Cyril Vernon Connolly
CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or govern ...
and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''
Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''
Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which combined literary criticism with an
autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth.
Early life
Cyril Connolly was born in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, the only child of Major
Matthew William Kemble Connolly (1872–1947), an officer in the
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...
, by his
Anglo-Irish wife, Muriel Maud Vernon, daughter of Colonel Edward Vernon (1838–1913) J.P., D.L., of
Clontarf Castle
Clontarf Castle ( ga, Caisleán Chluain Tarbh) is a much-modernised castle, dating to 1837, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, an area famous as a key location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. There has been a castle on the site since 1172. In m ...
,
Co. Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
. His parents had met while his father was serving in Ireland, and his father's next posting was to South Africa.
[Jeremy Lewis, ''Cyril Connolly: A Life'', Jonathan Cape, 1997.] Connolly's father was also a
malacologist
Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...
(the scientific study of the Mollusca, i.e. snails, clams, octopus, etc.) and mineral collector of some reputation and collected many samples in Africa. Cyril Connolly's childhood days were spent with his father in South Africa, with his mother's family at
Clontarf Castle
Clontarf Castle ( ga, Caisleán Chluain Tarbh) is a much-modernised castle, dating to 1837, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, an area famous as a key location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. There has been a castle on the site since 1172. In m ...
, and with his paternal grandmother in
Bath, Somerset, and other parts of England.
[Cyril Connolly, ''Enemies of Promise'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1938.]
Connolly was educated at
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations (usuall ...
,
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
, where he enjoyed the company of
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalita ...
and
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Academy Awards, Oscar–winning stage design, stage and costume de ...
. He was a favourite of the formidable headmistress Mrs Wilkes but was later to criticise the "character-building" ethos of the school. He wrote, "Orwell proved to me that there existed an alternative to character, Intelligence. Beaton showed me another, Sensibility."
Connolly won the
Harrow History Prize
The Harrow History Prize or the Townsend Warner Preparatory Schools History Prize is an annual history competition for children at British Preparatory school (UK), preparatory schools. It currently attracts around 800 entrants each year.
History ...
, pushing Orwell into second place, and the English prize leaving Orwell with Classics. He then won a scholarship to
Eton, a year after Orwell.
Eton
At Eton, after a traumatic first few terms, he settled into a comfortable routine. He won over his early tormentor
Godfrey Meynell and became a popular wit. In 1919 his parents moved to The Lock House on the
Basingstoke Canal at
Frimley Green. At Eton, Connolly was involved in romantic intrigues and school politics, which he described in ''
Enemies of Promise''.
He established a reputation as an intellectual and earned the respect of
Dadie Rylands and Denis King-Farlow. Connolly's particular circle included Denis Dannreuther, Bobbie Longden and
Roger Mynors. In summer 1921, his father took him on a holiday to France, initiating Connolly's love of travel. The following winter he went with his mother to
Mürren, where he became friends with
Anthony Knebworth.
By this time his parents were living separate lives, his mother having established a relationship with another army officer and his father becoming an increasingly heavy drinker and absorbed in his study of slugs and snails. In 1922, Connolly achieved academic success winning the Rosebery History Prize, and followed by the Brackenbury History scholarship to
Balliol College, Oxford. In the spring, he visited St Cyprian's to report his achievement to his old headmaster before setting off on a trip to Spain with a school friend.
Returning moneyless, he spent the night in a kip at St Martins, London. In his last term at Eton, he was elected to
Pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
, which brought him into contact with others he respected, including
Nico Davies, Teddy Jessel and
Lord Dunglass
Earl of Home ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1605 for Alexander Home of that Ilk, 6th Lord Home. The Earl of Home holds, among others, the subsidiary titles of Lord Home (created 1473), and Lord Dunglass (1605), in ...
.
He established rapport with
Brian Howard, but, he concluded, "moral cowardice and academic outlook debarred him from making friends with
Harold Acton,
Oliver Messel,
Robert Byron,
Henry Green and
Anthony Powell". Connolly was for years afterwards nostalgic about his time at Eton.
Oxford
Connolly undertook a tour of Germany, Austria and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
before starting at Oxford University. After his cloistered existence as a
King's Scholar at Eton, Connolly felt uncomfortable with the hearty beer-drinking rugby and rowing types at Oxford. His own circle included his Eton friends Mynors and Dannreuther, who were at Balliol with him, and
Kenneth Clark, whom he met through Bobbie Longden at
Kings
Kings or King's may refer to:
*Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings
*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":
**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts
**The ''Shahnameh'' ...
.
He wrote: "The only exercise we took was running up bills." His intellectual mentors were the Dean of Balliol,
Francis Fortescue Urquhart
Francis Fortescue Urquhart (1868–1934) was an English academic, the first Roman Catholic to act as a tutorial fellow in the University of Oxford since the 16th century.
Early life
He was born in Montreux, Switzerland, the son of David Urquhart ...
, often referred to as "Sligger", who organised reading parties on the continent, and the Dean of Wadham,
Maurice Bowra.
Connolly's academic career languished while his Oxford years were characterised by his travel adventures. In January 1923, he went with Urquhart and other collegers to Italy. In March, he undertook his annual visit to Spain and in September, he went on the annual trip with the college group to Urquhart's chalet in
French Alps
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...
