to create a shelter. A hut of rocks was impossible: the local rocks were mostly great rounded boulders. Not enough snow seemed
to have accumulated to build even a protective wall. The appalling wind kept roaring, knocking them over, draining their strength, confining them to their tents. In brief breaks, they found several old drifts of ice. Using Priestley’s ice-axe they hacked and dug into the thickest, and began working out ways to manage in an ice-cave, or burrow, or ‘damned dismal little hole’ – whatever their mood dictated as a descriptive for their squalid shelter – so cramped it was impossible even to stand upright. At Cape Adare they’d had a wellequipped hut, with acetylene lighting, coal to feed their stove, regular meals, a typewriter, books, a gramophone, a Singer sewing machine and beds with wire mattresses. Now, here at what they called ‘Inexpressible Island’ , they had only the bare minimum of equipment. But they had managed to create that first necessity, a shelter. Harry Dickason, the only Able
‘
Watching always for the sight of smoke, the three officers went through their options
’
Seaman in their party, together with Frank Browning, invented Oxo-tin candles, a piece of lamp-wick suspended over oil from seal blubber to give light. Heat – well, the ice never melted from inside their boots but they couldn’t risk their ice-cave roof melting and the heat from their small, improvised cooking stove was adequate. Food was the major problem. Fortunately not all the Adelie penguins had left their nearby small colony. Any remaining birds, standing and moulting their feathers among the pebbles before swimming away for the winter, were killed. Seals – that other essential source of food, and fuel – had been around in large numbers. Now the constant gale kept them away: seals hate the wind. Any that appeared were killed, hide flensed, blubber cut off and the carcass, freezing instantly, stored for meat. But there were nowhere near enough. Supplies of carbohydrate (the
only available form being expedition biscuits) were very short; they had minimal tea, salt, sugar, and – desperate for the 5 smokers out of the 6 of them – tobacco. Crucially, they were short of matches. If they ran out they were dead. Inside their ice-cave, white walls rapidly turning black with smoke from the blubber cooking-fire and their small blubber lights, their six sleeping bags interleaved like hairy grubs, everything they touched greasy and stinking, always ruthlessly hungry, yet attacked by diarrhoea, they got through one day to the next, a week, another week. Achieved a month, to start the second. Always, in their heads, was the prospect of leaving. Supplies of food were set aside for the sledging trip back to Cape Evans. A few special clothes kept, to change into. They checked the state of the sea-ice, discussed the day they would be able to depart. The ice-cave was temporary. They expected a relief party. No one would leave them here, they were sure of that. Their companions wouldn’t abandon them here on the Antarctic coast, to try to survive a winter. However difficult it was to imagine the way in which it could come about, someone would arrive to help them. But the most worrying thought, discussed repeatedly, was what could have happened to the Terra Nova. There must have been some disaster. Perhaps they were the only people left from the expedition in Antarctica. Outside, autumn turned to the dire reality of winter darkness and bitter cold. On brief but essential trips outside, there was always the risk of a fracture stumbling among the boulders, or slipping while collecting the next week’s supplies of frozen seal, and the ice to melt into water. Always, the wind battering, shoving them
Campbell’s red-chalk drawing of the interior of the ice-cave, Inexpressible Island, September 1912.
The Northern Party emerging from the ice-cave and preparing to sledge to safety, 24 September 1912. From left: Dickason, Campbell, Abbott, Priestley, Levick, Browning.
sideways, wearing them out. At the end of September, after seven months of constant privation, squalor, severe bouts of food poisoning and – for Browning – ongoing debilitating diarrhoea, they summoned up the resources, physical and emotional, to leave the ice-cave. Sledges were dug out of winter drifts, gear prepared, food packed into daily rations. Spring sledging was known to be the hardest. At 6 p.m. on 30 September 1912 they harnessed up, and braced themselves for the weight, Browning wholly incapacitated, Dickason half-crippled with diarrhoea. They managed a mile, then camped by the light of half a candle. The next day they had to stop, blinded by snow squalls; the next, they were tent-bound in a blizzard. But slowly they got on, creeping their way south, making an extraordinary trek down the coast. Browning’s condition, a continual worry to Levick as doctor, was finally alleviated when they came across a depot where they discovered a full box of expedition biscuits. Priestley insisted on carrying his best fossils and, later, when they found depots from two geological parties, further insisted that their rock collections should be dragged along on the sledges as well. When they finally reached the hut at Cape Evans, on 7 November 1912, although the other expedition members were relieved and delighted to see them, they found that they had been expected to save themselves. There had been one abortive attempt to try to help them in April. But everyone had considered that they should have been able to manage the winter without too much difficulty;
that the trek back would be reasonably straightforward; and that, according to the methods of surviving if abandoned on the Antarctic coast, as defined by Captain Scott, if they had been short of food, that was their fault. The received wisdom was that seals and penguins lived in sufficient numbers to keep parties of men alive on the Antarctic coast for years if necessary. They had only themselves to blame for their near-starvation. Three weeks later, a Search party returned to Cape Evans and recounted the details of finding Captain Scott and two companions frozen in their tent on the return journey after achieving the Pole on 17 January 1912, the two other members of the polar party having already died; and their bitter discovery that Amundsen and his men had already claimed the prize a month earlier. What, then, was the Eastern Party’s achievement? It shrank, in the face of the terrible facts. Self-effacing, modest, minimising their trials and suffering, the six men retreated into the shadows. Their status was further diminished by the rebranding exercise that changed their name from the ‘Eastern Party’ , as described in Scott’s pre-expedition literature and speeches, as used by everyone during the expedition in Antarctica, to, as directed from London, the ‘Northern Party’ . The loss of their familiar descriptive, the Eastern Party, contributed to the anonymity descending on their existence as a separate, discrete group with recognised objectives and a highly impressive, although unplanned, success, of having survived the most appalling hardship. An intensely human, optimistic story, this centenary year.
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THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 15
Pevsner’s immodest proposal:
SURVEYING THE Buildings of
England
In 1945 Allen Lane invited Nikolaus Pevsner to suggest a new project for Penguin Books; The Buildings of England series was the result. Susie Harries examines the history and legacy of this unique publishing achievement.
I
n the summer of 1930, the young Nikolaus Pevsner, journeyman university lecturer with a doctorate in Italian Mannerist painting, was to be found sitting in an undistinguished B&B somewhere in the southwest of England. The basin was cracked, the carpet sticky and there was a penetrating draught. After six weeks of touring, his clean laundry was exhausted and he was reduced to plus fours, long socks held up with rubber bands and patent leather shoes, but these were not the problems uppermost in his mind. Pevsner was on a quest. Required to deliver a series of lectures in his native Germany on English art and architecture, he must survey the buildings of England and their finest contents – and there was Nikolaus Pevsner. Photograph © Eddie Ryle-Hodges. no guide book suitable for his purpose. ‘The Baedeker is wrought by the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815), the drive to really very bad, ’ he wrote home dolefully. preserve what remained of Germany’s built heritage was even In Germany the ‘inventorisation’ of historic buildings – stronger. To preserve, one must know what is there, and a system Inventarisierung – was already a well-established practice. To the was evolved to log and describe buildings of worth. The notion of men of the Enlightenment, the architectural monument was an monuments as public property took hold, and between 1905 and invaluable aid to reflection on the past, as a way of elucidating 1912 leading art historian Georg Dehio published, in five volumes, the culture of the present: the word for ‘monument’ – Denkmal – his Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler (Handbook of translates literally as a ‘means of thinking’ . After the destruction
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Left to right Volumes from The Buildings of England series: Northamptonshire (1961); Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough (1968); Northumberland (1957). By permission of Yale University Press.
German Cultural Monuments), to make the German public better informed about their shared architectural wealth. In England, the urge to conserve was just as strong, but the process of identifying and listing the objects worthy of conservation was considerably slower. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England and the Victoria County History proceeded at the stateliest of paces, and for the majority of English counties there was no body of co-ordinated knowledge on which to base the kind of guide that might have helped Pevsner. The best that was available to him in 1930 was the series of Little Guides published by Methuen, but for the scholar in a hurry the proportion of anecdote and atmosphere to architectural information was too high, and the approach unhelpfully antiquarian. The old was prized above all else, with the result that even the eighteenth century was treated with scorn, while Victorian architecture appeared only sporadically and ‘modern’ buildings not at all. Four years later, the Shell Guides would start to arrive, but even they would not have served Pevsner’s purpose, with their architectural content diluted by nature notes, recipes for scones and observations on local dialect. In 1945, 15 years after this gap in England’s topographical literature had been drawn to Pevsner’s attention, he found himself, remarkably, in a position to do something about it. Having left Germany in 1933 in the wake of Adolf Hitler’s race laws, he had gradually cobbled together a career in England as a lecturer and writer on the history of art, architecture and design. Invited by the series’ first editor Elizabeth Senior to contribute a volume on illuminated manuscripts (never published) to the King Penguin series, he had ended up editing the entire series. Commissioned to write a brief overview of European architecture for a general audience, he had provided Penguin with a bestseller. Now, in an expansive moment, proprietor Allen Lane invited him to suggest a new Penguin project, and Pevsner was ready with a far from modest proposal. Two series edited by himself, he suggested, would set British art history on the same sound footing as its
Continental counterparts. The first was a detailed survey of the whole of European art, which became the Pelican History of Art, and the second was the missing catalogue, county by county, of all the architecturally significant buildings in England. Pevsner had Dehio’s series explicitly in mind and certainly at the outset saw The Buildings of England (BoE) as a similar oneman enterprise. Autonomy would give the series cohesion and, in his eyes, a better chance of completion than distributing the gigantic task among other, less dependable hands. As the years passed – the series would not be finished until the 1970s – he was quick to acknowledge the growing number of people whose contribution to the series had been indispensable: the researchers who compiled the briefing notes that he took with him on his county tours of inspection; the drivers who made the journeys possible (he relinquished the steering wheel to his wife after purgatorial experiences on the roads of Nottinghamshire, and after her death sought student chauffeurs); the collaborators when, at last, he decided to delegate; the hundreds of correspondents who supplied extra details and corrected mistakes. But, besides writing in their entirety 32 of the 46 eventual volumes, and seeing in person most of the buildings described, Pevsner supplied the driving force, a near-desperate determination not to leave a job half-done, without which The Buildings of England would never have been finished. He was also the spur behind The Buildings of Scotland, of Ireland and of Wales, not to mention Buildings of the United States. What made Pevsner take on a project that, in his own words, starved the rest of his existence? Dehio had seen his survey as a means of integrating the newly unified German nation. Every monument, he declared, was ‘ein Stuck unseres nationalen Daseins’ (a piece of our national being), and his objective was to draw the pieces together into a complete picture of Germany for its people. Pevsner has been accused of having similarly political motives – of wanting to construct a particular vision of the English ‘heritage’ and entrench his own notion of ‘Englishness’ , as a THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 17
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means of influencing the course of post-war reconstruction. He has been charged with promoting socialism through his inclusion in the BoE of a disproportionate number of modernist buildings, and of attacking the aristocracy through a lack of interest in detailing their furnishings and family histories. Certainly Pevsner was interested in general terms in the idea of a fairer post-war future, but his real passion – the foundation of his relationship with Allen Lane – was for wider public education. He shared Lane’s conviction that ‘high culture’ should be for everyone. Everybody should be able to identify and understand the buildings that surrounded them, in order to preserve what was valuable from the past and plan more sensibly for the future, and to enjoy their surroundings in the present. For Pevsner, work was pleasure and knowledge was satisfaction; to increase knowledge was simply to add to the sum of human happiness. That his purpose was not as clear to others emerged from the first reviews of the series. There was, it seemed, some confusion as to what he intended the books to be – inventories, or guides? ‘Scholarly historicism or inspired demonstration of beauty?’ queried the architectural critic Ian Nairn in 1954. Pevsner himself had veered between the two descriptions, leaving himself room to make the books an idiosyncratic hybrid. He was hardly working with a free hand. To be portable, unlike the volumes of the Royal Commission or the Victoria County History, the books were limited in size. To be affordable, in line with the Penguin philosophy of accessibility, they had to be reasonably short and not lavishly illustrated. To fit within the constraints of Pevsner’s busy life as a teacher, lecturer, editor, writer, campaigner and committee man, the time he could spend on the road was limited to two months a year, four weeks per county. 18 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
From top Langham House Close, Ham; Christ Church, West Hartlepool (photograph © Gilbert Barlow); the Bear Hotel, Devizes, Wiltshire (photograph © Grievemere); Blaston, St Giles (photograph © Leicester Photo Design).
These constraints lay behind a working method which he never varied and which alone made it possible for him to sustain the extraordinary effort. They also lay behind the characteristic prose style of the BoE, an inimitable amalgam of fact and opinion: ‘HAM. Langham House Close, by Stirling & Gowan, 1958, a landmark in the emerging style of the late 1950s in England, in reaction against allglass façades and thin precise detailing: two- and three-storey with exposed concrete floors, a lot of yellow brick, and thick white painted trim to the windows. There is probably more protest than is needed for the simple provision of a few flats. ’ Colin MacInnes, a student of newcomers to England, admired the skill with which Pevsner had tailored the English language to the job in hand. ‘Rarely can a writer on architecture have kidnapped so audaciously so many adjectives not usually applied to architecture’ – ‘lanky’ , ‘papery’ , ‘skinny’ , ‘trustworthy’ , ‘non-committal’ , ‘wellmannered’ , ‘frantic’ , ‘desperate’ , ‘rum’ . The church of St James, Teignmouth, was ‘undogmatic’ , Christ Church, West Hartlepool, had a stair turret whose roof was ‘roguish’ . The Railway Hotel, Aylesbury, was ‘an engaging little horror’ , while the Bear Hotel in Devizes could boast two buildings, ‘the l. polite, the r. homely’ . For every entry that is epigrammatic, there are five or six that are prosaic and brief to the point of baldness. ‘BLASTON. ST GILES. 1870 by G.E. Street. Nave and chancel in one, and apse. Lancet windows. Nothing else need be said. ’ Entertaining to outsiders with no emotional investment, these casual assassinations could wound and infuriate proud parsons, owners or local historians. ‘Somebody let Pevsner into my house at Combe Florey, ’ fumed Auberon Waugh. ‘ “Nice staircase of c.1753” is his only comment about the interior. One can’t very well take offence at that, but I feel my staircase has been violated whenever I reflect that his bleary socialist eyes have appraised it. ’ Even Alec Clifton-Taylor, a friend of long standing, complained, ‘Dr Pevsner occasionally seems not to be able to see the church for the double-chamfered arches’ . But as the series progressed, even critics who disliked its style conceded that
PEVSNER’s immodest proposal ‘Pevsner, ’ like ‘Hoover’ and ‘Biro’ , has it was meeting a need. England was acquiring become not just a name but a noun, as in a more complete inventory of its significant ‘Have you remembered the Pevsner?’ In estate buildings than anywhere else in Europe and, agents’ vocabulary it is an adjective: a ‘Pevsner’ in the process, a record of the change that was house attracts a great deal of attention when constantly taking place in its villages, towns it comes on the market. In some hands it even and cities. What was entirely new was the becomes a verb. ‘If you are like me, ’ wrote systematic attention paid to the architecture Penelope Lively in an article on Exmoor in of the nineteenth century and, in this respect 1994, ‘you will quickly acquire a taste for in particular, Pevsner had arrived on the “Pevsnering” – pouttering [sic] round any conservation scene at a crucial time. ‘Is it in village, the appropriate volume in hand’ . Pevsner?’ was now the question whose answer For all the inevitable errors and omissions, might determine the fate of any building under which Pevsner was the first to admit, the threat and, without him, an infinitely larger BoE had laid a solid foundation of fact on number would have been lost, chief among which future architectural writers could erect them Victorian buildings whose value had only their superstructures of subjective response. recently begun to be recognised. Jonathan Meades claims Pevsner as his As more primary information became Pevsner leaving the last church in the last county guide: in 1968, by his own account, while his available, so Pevsner’s researches became more covered by the BoE series, St Luke, Sheen, fellow students were out in Grosvenor Square thorough and his volumes longer, with greater Staffordshire. Photograph © the Guardian. protesting against the Vietnam War, Meades claims to authority. By the 1960s the BoE were was church-crawling, introduced by Pevsner to a new world of more like reference books, invaluable to researchers compiling architectural exploration. Simon Jenkins wrote when Pevsner died, more specialist guides or preparing planning reports, but still ‘The epithets of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner … will linger round the places appealing to the general public for whom they had originally been he describes for eternity. No one today who loves English buildings intended. People waited eagerly for the series to reach their county can love them alone. Enter any cathedral or great house, village and transform the way in which they viewed it. Pevsner, wrote John street or Victorian factory and Pevsner is at your side, stooping, Summerson, was ‘a bringer of the riches, the entertainment, the omniscient, the ubiquitous chaperone. ’ In the introduction to wisdom of architectural scholarship to more people probably than England’s Thousand Best Churches (1999), he calls the BoE ‘the any man alive’ . principal source for any book on English churches … Pevsner … is By 1974 the series was finished, but not ‘complete’ , because indispensable’ . Andrew Lloyd Webber has called Pevsner ‘the first this had never been its founder’s intention. ‘Don’t be deceived, person that made my generation aware of extraordinary buildings’ gentle reader, ’ he wrote in the introduction to Staffordshire, the final and the man who inspired him to found the Open Churches Trust, volume, ‘the first editions are only ballons d’essai; it is the second campaigning to keep England’s churches accessible to all. Loved or editions which count’ . The Buildings of England series, now in the loathed, the BoE is always likely to be the first point of reference on hands of Yale University Press, is the Forth Bridge of architectural the buildings of England, and the series is more than likely to remain scholarship, a process of endless addition and revision. (The unique. As Pevsner himself pointed out, ‘There won’t be another London Library maintains two complete sets of the volumes, one for madman so soon’ . reference and the other available to borrow.)
.
PEVSNER AND THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN The first volumes of The Buildings of England appeared in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain (see page 25). Preoccupation with the series may explain why – the Royal Festival Hall apart – Pevsner had little to say publicly about what otherwise represented the triumph of exactly the kind of new architecture of which he approved: modernism, but with a human face. His only public utterance was an article for the Penrose Annual entitled ‘Lettering on the South Bank’ (vol.46, 1952), describing the organisers’ search for a style of ornament that might soften the harsh outlines of 1930s International Modernism and yet remain forwardlooking, expressing the spirit of a more optimistic post-war age. Reviving the characteristics of the English Picturesque movement of the eighteenth century – appropriately enough, for a national celebration – the Festival’s designers had
opted for variety and contrast. On architecture that strove to be weightless, transparent and contemporary, they had placed lettering that was heavy, solid, florid, sometimes even deliberately Victorian – ‘a playing with period Florid Victorian lettering on a roundabout in the Country Pavilion. motifs to enhance by contrast the value of the modern architectural elements’ – and Pevsner clearly felt that the overall effect was as joyous as the Festival as a whole was meant to be: ‘We should be grateful to Heaven that so many artists and architects and designers feel once again that the world has so many enjoyable facets.’
THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 19
HIDDEN CORNERS
the higginson
Collection ‘Hig’ Higginson’s superb collection of journalism and literature on fox-hunting is kept intact in a room within The London Library, a lasting tribute to the sport he loved. Jane Ridley examines its fascinating and idiosyncratic treasures.
T
o reach it, you must walk through the iron Science stacks in Level 4 and turn left. Before the stairs to Level 5, you climb a few steps leading to a narrow, cream-coloured door, which seems to have escaped new paint for several decades. It is locked. Few members even glance at it as they trudge past. I first entered the small locked room full of books more than 20 years ago. Inside, little has changed. The shelves are no longer dusty, however, and the books – some of which contain valuable prints – have been well conserved. Some are tied around with black tape, like armbands in
20 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
mourning to a dead sport. The books, stacked from floor to ceiling, form a unique resource. The Higginson Collection is the library of an American Master of Fox Hounds named A.H. Higginson. Unlike most bequests to the Library, this collection has been kept intact, rather than shelved with the main holdings. It is the only complete collection of the journalism and literature of fox-hunting that I know of in an English lending library. That such a collection, celebrating the exploits of the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable, should be housed in the London Library might seem incongruous
to some more metropolitan-minded members. Since the controversial Hunting Act of 2004, hunting with dogs, and particularly fox-hunting, has been outlawed in England and Wales – although, oddly, the ban seems if anything to have increased the popularity of the sport. The Library’s regular holdings on Hunting are shelved in Science and located, appropriately perhaps, next to another outlawed, atavistic activity: Human Sacrifice. They occupy a mere two-anda-half shelves. A.H. Higginson, the Library’s benefactor, was no ordinary Master of Foxhounds (MFH). He was a prolific writer, and published many books with titles such as Letters from an Old Sportsman to a Young One (1929) or The English Foxhound Kennel Stud Book of America (4 vols., 1909–56). His memoirs, titled Try Back (hound language for: go have another look), published in 1931, record a life dedicated with total single-mindedness to the hunting of the fox. Where the hunt met on each and every hunting day, what the run was like, how individual hounds and horses performed – all is chronicled in meticulous detail. Born to distinguished Bostonian parents in 1876, Higginson started his own hunt in New England at the age of 24. The Middlesex Hunt Club, as he named it, hunted in the English fashion, with huntsmen and whippers-in and members wearing scarlet coats. This style of sport
Opposite ‘Jorrocks the Cockney grocer pulls his horse over a jump’ by John Leech, from R.S. Surtees’ Handley Cross (1843), 1892 edition. Left Frontispiece by Henry Alken, from R.S. Surtees’Analysis of the Hunting Field … A Slight Souvenir of the Season 1845–6 (1846).
was then a novelty in this part of America, where the traditional method was to take a shot at a fox chased by a couple of hounds. For the rest of his life, Higginson was an MFH. He served as President of the Masters of Foxhounds Association in the United States. In 1930 he gave this up and moved to England, where he became Master of the Cattistock Hunt in Dorset for nine years. Keeping hounds is a sure way to haemorrhage cash. Higginson employed
a staff of grooms and kennel men and whippers-in, and kept stables full of hunters and kennels of fox-hounds. All this was paid for by his father, Henry Lee Higginson. A Civil War veteran who became a successful financier, Henry Lee was an enlightened philanthropist. He founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra and endowed Harvard University. He seems to have been a liberal and generous parent. When Alexander, who was his
only son, turned out to prefer the out-ofdoors life of the country gentleman to business, claiming that he found the music of hounds better by far than the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Henry Lee happily signed the cheques. In 1914 Alexander’s stable and all but 4 of his 26 horses were destroyed in a fire. ‘Too bad, sonny, ’ said his father, ‘don’t worry, it’s all right … just go ahead and get the best lot of hunters you can find in the country and send the bill to me’ . After the old man’s death, Alexander’s mother continued to fund his hunting. The London Library’s copy of A.H. Higginson’s 1931 memoir is inscribed: ‘To my Mother, who has always helped me in every way to keep up a sport which she perhaps did not understand – because it meant so much to me. ’ Alexander Higginson was known to his friends as ‘Hig’ , and lived in great style. At his dinner table the servants were summoned to bring the next course by a blast on the hunting horn. He was no backwoodsman. His maternal grandfather was Louis Agassiz, the Swiss scientific genius who established the case for the Ice Age. Hig brought scientific rigour as well as New World energy and money to his pursuit of the sport of fox-hunting. He read and collected all the books he could find on the subject, starting with eighteenth-century classics such as Peter Beckford’s Thoughts Upon Hunting (1781). In 1912 he embarked on a hunting tour to England, conscious that ‘more could be learned from first-hand experience than from any amount of reading’ . He hunted with several packs, including the Beaufort, and he stayed with the Duke at Badminton. He found the house ‘simply too vast for any American to imagine it’ , even though half of it was closed off because of Lloyd George’s taxes. The Duke, who hunted his own hounds, never jumped a single fence. Higginson was lucky to survive this trip: he had planned to return home on the Titanic, but couldn’t get a booking. Higginson died in 1958, and his books were given to the Library by his widow, the actress Mary Newcomb. She was his third wife, an American who achieved success THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 21
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‘The Meet’ by Henry Alken, from Surtees’ Analysis of the Hunting Field (1846). Note that no women are present at this 1840s hunt.
on the London stage, which was one reason why Hig chose to live in England. The London Library Committee minutes for 13 June 1961 note: ‘The Librarian reported the arrival of the fox hunting library from Mrs M.N. Higginson. It was proposed that journals such as “Country Life” and “Horse and Hound” be informed of the gift. ’ The polite sigh at agreeing to take a collection so extraneous to the Library’s main interests is almost audible. These were times of acute financial stress for the Library. The Chairman, Rupert Hart-Davis, had recently been driven to refill the Library’s empty coffers by organising a Christie’s sale of literary manuscripts. Hart-Davis described the Committee at this time as being ‘like lumps of driftwood, moving sluggishly with the current’ . Whether or not this was the case, they made a wise decision in accepting the Higginson bequest. I first entered the Higginson room when I was researching a book on the history of fox-hunting. I accept that what I am about to write will cause me to be shunned in Hampstead and reviled by publishers in Bloomsbury, but my guilty secret is that fox-hunting was my passion and obsession throughout my twenties and early thirties. This was the late 1980s, a time when the surging anti-hunt movement seemed unstoppable. Masked hunt saboteurs would regularly arrive by
the busload at hunt meets and spray stuff called anti-mate to divert hounds from the fox’s scent or beat up riders wearing red coats. That the argument against hunting had been won was generally accepted. Hunting, preached the animal rights movement, was a cruel sport, morally indefensible because it gave pleasure out of killing. Intuitively, I felt that this was a reductionist caricature that bore no relation to the reality of hunting as I knew it. How to say this – how to reply to the onslaught of antis – was the puzzle. I found the answer in the Higginson Collection. After Raymond Carr, who published a trail-blazing history of hunting in 1976, I believe that I was the second Library member to write a book out of the Higginson Collection. The material that Higginson collected
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spans the history of English fox-hunting since it began in the eighteenth century. The three key ingredients for the sport were: the thoroughbred horse, the fast-bred hound, and the Enclosure Acts, which allowed the old open fields to be carved up into smaller fields ringed by hedges or wooden fences. These combined to create a new, fast hunting that combined the thrill of riding over fences (than which I know no greater adrenalin high) with the unpredictability of scent and weather. For most riders, the point of this unique sport was (and still is) pleasure through danger. What the journalism and books collected here make clear, however, is that ever since the beginning, hunting men have found a need to justify their sport and endow it with a higher purpose. For the Dorset country gentleman Peter Beckford in the 1780s, who
For Peter Beckford in the 1780s, who was said to “bag a fox in Greek, find a hare in Latin and inspect his kennels in Italian” , hunting was the ideal of a civilised country life, based on classical values
’
HIDDEN CORNERS was said to ‘bag a fox in Greek, find a hare in Latin and inspect his kennels in Italian’ , hunting was the ideal of a civilised country life, based on classical values. Higginson collected as many as ten editions of this seminal primer, Thoughts Upon Hunting, including an original edition of 1781 and a beautiful 1782 illustrated volume. Each generation represented hunting in its own image. To the Regency ‘swell’ , riding hell-for-leather over lethal fences, while drunk and wearing a red swallowtail coat made by London tailor Pink, represented the high point of breeding and courage. The exploits of these selfdestructive dandies were chronicled by Charles Apperley, aka Nimrod, whose snobbish Hunting Tours (there are several editions, dating from 1835, in the Higginson Collection) reveal him to be the Regency version of the Spectator’s Taki. R.S. Surtees was the Charles Dickens of fox-hunting, and to my mind the
read avidly by people who had never ridden a horse, and the vocabulary of hunting seeped into the language much as football’s has. As Virginia Woolf observed, ‘in their slapdash, gentlemanly way’ , Nimrod and Surtees ‘have ridden their pens as boldly as they have ridden their horses … This riding and tumbling, this being blown upon and rained upon and splashed from head to heels with mud, have worked themselves into the very texture of English prose, and given it that leap and dash, that stripping of images from flying hedge and tossing tree. ’ To the mid-Victorians, Jorrocks seemed foul-mouthed and coarse. The hunting writer G.J. Whyte-Melville, author of the bestselling Market Harborough (1861), used his novels to wage a lifelong campaign against gambling and drinking, thus making the hunting field a suitable place for women. Writers such as Surtees are well represented in the Library’s Fiction section.
Page from Elisabeth S. Babock’s Illustrated Hunting Diary: Recording the Sport of the Season for the Followers of the Meadow Brook Hounds 1935–6 (facsimile, privately published 1936).
greatest of the Victorian hunting novelists. In Handley Cross (1843) he created the character of Jorrocks, a stout Cockney grocer, who is the antithesis of Nimrod’s ‘crack’ riders. Jorrocks hunts in the London suburbs; he never jumps but dismounts whenever he meets an obstacle and pulls his horse over it (‘Come ’Hup you Hugly beast’), but he can join the hunting field because it is (unlike such sports as shooting) open to all. Fox-hunting in the nineteenth century was as much part of the public consciousness as football is today. It was the ‘national sport’; hunting reports were
What is unique about the Higginson room, however, is the collection of lesser-known hunting authors. Technical manuals such as John Hawkes’s The Meynellian Science: or, fox-hunting upon system (1808) and Notitia Venatica: A Treatise on Fox-Hunting (1841) by Robert Vyner, and etiquette books like Harry Hieover’s The Hunting-Field (1850), are to be found here. Higginson contains a complete run of Baily’s Magazine (1860–1926), hunting’s journal of record, an essential source for any hunting historian. One of the greatest treasures is the unparalleled collection of hunt histories.
These red-bound volumes, often late Victorian or Edwardian, provide a littleknown history of nineteenth-century country life. Commemorating the history of the hunt was a response to the agricultural depression of the 1880s and 1890s, which prefigured the liquidation of traditional landed society and the end of hunting as the Victorians knew it. Works such as the Annals of the Warwickshire Hunt 1795–1895 (1896), by Sir Charles Mordaunt and the Hon. and Revd W.R. Verney, give a vivid snapshot of a landed elite in meltdown, bemoaning the passing of hunting squires such as the Lords Willoughby de Broke, hereditary Masters of the Warwickshire Hunt: ‘Broke! Broke! Broke!/ Are the lords of this cold clay land!’ The memoirs in the collection are full of nuggets, such as the story of Winston Churchill, who broke his collarbone out hunting with the Quorn Hunt in 1909. ‘Good Lord! Is that all? Pity it wasn’t his --- jaw!’ was the comment of a Quornite wag on the class traitor who made his reputation by attacking the dukes. Thirty-five of Higginson’s own works are listed in the Library’s catalogue, including his hunting diaries. Nine bound volumes of typed diary record every day that he hunted the Cattistock Hounds in the 1930s with characteristic thoroughness. One impression that emerges clearly from the literature he collected is the change in tone after the First World War. Hunting journalists no longer tried to reach out to urban audiences, as the Victorians had done. Becoming inward-looking made hunting unpopular. It was perceived as a toffs’ sport, which left it vulnerable to attack. The sport which boasted that it was open to all was also open to the hunt saboteur. The sport that revolved around the pursuit of an inedible animal in a particularly inefficient manner could hardly be justified as a ‘useful’ form of pest control. I should like to salute ‘Hig’ Higginson. His pioneering scholarship combined with his bibliophile’s devotion equipped him to build a superb collection, which was perhaps his most lasting legacy to the sport he loved. Thanks to the Library’s foresight in accepting his bequest, the research materials exist that enable historians to document the remarkable social phenomenon of fox-hunting.
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THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 23
ENGAGE WITH THE WORLD’S LEADING THINKERS* *Watch Bernard-Henri Lévy, Umberto Eco and Steven Pinker live this autumn.
www.intelligencesquared.com 24 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
Festival of BRITAIN As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain of 1951, it is worth noting that within the Library’s Science and Miscellaneous section sits S. Festival of Britain, dedicated exclusively to this ‘tonic for the nation’ . Under this heading Library members will find later monographs but also contemporary publications such as Sixty Paintings for ’51, a catalogue of canvases commissioned by the Arts Council to be ‘exhibited in London and the Provinces’ , and Design in the Festival: Illustrated Review of British Goods, with ingenious and beautiful designs for everything from wallpaper patterns to the latest model of mechanised manure distributors. The section also includes two volumes and four boxes, all bound by the Library in red buckram. The volumes contain several of the official Festival guide-catalogues, as well as a booklet entitled
The Story of the Festival of Britain 1951. The boxes include some 230 concert, opera, ballet and theatre programmes, as well as around 90 leaflets announcing events up and down the country. Our annual report for 1950–1 tells us that the London Library played its part in the Festival by lending its copy of the first edition of Edward Fitzgerald’s version of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1858) to the V&A book exhibition, while the annual report for 1952–3 lists the Festival of Britain among the year’s donors. It seems likely that this collection of Festival ephemera was given to the Library by the Festival organisers. The boxes are currently sitting in our Bibliographic Services department where, as part of the Library’s Retrospective Cataloguing Project, every item of memorabilia is now being added to the online catalogue. Dunia García-Ontiveros Head of Bibliographic Services
Leaflets printed to accompany Festival events both in London and the provinces, including one featuring the Festival star emblem (bottom right). THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 25
The Royal Literary Fund
Financial Assistance for Writers
The club for all those professionally concerned with literature www.authorsclub.co.uk
Grants and Pensions are available to published authors of several works who are in financial difficulties due to personal or professional setbacks. For further details and application form please contact Eileen Gunn, General Secretary, The Royal Literary Fund, 3 Johnson’s Court, London EC4A 3EA Tel: 020 7353 7159 Email: egunnrlf@globalnet.co.uk Website: www.rlf.org.uk
Founded by Walter Besant in 1891, the Authors’ Club has provided a sociable meeting place for writers, agents and publishers for 120 years, and now offers a stimulating programme of events in the beautiful surroundings of Blacks, 67 Dean Street, London W1. For further information, contact cjschuler@btinternet.com
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26 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE London Libraries_Alice.indd 1
30/07/2011 14:46
POETRY
In Vitro Molly Olguin You’re standing under the Savoy when it starts. An Ideal Husband just let out, and this is where its author slept, a hundred years ago. It starts slow. Faint twinges like headache pangs. Arrogance creeping along your cerebellum, a dash of pretension – some melodrama you never felt before. The pink glitter of the musical next door is charming now, beautiful and useless. It’s like you’re standing here together. You begin to be afraid of the stout creature growing in your mind, afraid he’ll emerge naive and embarrassed, bursting into convulsive laughter at his own lisping jokes. He twists restlessly in your skull, presses clumsy lips to your frontal lobes. The buildings tremble in front of you. Soon he will slither between your meninges, push down your nasal passage to your jaw, finally slipping out of your body entirely, six feet six inches in stockings and buckle shoes, a selfish giant blocking traffic on the Strand. He will wink, touch his over-ripe mouth to your hand, and depart for places no mother would dare to follow.
Cosmo Davenport-Hines, who was the youngest life member of the London Library, died on 9 June 2008, aged 21. The Cosmo Davenport-Hines Prize for Poetry was set up at King’s College London in his memory. Molly Olguin’s poem is this year’s winner.
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THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 27
MEMBERS’ News understanding the library’s finances To help explain to members what happened in the financial year 2010–2011, and where things look like heading now, Chairman BILL EMMOTT decided to pose questions to Mark Storey, the Treasurer, and inez lynn, THE LIBRARIAN It is very good news that the Library has produced a surplus, after several years of deficits. Mark, how was this achieved? Well, as we will go on to explain, once it became clear that Gift Aid on fee income was coming to an end, and as the risks posed by our final salary pension scheme loomed ever larger, we made some big changes that affect both our costs and our revenues, but in truth their main effect will not be felt until 2011–2012. This year’s good outturn owes something to our finding new sources of income and to a pleasingly growing membership, but much of it was due to exceptional factors. Independently of our new fund-raising initiatives we were fortunate to receive an extremely generous legacy from a former member, Stephen Bonser, who left us £353,000. It’s not often that we receive a legacy of this size, so we should see it as a oneoff contribution. We also still received £134,000 of Gift Aid on fee income for the six months to September 2010 thanks to our settlement with HMRC, but we won’t be getting any more. Lastly, the closure of the pension scheme has had a beneficial effect on the deficit in the scheme at the year-end. The reasons for this are somewhat technical and it is masked by the other factors affecting the scheme deficit, but the result is a one-off credit of £563,000 against our expenditure for 2010–2011. The combined benefit of these one-off factors is £1,050,000, but we also incurred one-off costs of £76,000 on restructuring, so the overall net impact of one-off factors in 2010–2011 is £974,000. Without this, the net surplus of £773,000 shown in the accounts would instead have been a deficit of about £200,000 – hence the need for substantial cost-cutting, which will deliver total savings of £300,000 in a full year, and for renewed efforts at fund-raising. Other things equal, this should produce a modest surplus in 2011– 2012 and subsequent years without relying on large legacies over which we have no control. This means that when such ‘windfalls’ do arise they can and should be applied to new projects or service enhancements, or invested to generate income, rather than simply balancing the core budget. So all in all, we believe that we have emerged stronger from the crisis triggered by the Gift Aid ‘shock’. Inez, what lies behind that ‘pleasingly growing membership’, and what are the new sources of income? After Phase 2 of the Development Project was completed in summer 2010, bringing to an end the era of earplugs and disruption, there was a period of remarkable growth in membership numbers: 984 new members joined during 2010–2011, and the net increase of 373 was both impressive and gratifying. But we are under no 28 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
illusions that the trend can just be expected to continue indefinitely. It is a very long time since the Library was able to support itself from membership fees alone, and for many years donations have been an important part of the mix: as the chart shows, only 80% of our income arises from membership fees. What we are now trying to do is to put these other sources of income on a more systematic and sustainable footing. In autumn 2010 we launched a new patrons’ scheme, the Founders’ Circle, which aims to encourage regular giving at a substantial level by those able to make this commitment, and in return offers literary and cultural events as a sign of our appreciation. We can still claim Gift Aid on our donation income (unlike our fee income) and the Founders’ Circle raised £184,000 including Gift Aid during its first 6 months, from 48 individuals donating at 3 levels – Dickens (£10,000), Thackeray (£5,000) and Martineau (£1,500) – including, I am glad to say, both of you. We hope to build on this initial success during the coming years and establish the Founders’ Circle as a permanent source of financial support. However, we recognise that not everyone can afford to contribute at this level and we continue to welcome smaller donations to support book acquisitions or other activities and services. For example, we are now launching an Adopt A Book scheme. Also in autumn 2010 we launched the Library as a prestigious venue for commercial hire – the initial results have been encouraging and we will be developing this initiative further during 2011–2012, with a new scheme for ‘Corporate Patrons’. And finally, of course, we have made substantial cuts to our core annual expenditure. Membership changes by month, April 2006 to March 2011
New or reinstated Withdrawals Net
2011 Core Funding Sources (Total Consolidated Income £3,539,379) Investment income £227,826 6%
Events & Merchandising £33,167 Small legacies 1% £21,679 1%
Events & Merchandising £33,167 1% Legacies £466,290 13%
Investment income £227,826 8%
Revenue donations £315,566 11%
Revenue donations £315,566 9% Gift Aid on membership income £133,764 4%
2011 Core Funding Sources excluding Gift Aid and legacies (Total Income £2,961,004)
Membership income (excluding Gift Aid) £2,362,766 67%
That must have been tough, since all members surely know that Library costs were already being managed tightly. What did you do? One thing we were clear about from the start was that the cost reductions must not impair frontline service delivery. Another was that savings on the scale we needed would have to come mainly if not entirely from staff costs. In the event some came from the freezing of posts that became vacant, but we also had to make four senior posts redundant – one in Finance, one in Buildings & Facilities Management, and two in Current Cataloguing, which was then merged with Retrospective Cataloguing to create a combined Bibliographic Services department. We could not implement any further redundancies without endangering our service standards, so the rest of the target saving had to come from broader changes. We looked at various possibilities, but the fairest approach seemed to be to remove the 5% enhancement over the universities’ national pay scale that had been built into the Library’s salaries since the 150th anniversary celebrations in 1991. Following a consultation period, we gave notice of this to staff in April 2011 and it took effect in July. Future cost-of-living awards will continue to be linked to those of the universities, although in exceptional circumstances and after consultation we may delay their implementation or substitute an alternative methodology. Furthermore, in summer 2010 we began a dialogue with the trustees of the pension scheme about closing it to future benefit accrual. With their agreement and after staff consultation the scheme was closed on 1 April 2011, at which point we introduced a Group Personal Pension Plan to take its place. Obviously the implementation of these measures has not been easy, but after the initial shock the staff have responded courageously. In the departments affected by redundancies, increased efficiency has enabled us to maintain or improve our overall performance. Having said that, the world does not stand still and nor do the expectations of our members. The recent growth in membership numbers and the more intensive use that many newer members make of the Library’s facilities has inevitably put more strain on frontline staff resources, and this is something we will keep under careful review. Although staff costs represent about two-thirds of our core
Membership income (excluding Gift Aid) £2,362,766 79%
expenditure, there are other factors that also drive it. To the extent that cost inflation relates to non-discretionary items there is not much we can do about it, other than to be aware of its impact and allow for it when setting our fees. Then again the boundary between discretionary and non-discretionary expenditure is not always clearcut. For example, if we skimp on some building maintenance because it is not an immediate necessity, we may end up paying more in emergency repairs later on. Mark, why was it necessary to close the pension fund? Essentially, it was a question of risk, and thus of reducing the danger of future shocks to the Library’s finances. Increasing longevity and pay increases often above general inflation have driven up the future liabilities of final salary pension schemes, while worsening investment performance has meant that asset values have not kept pace. This has resulted in actuarial deficits, which in many cases have not been cleared despite ever-increasing contributions from employers. The Library’s experience has been fairly typical in this respect, but as a relatively small organisation with no ‘funder of last resort’ we are more vulnerable than most. Removing the risk altogether is not something we can hope to achieve for some considerable time, but by closing the scheme to new members and to future accrual, and breaking the link between pensions and final salaries, we have been able to mitigate it substantially. Thank goodness we have financial reserves to defend us against future shocks. You have changed the way we manage these. How? The Library’s reserves play a variety of roles. They provide ‘working capital’ for day-to-day operations; they provide a buffer against shocks such as we experienced recently with Gift Aid; and they provide an ‘endowment’, which is available for special projects and service enhancements but meanwhile generates investment income to supplement fees, donations and other income. For planning purposes we have separated these objectives into three tiers and set investment policies appropriate for each one – so the lowest tier is kept in cash, while the higher ones are held in assets with a slightly higher expected return and a correspondingly slightly higher risk. At THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 29
Expenditure £3,182,323) 20102010 Core Core Expenditure (Total(Total £3,182,323) Membership Membership £245,756 £245,756 8% 8%
Binding, Binding, Preservation & Preservation & Stack Management Stack Management £315,262 £315,262 10% 10% Acquisitions Acquisitions £443,355 £443,355 14% 14%
Finance & Finance & Administration Administration £375,354 £375,354 14% 14%
Services ReaderReader Services £505,962 £505,962 16% 16%
Cataloguing & Cataloguing & Retrospective Conversion Retrospective Conversion £397,804 £397,804 13% 13%
the moment our reserves remain fairly low so we have adopted a cautious policy overall, giving satisfactory returns and relatively low volatility. We will review this policy if, as we hope, we are able to build up our reserves by generating future surpluses. Inez, you said last year that you would look at membership categories now that HMRC’s Gift Aid rules, which limited the discounts offered to spouses, for example, no longer apply – what has happened about that? It became quite a topic for discussion during the year, as we considered all the possibilities and their likely impact on revenue as well as on the future recruitment and retention of members. It quickly became apparent that a fee structure based on payment according to actual usage would simply not be financially viable. Membership is about having the opportunity at any time to select from around a million books, browse among 750 current periodicals, take advantage of our electronic collections from home or work as well as within the Library buildings, and find a congenial place to read or work in central London. This means we need continually to add to and maintain all the collections and facilities and employ enough staff to be able to provide all of the services all of the time, whenever any particular member should need them. It is in any case difficult to judge the relative monetary value of borrowing books, using the premises, using staff services or having access to electronic collections, as this varies from person to person. So we decided against new categories based on place of residence or type of use. Instead, we propose to apply a generous 50% discount for members’ spouses or partners and introduce a new category of institutional membership for small organisations with fewer than 10 staff or users. Members will be asked to approve these proposals at the AGM in November. Offering such a large discount for spouses and partners is not without risk – there are currently some 220 spouse members paying £410 so we will need to recruit a further 190 just to break even in financial terms – but we feel there is significant scope for growth. We will also continue with the £50 discount offered to members who succeed in recruiting a new member, and have introduced a Gift Voucher scheme – like a London Library book token – with vouchers 30 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
Restructuring Restructuring £75,751 £75,751 Membership3% 3% Membership £233,222 £233,222 8% 8%
Buildings & Facilities Buildings & Facilities £616,487 £616,487 19% 19%
Finance & Finance & Administration Administration £461,261 £461,261 14% 14%
Information Information Technology Technology £196,436 £196,436 6% 6%
Expenditure £2,766,310) 20112011 Core Core Expenditure (Total(Total £2,766,310)
Information Information Technology Technology £158,245 £158,245 6% 6%
Binding, Binding, Preservation & Preservation & Stack Management Stack Management £254,441 £254,441 9% 9% Acquisitions Acquisitions £405,928 £405,928 15% 15%
Buildings & Facilities Buildings & Facilities £555,680 £555,680 20% 20%
Services ReaderReader Services £408,932 £408,932 19% 19%
Bibliographic Services Bibliographic Services £288,805 £288,805 10% 10%
for £50 or £100 available for purchase as a gift that can be redeemed against the cost of membership (see page 34). It has obviously been a pretty difficult year, especially because of the cost-cutting. But what have you achieved that you feel particularly pleased with, Inez? It has indeed been a difficult year – to lose long-standing colleagues to redundancy is extremely painful, and all the more so when it is coupled with the personal anxiety of impending pay cuts and pension changes. But I would like to pay tribute to the staff – those who left and those who stayed – for the maturity and professionalism they have shown throughout. The highlight of the year, for me, would have to be the completion of Phase 2 of our building works last June and the celebrations that followed, during which we showed over 400 members round the building in a week of celebratory tours. It has been a great pleasure to see how enthusiastic members are about all the new spaces, and the work has also been very well received by architects and designers. In fact Haworth Tompkins have already won two awards for their work on the Library: the ‘Best Refurbishment’ Award from the American Institute of Architects UK Excellence in Design Awards, and, more recently, the ‘Conserving’ category in the New London Architecture Awards. Last autumn we changed our opening hours to offer more opportunities to generate income through events and the hiring of the building as a venue for dinners and receptions. Although this has meant closing earlier on Wednesdays, we are able to stay open until 9pm on Mondays and Tuesdays as a result. This has not pleased everyone, unfortunately, but it has made a huge difference to those members who are only able to get here after work and they are most appreciative. Finally, with a lull in the building work, it has been good to be able to spend more time this year thinking about the collections – what we collect and why – and about the challenges of the digital future for the Library. This is very much work in progress, but it is a delight to be able to get back to talking to the trustees about books rather than bricks ... or bills!
MEMBERS’ NEWS
DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS The Trustees are most grateful to all the donors listed below, who have made contributions in the year ended 31 March 2011 either for specific purposes or towards the general running costs of the Library DEVELOPMENT APPEAL FUND Double Elephant Folio Mrs T S Eliot The Underwood Trust Atlas Folio The Foyle Foundation Elephant Folio The Horace W Goldsmith Foundation Folio Peter Jamieson Quarto Dr Penelope McCarthy Octavo Lord and Lady Egremont Clive Richards OBE Duodecimo Trevor Coldrey The O J Colman Charitable Trust Peter Firth James Fisher Giles Flint The J P Jacobs Charitable Trust K H McIntosh Sir Jeremy and Lady Morse The Viscount Norwich Clive Priestley CB Martin and Margaret Riley Sir Roy Strong Sextodecimo David Aukin Alan Bell Sir Alan Bowness Sebastian Brock Margaret Buxton Curtis Charitable Trust Barbara Curtoys Jane Falloon Richard Freeman Michael Gainsborough J Hilton The Rt Hon The Lord Justice Longmore John Madell John Massey Stewart John Perkins W G Plomer Sonia Prentice Janet Rennie Peter Rowland Sir John Sainty Martin Smith
The Lady Soames DBE Dr Gerassimos Spathis J B Stainton Christopher Swinson R and M Walker Susan Wallington Jeremy White Ann Williams Anthony J T Williams FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE This special circle, established in autumn 2010, is a group dedicated to supporting the running of The London Library, ensuring that it has the means each year to maintain its services, collections and facilities. Named in honour of the first 500 members who set the Library on its feet in 1841, the Founders’ Circle comes together at a variety of interesting and exclusive events throughout the year. Dickens Dianne and John Browning Bill Emmott Ilyas Khan Elisabeth Murdoch Basil Postan Sir Tim Rice Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE Mark Storey Naomi Zimba Davis
M James) Roger Jospé Alan Keat Patricia Lennox-Boyd Leonora, Countess of Lichfield His Hon Humphrey Lloyd, QC The Mackintosh Foundation Alan Russett Theresa Sackler Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE Sir James Spooner James Stainton Marjorie Stimmel Paul Swain Lady Judy Taylor Harriet Tuckey John C Walton Clive Wright BOOK FUND Great Primer Peter Rosenthal Cicero Janey King Colin Lee Logos Charitable Trust Anne Sebba Sybil Shean Colin Stevenson Marion Ward
Thackeray Mark Burton Adam and Victoria Freudenheim Anthony Fry Roger Pilgrim and N B Majaro
Nonpareil John Burman Barnabus Brunner Norman Franklin Belinda Harley Terence Jagger CBE Jeanne Moore James Myddleton Timothy Schroder Sir Nicholas Underhill
Martineau Professor Jenny Bourne Taylor Sir Charles ChadwyckHealey, Bt Lady Sarah Chatto Cathy Corbett Lady Caroline Dalmeny Sir John Gieve Louis Greig Loyd Grossman Lawrence and Lucy Guffey Sheila Hancock Professor Jocelyn Hillgarth Philip Hooker Rosemary Stewart (Mrs I
Brilliant The Marquess of Anglesey Nicholas Baring James Bartlett Philip Bovey Sue Bradbury Penelope Byrde Rupert Christiansen John Crawley The Revd Canon Dr Donald Gray CBE Judy Hillman Dr Catherine Horwood Jenny Joseph John Mitchell Jeanne Moore
Robert Pattinson Dr Ann Saunders Joanna Selborne GENERAL DONATIONS John Barney Jean Bowden-Green The Hon Mrs Annabelle Chisholm A O J Cockshut The L E Collis Charitable Trust Faith Cook Glenys Dean Professor Michael Foot CBE Mark Frankland Alan Gregory CBE Lionel Halpern Richard Hillier Dr Anthony Hobson Ashley Huish Reverend Stephen Humphreys Richard Kennedy The Lanistown Trust Elizabeth McDowall Henry McKenzie Johnston CB Michael Monthalvo David Nash-Brown Stephen Plaister Brian Rees Christine Ruge-Cope A B Schofield David Sherlock Douglas Smith Dr Claus Spitzfaden Patrick Streeter Thomas Timmins Sir Simon Towneley KCVO Professor Germaine Warkentin Waterstone’s Dr Peter Watson Revd Anthony Winter Thank you to all those members who have supported the Library through the use of the Everyclick search engine. The Trustees are grateful, too, to those who have made donations to the International Friends of The London Library in support of The London Library, and to those who have continued covenants or made arrangements for Gift Aid donations to the Library. The Trustees are grateful
to the Sigrid Rausing Trust for a generous donation supporting intellectual refugees under its London Library Fellows programme. Jane Gregory and Bernadette Fierz kindly donated towards the Library’s Retrospective Cataloguing project. LEGACIES The Library received legacy income from the following deceased members and friends to whom the Trustees are most grateful: Mrs Katharine Ashton Robert Hugh Beevers Stephen David Bonser Margaret Finnegan Ian Michael Gillis George Girling Grange Dr Rosina Philpot Jean Pearl Isabella Watson The literary estates of Ian Parsons, Robert McNair Scott and Reay Tannahill have provided income from royalties. DONATIONS OF BOOKS Thanks are also due to various government and official bodies, learned societies, institutions and firms, and other libraries and publishers who have given their publications, and to the many donors of books and other items listed below: Mark Adams Jeremy Adler Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Göttingen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz Abimbola Alayo American Museum in Britain Amici Thomae Mori The Angela Thirkell Society The Anglo-Hellenic League The Anthony Powell Society Antique Collectors’ Club Arts Council of England
THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 31
Donations of Books cont.
Neal Ascherson Anthony Astbury Mark Baczoni Peter Bagwell Purefoy Dr Phil Baker Barbados Museum and Historical Society Professor Jean Paul BarbierMueller Nicolas Barker OBE Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Geraldine Beare Alan Beattie Simon Beattie Charles Beauclerk The late Robert Beevers Alan Bell Professor Tim Benton The Bibliographical Society Malcolm Billings Professor Benedetta Bini The late Stephen Bonser Dr Alan Borg CBE Frances Borzello Mark Bostridge Keith Botsford Professor Jenny Bourne Taylor Elizabeth Boyden His Honour Anthony Bradbury The British Library British Sociological Association Robin Broadley The Browning Society Barbara Bryant Katherine Bucknell Sir Colin Budd KCMG Dr John Burman Rupert Butler Roberto Calasso Peter Caracciolo Dr Lionel Carter The Cartoon Museum Sir Charles ChadwyckHealey Bt The Charles Williams Society Chawton House Library Dr Alan Chedzoy Chris Beetles Ltd Rupert Christiansen Christie’s The Churches Conservation Trust John Clare Roger Clark in memory of Dr Robert C J M M d’A Oresko Dr Peter Clarke Catrine Clay Professor Patrick Collinson Artemis Cooper David Corcos Mrs Winifred Coster in memory of Alan Coster Peter Crookston The Cumberland Society in
memory of Dr J E O Screen Timothy d’Arch Smith Gillian Darley Michael Darlow Derbyshire Archaeological & Natural History Society Bejtullah Destani Jessica d’Este Edmund De Waal Dods Taylor Downing Downside Abbey Dr Alexander Drace-Francis The University of Dublin Professor Christopher Duffy Maureen Duffy John Duncalfe Jonathan Dunne Dr Brent Elliott Geoffrey Elliott Samantha Ellis Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Bill Emmott English Heritage Eton College Library Carolyn Ezekiel The Fabian Society Ferriday Enterprises Professor William Firebrace Lord Charles Fitzroy Flag Heritage Foundation Judith Flanders Benedict Flynn Fondazione Europea Guido Venosta Dr Margaret Ford Julian Francis The Francis Brett Young Society Michael Freeman in memory of Sarah Freeman Richard Freeman Friends of Arthur Machen Friends of Canterbury Cathedral Friends of the Dymock Poets Nadia Fusini The late Geoffrey Gibbens Professor Robert Giddings Dr Emelyne Godfrey Goldenford Publishers Robert Gomme CB The Revd Canon Dr Donald Gray CBE Peter Gray in memory of Duncan Gray Jonathon Green Aubrey Greene Gillian Greenwood in memory of Mary Curtis Webb Robert Gwynne Martin Haddon Dr Andrew Hall Michael Hall Jeremy Harte Michael Harverson Sir Max Hastings Dr Daisy Hay Roberta Hay
32 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
Karen Hearn Helion & Co Ltd Richard Heller Henry Sotheran Ltd Hertfordshire Association for Local History John Heuston Joseph Hillaby Professor Jocelyn Hillgarth Bevis Hillier Marianne Hinton The History Press The late Katharine Huggett Dr J T Hughes Reverend Stephen Humphreys Professor John Dixon Hunt The Institute of Linguists Brigadier Satish Issar VSM Istituto Italiano di Cultura Anne James George Jerjian Simon Jervis John Buchan Society Hugh Johnson The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) The Kaireios Library Michael Katakis Keats Shelley Memorial Association Dr Michael Kendall The Kipling Society Rosemary Kennedy in memory of Pauline Hamilton-Russell Fiona Kilpatrick Andrei Konchalovsky Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab Christina Koning William Kuhn Dr Malcolm Lambert Laurel Books Dr W Gordon Lawrence Dr Daniel and Katharine Leab The late Rosemary Leach Michael Lee Edward Leeson Joshua Levine The Lord Lexden The Library of Congress Timothy Llewellyn His Honour Humphrey Lloyd QC Melanie Longson Dr R T Longstaffe-Gowan Hin-cheung Lovell Edward Lucie-Smith Derek Lutyens Inez Lynn Julia MacKenzie Bridie Macmahon Macmillan Marc Fitch Fund Stephen Marquardt Andrew Martin The Massachusetts Review David McDowall John McEwen Kinn McIntosh
Henry McKenzie Johnston CB David McKie Martin Meredith Dante Micheaux William Milner Giles Milton Professor Maureen Moran Richard S Morgan Sara Mori Simon Morris Stephen Morris Charlotte Nassim The National Arts Collection Fund The National Gallery The National Trust Michael Nelson New Statesman Sebastian Nokes Jerry Nolan The Viscount Norwich Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset The late Patrick O’Connor Stephen Ongpin Professor Eric Ormsby Valerie Orpen in memory of Nicole Orpen Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften James Owen The late Elaine Paintin Derek Parker Brian Patterson Martyn Pease Penguin Group UK Michael Peppiatt Dr Mary Anne Perkins John Perkins John Phillips Christopher Phipps Helena Pickup Helen Pike Pollocks Toy Museum Trust Dr Cecilia Powell Claire Powell The Powys Society Dr David Rain Random House Dr Tessa Ransford OBE Nicholas Redman Lord Rees-Mogg The Reform Club Joan Reid The late Olive Renier Philip Ridd Ridinghouse Andrew Robinson Derrick Rowe Dr Dorothy Rowe Peter Rowland Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Artillery Institution Royal Collection Enterprises Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Society Royal Society of Literature Donald Rumbelow
The Rupert Brooke Society Dale Russell Alan Russett Robin Saikia Professor Andrew Saint Samuel French Ltd Jem Sandford Professor Lyman Sargent Victoria Schofield Julia Schottlander Lord and Lady Scott Miranda Seymour Jane Shilling Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship Martin Smith Society of Antiquaries of London Society of Authors Society for Psychical Research The Society of Women Writers and Journalists Martin Spellman Stewart Spencer Brian Stableford Kay Staniland Jill Stern Vivien Stern Nicola Stevens His Honour Eric Stockdale Lord and Lady Strabolgi Richard Stroud Virginia Surtees Malcolm Sutherland Sydney Smith Association Tate Gallery Robin Taylor Lord Thomas of Swynnerton Trevor Timpson Gillian Tindall The Trollope Society Dr Barry Turner Unlock Democracy Dr William Van der Kloot Dr Geoffrey Vevers Margaret Voggenauer Dr Susan Wallington Rupert Walters Professor Marina Warner CBE The late Geoffrey Warren Jeremy Warren Jane Weeks Paula Weideger Gavin Weightman Richard Wendorf Dame Juliet Wheldon Sheila Whitaker Professor Sir Christopher White CVO Clifford Williams-Gentle Simon Winchester Dr Christopher Wright The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Dr Ann Wroe Andrea Wulf Bill Wyman Gwenyth Yarker Jim Younger
MEMBERS’ NEWS
CHRISTMAS CARD 2011 Our delightful Christmas card offers an excellent opportunity for members to help make the Library more widely known and to generate much-needed income. This year’s card is by acclaimed illustrator, author, teacher and Library memberJohn Vernon Lord, whose illustrations have graced texts from Aesop’s Fables to Epics of the Middle Ages. John’s own hit picture book, The Giant Jam Sandwich, has remained in print for more than 30 years, and an exhibition of his Lewis Carroll illustrations (Alice Through the Looking Glass) runs from 18 October–5 November 2011 at the Illustration Cupboard in Bury Street, St James’s. Cards are printed in full colour on high-quality card at a standard size (184 x 121mm). The cards are available in packs of 8, together with high-quality peel-and-seal envelopes. The price is £5.00 per pack, including VAT, postage and handling. Cards will also be on sale in the Library at £4.00 per pack including VAT. Please return this form to: The London Library Christmas Card Orders 14 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4LG
MESSAGE INSIDE CARD READS: With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year
ORDER FORM
YOUR NAME (BLOCK CAPITALS PLEASE)
Please send me:
_________________________________________________________
______ pack(s) of Christmas Cards, at £5.00 per pack: £______
ADDRESS ________________________________________________
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TOTAL: £______
Please make your cheque payable to The London Library
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p HAVE YOU CONSIDERED GIVING A GIFT MEMBERSHIP? For more information contact Bridie Macmahon in the Membership Office: 020 7766 4720 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 33
Christmas gift ideas: NEW Library vouchers The Library’s new Membership Gift Voucher scheme launches this October, and offers the perfect gift idea for friends and family who are interested in joining the Library. Available in denominations of £50 and £100, the vouchers can be used by the recipient as full or part payment towards the cost of an annual London Library membership. Gift Vouchers are also an ideal present for existing members as a way of contributing towards the cost of membership renewal. Gift Vouchers can be purchased through the Membership Office and we can post your vouchers directly to the recipient if you prefer. With full Gift Memberships and our high-quality merchandise, including our stylish canvas bags, there are now London Library gift options to suit every festive budget. Share your love for the Library this Christmas!
Keeping in touch do we have your correct email details? Included with this issue of the Magazine is a letter asking you to let us know your email address, so our records are correct and up to date. Email helps us to communicate with members in a timely and environmentally friendly manner. Please fill in the form enclosed with your copy of the Magazine and return it to us by Friday, 7 October 2011. There is no need to affix a stamp as return postage has been paid. An important online survey will be sent to all members during the autumn, so please help us ensure that it reaches you safely, giving you the opportunity to tell us about your Library membership. Members who do not have an email address will have a paper version of the survey posted to them.
Recent literary awards Congratulations to the Library members who were nominated for or have won literary awards recently Alex Bellos, Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, longlisted for the 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. John Dixon Hunt, The Venetian City Garden (2009), winner of the 2009 David R. Coffin Publication Grant, and the 2010 J.B. Jackson Prize, both awarded by the Foundation for Landscape Studies. David Harsent, Night, poetry collection, shortlisted for the 2011 Forward Prize for Best Collection; shortlisted for the 2011 T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize. Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men, winner of the 2011 CILIP
34 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
Carnegie Medal. Adam O’Riordan, In the Flesh, poetry collection, 1 of 3 winners of the 2011 Somerset Maughan Awards, one of the Society of Authors’ Awards. D.J. Taylor, Derby Day, longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Philip Ziegler, Edward Heath – The Authorised Biography, winner of the 2011 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, one of the Society of Authors’ Awards.
The magazine would welcome any information from members who have won or been nominated for prizes, to be included in future issues. Please send details to: development@londonlibrary.co.uk
The London Library Student Prize Do you know someone who is in their final year of an undergraduate degree? If so, The London Library Student Prize is for them. Offering a £5,000 cash prize, plus a year’s Library membership, a year-long subscription to The Times and the chance to work alongside Times journalists as part of a mini-internship, The London Library Student Prize seeks to discover the next generation of writers, thinkers and opinion-formers. In partnership with The Times and Fresh Minds, and thanks to the generosity of a supporter keen to help the Library foster young talent, this is a brilliant opportunity for near-graduates to demonstrate their originality, creativity and clarity of thought and expression. Entries close on Thursday, 12 January 2012. All submissions must be no longer than 800 words and should respond to the theme ‘The future of Britain lies with the right-hand side of the brain’. For detailed submission guidelines and more information on the Prize, go to londonlibrarystudentprize.com, or contact Elena Smith in the Development Office (elena.smith@londonlibrary,co.uk, 020 7766 4704).
FESTIVALS AND EVENTS Guildford Book Festival The Library will be at this year’s Guildford Book Festival (13–22 October 2011), with an appearance on 17 October by Jennifer Kloester, author of the forthcoming Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller. Jennifer used the Library for much of her research about Heyer, who was herself a long-standing London Library member. Many fascinating new details about Heyer’s life will be revealed at this very special event. Tickets will be on sale at guildfordbookfestival.co.uk from 12 September 2011. Richmond Book Now Festival This year sees us partnering again with the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival (3–27 November), where writer and historian Hallie Rubenhold and author Rosie Thomas – both London Library members – will debate the representation of sex and taboo in historical fiction. The event takes place at the Bingham Hotel, Richmond, on Friday 18 November, and will include a panel discussion, readings and a specially blended cocktail for all attendees. Tickets are on sale at richmondliterature.com. Umberto Eco In collaboration with Intelligence Squared, the Library is the official partner for Umberto Eco’s upcoming appearance with Paul Holdengräber, Director of LIVE at the New York Public Library. Eco will discuss his new novel, The Prague Cemetery, published this autumn, as well as his other writing, including the bestselling The Name of the Rose. The event takes place on 19 November 2011 at Kensington Town Hall. intelligencesquared.com/events. Soho Literary FestivaL The inaugural Soho Literary Festival runs from 23–25 September 2011, with a host of well-known writers and personalities taking part in a packed weekend of events at the Soho Theatre and other nearby venues. Fourteen London Library members including Carmen Callil, Anne Sebba, Richard Ingrams, Simon Russell Beale, Alexander Waugh, A.N. Wilson and Eleanor Bron will appear as part of the Festival’s excellent programme. soholitfest.com.
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THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE 35
SPECIAL OFFERS
This is an advertisement feature.To advertise call Janet Durbin on 01625 583180
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the personal paper co. The Personal Paper Company specialises in personal stationery, where quality and style really matter. Using luxurious papers, with our own custom-made envelopes, we can design and print your writing paper, correspondence cards or business cards in a wide range of inks and fonts. If you require your crest added or a motif designed, our artists can create these for you. We are delighted to offer London Library members a 10% discount on any of our products or services; please quote London Library-Aut11 when buying online or ordering by telephone. 0845 310 5732. thepersonalpaperco.co.uk
emmett shirts Emmett Shirts are delighted to offer a 25% discount until 30 November 2011 to London Library members on their first purchase from our range of ready-to-wear shirts. If you appreciate superior quality and are looking for a degree of exclusivity, then visit our shops at Jermyn Street, King’s Road and Eldon Street, where there are over 400 designs each season to choose from. Please show your London Library membership card to obtain your discount. 112a Jermyn Street, SW1. 020 7925 1299. emmettshirts.com
LALIQUE René Lalique is synonymous with creativity, beauty and quality. This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth by reproducing some of his iconic designs. In 2009 the Lalique Company merged with Daum Crystal and the famous porcelain maker Haviland in order to offer a wider range to its clientele. To members of the London Library, Lalique is pleased to offer a 10% discount on its collections on production of their membership card. 47 Conduit Street, W1. 020 7292 0444. cristallalique.fr
top secret hats Top Secret Hats online hat shop offers a diverse range of hats from top hats, panamas and trilbys to tweed caps and winter hats, from some of the finest suppliers such as Christys and Stetson. Also available are tweed caps by English cap maker James Dermot, whose caps are all made by hand to an exceptionally high standard. We are offering 5% discount to London Library members until 4 December 2011. Enter promotional code LLAU11 when at the checkout. topsecrethats.com
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Founded in 1950, Penfriend is London’s finest writing instrument specialist. We are pleased to offer all members of the London Library a 10% discount on production of their membership card (excludes limited editions and Montblanc pens). Offer ends 23 December 2011. 34 Burlington Arcade, London W1, 020 7499 6337. penfriend.co.uk
WINE-ARCHIVE After 30 years of collecting prints on wine, Wine-Archive are pleased to offer a wide selection of prints from 1600 –1920, printed on art paper in fadefree inks. Please visit our website, wine-archive. com. There is a 10% discount for all orders received before 30 November 2011; please quote the reference LLO when ordering. wine-archive.com
36 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
In a setting so inspiring, Tennyson lived there for 40 years
Grants for Authors Grants are offered to published authors who need funding to assist in the writing of their next book. These grants (open to writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry) are provided by The Authors’ Foundation. Writers under the age of 40 requiring funding for important research, travel or other expenditure may also apply to The K. Blundell Trust. Closing dates for all applications are 30th September 2011 and 30th April 2012 Full details from www.societyofauthors.org or send sae to: Paula Johnson The Society of Authors 84 Drayton Gardens London Library HP:Layout 1 2/8/11 10:01 Page 1 London SW10 9SB
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15:43:42
EATING OUT
DINING OUT NEAR THE LONDON LIBRARY This is an advertisement feature.
3 1 2 5 9 11
To advertise please call Janet Durbin
4 10
7
6 12 8
on 01625 583180.
1 ALAIN DUCASSE AT THE DORCHESTER Retaining three Michelin stars for the second year running, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester has quickly become one of London’s most exciting restaurants. It is located in a light and elegant room with a contemporary design by Patrick Jouin, which overlooks Park Lane and Hyde Park. The restaurant offers a modern but refined French cuisine, as interpreted by Executive Chef Jocelyn Herland. The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1, 020 7629 8888. thedorchester.com
4 DELHI BRASSERIE For over 20 years, the Delhi Brasserie has served outstanding traditional Indian cuisine to the discerning diner. Situated in the heart of Soho on Frith Street and next to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, we provide a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere. Pre- and post-theatre menus are available. 15% discount for students with ID. 44 Frith Street, W1, 020 7437 8261. delhibrasserie.com
7 GETTI A modern Italian restaurant at the fast-paced heart of London’s West End, Getti Jermyn Street is an authentic Italian dining venue in London’s historic tailoring district, dedicated to offering a traditional and memorable Italian dining experience. A splendid destination for London locals and tourists alike, Getti Jermyn Street focuses on serving simple, regional dishes from mainland Italy. Private dining available. 16/17 Jermyn Street, SW1, 020 7734 7334. getti.com
10 HIX AT THE ALBEMARLE This fashionable restaurant offers an outstanding menu of classic British dishes, using local seasonal ingredients. Mark Hix and Marcus Verberne offer a full à-la-carte menu alongside a special set-lunch, pre-theatre and dinner menu of £27.50 for 2 courses and £32.50 for 3 courses. Brown’s is also home to the award-winning English Tea Room and the chic Donovan Bar. Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle St, W1, 020 7518 4004. thealbemarlerestaurant.com
2 THE BAR AT THE DORCHESTER The delights of the cocktail hour have returned to London at the Bar at the Dorchester, which is renowned for its rich, opulent interior and its menu of new and classic cocktails. The Bar boasts a fine selection of spirits, champagnes and wines, with a menu of elegant tartines, indulgent caviars and a chic afternoon tea. The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1, 020 7629 8888. thedorchester.com
5 THE FOX CLUB Situated a stone’s throw from Green Park and the famous Hyde Park. Our Dining Room is one of London’s best-kept secrets and, for those in the know, a lunch-time essential. The modern European menu changes on a weekly basis, offering refined excellence without being pretentious. The effect is a change from the jaded palate of life. The Fox Club now offers a delightful afternoon tea from 3– 5pm. To avoid disappointment make a reservation. 46 Clarges St, W1, 020 7495 3656. foxclublondon.com
8 GREEN’S This is a truly British institution that serves world-class food; simple, well-presented dishes, including fresh fish, meat and seasonal game, that everyone likes and that allow you to have meaningful conversation. For an important business meeting or a relaxing meal with family or friends, we offer the perfect venue. 36 Duke Street, St James’s, SW1, 020 7930 4566. greens.org.uk
11 THE PROMENADE AT THE DORCHESTER Very much the heart of the hotel, the Promenade is open all day for informal dining, serving breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and a light supper menu. A perfect place to watch the world go by and enjoy the Dorchester’s world-famous traditional afternoon tea. The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1, 020 7629 8888. thedorchester.com
3 BELLAMY’S RESTAURANT Located in central Mayfair (near New Bond Street), Bellamy’s offers a classic French brasserie menu with an affordable famous-name wine list. The Oyster Bar, among other dishes, serves Bellamy’s famous ‘open’ sandwiches. Le patron mange ici. Open for lunch Mon–Fri; dinner Mon–Sat. 18–18a Bruton Place, W1, 020 7491 2727. bellamysrestaurant.co.uk
6 FRANCOS Franco’s has been serving the community of St James’s for over 60 years. Open all day, the personality of the restaurant evolves from a quietly and gently efficient breakfast venue to a sharp and charged lunch atmosphere, to elegance and romance in the evening. The lunch and dinner menus highlight carefully prepared traditional and more modern Italian dishes. Our service is always relaxed, friendly and personal. 61 Jermyn Street, SW1, 020 7499 2211. francoslondon.com
9 THE GRILL AT THE DORCHESTER Brian Hughson, Head Chef at the Grill, is passionate about using quality produce sourced from the British Isles. In addition to the British and classic grill dishes offered at the Grill, Brian has reinstated classics from the original Grill menu such as ‘Dish of the Day’, and the traditional roast-beef carving trolley introduced at the Grill when it first opened in 1931. The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1, 020 7629 8888. thedorchester.com
12 WILTONS Established in 1742, Wiltons enjoys a reputation as the epitome of fine English dining in London. The atmosphere is perfectly matched with immaculately prepared fish, shellfish, game and meat. Choose from an exclusive wine list. Open for lunch and dinner, Mon–Fri. To make a reservation, please quote the London Library Magazine. 55 Jermyn Street, SW1, 020 7629 9955. wiltons.co.uk
38 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
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