. On his return, he visited his father, now in a hotel in South Kensington, close to the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...
. At the end of the year, he went to Italy and
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
. At Oxford, in 1924, he made a new friend
Patrick Balfour, in the spring he went to Spain and in the summer of 1924, he went successively to Greece and
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
, Urquhart's chalet in the Alps and
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. He spent Christmas with his parents in a rare get-together at the Lock House in Hampshire and at the beginning of 1925, he went with the college group to
Minehead
Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...
with Urquhart.
In his last year at Oxford, he was cultivating friendships with younger students Anthony Powell, Henry Yorke and
Peter Quennell. In spring he was back in Spain, before returning to Oxford to take his final exams.
Drifting
Connolly left Balliol in 1925 with a third class degree in history. He struggled to find employment, while his friends and family sought to pay off his extensive debts. In summer he went for his annual stay at Urquhart's chalet in the French Alps, and in the autumn went to Spain and Portugal. He obtained a post tutoring a boy in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...
and set sail for the Caribbean in November 1925. He returned to England in April 1926 on a banana boat in the company of
Alwyn Williams, headmaster of
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...
. He enrolled as a
special constable in the
General Strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coa ...
, but it was over before he was actively involved. He responded to an advertisement to work as a secretary for
Montague Summers but was warned off by his friends. Then in June 1926 he found a post as a secretary/companion to
Logan Pearsall Smith, who was based in
Chelsea and also had a house called Big Chilling near
Warsash in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, overlooking the Solent. Pearsall Smith was to give Connolly an important introduction to literary life, and he influenced his ideas on the role of a writer with a distaste for journalism. Pearsall Smith gave Connolly £8 a week, whether Smith was around or not, and moreover gave him the run of Big Chilling.
Beginning of literary career
In August 1926, Connolly met
Desmond MacCarthy, who had come to stay at Big Chilling. MacCarthy was the literary editor of the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...
'' and was to be another major influence on Connolly's development. MacCarthy invited Connolly to write book reviews for the ''New Statesman''. Later that year, Connolly made a trip to
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
and Eastern Europe and then spent the winter of 1926–1927 in London. Pearsall Smith took Connolly with him to Spain in the spring, and Connolly then set off on his own to North Africa and Italy. They met up again in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, where Kenneth Clark was working with
Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a larg ...
who had married Pearsall Smith's sister.
Connolly departed for
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
then returned to England via
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
:Prague and
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. Connolly's first signed work in the ''New Statesman'', a review of
Laurence Sterne, appeared in June 1927. In July he set off to
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
with his mother and then for his last stay at the chalet in the Alps. In August 1927, he was invited to become a regular reviewer and joined the staff of the ''New Statesman''. His first review in September was of ''The Hotel'' by
Elizabeth Bowen. Also in September, Connolly moved into a flat at Yeoman's Row with Patrick Balfour. He was working on various works that never saw the light of day: a novel ''Green Endings'', a travel book on Spain, his diary and ''A Partial Guide to the Balkans''. He approached Cecil Beaton to draw the cover design for the last and he received an advance for the work although it was eventually lost.
However, he started contributing pieces to various publications that appeared under his own name and various pseudonyms. At this time he developed a fascination with low life and prostitution and spent time in the poorer parts of London seeking them out (while other contemporaries were seeking out tramps). At the same time, he had developed an infatuation with
Alix Kilroy whom he had met on a train back from the continent and used to wait outside her office for a sight of her. He then made a more positive romantic approach to Racy Fisher, one of a pair of nieces of Desmond MacCarthy's wife,
Molly.
However, their father
Admiral Fisher
John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped ...
wanted them to have nothing to do with a penniless writer and, in February 1928, forbade further contact.
Sharing a flat with Balfour, Connolly's social circle expanded with new friends like
Bob Boothby
Robert John Graham Boothby, Baron Boothby, (12 February 1900 – 16 July 1986), often known as Bob Boothby, was a British Conservative politician.
Early life
The only son of Sir Robert Tuite Boothby, KBE, of Edinburgh and a cousin of Rosalind ...
and
Gladwyn Jebb. However, he was ill at ease and in April 1928 set off for
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
, where he met Pearsall Smith and Cecil Beaton and visited brothels posing as a journalist. He went on to Italy, where he stayed with Berenson and
Mrs Keppel where he was taken with her daughter
Violet Trefusis. Then via
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and East European cities he made his way to
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
to meet up with Jebb.
Jebb and Connolly stayed with
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West.
Early li ...
in the company of
Ivor Novello and
Christopher Sykes and then made a tour of Germany. Connolly returned to Paris in May, borrowing money from Pearsall Smith so he could live cheaply in the rue Delambre. In Paris, he met Mara Andrews, a poetic lesbian who was in love with an absent American girl called Jean Bakewell. On the way back to London, Connolly stayed with Nicolson and his wife,
Vita Sackville-West, at
Sissinghurst.
In August Connolly set off on his travels again to Germany, this time with Bobbie Longden and
Raymond Mortimer and the experience gave rise to the essay "Conversations in Berlin" which MacCarthy published in his new magazine ''
Life and Letters
''Life and Letters'' was an English literary journal first published between June 1928 and April 1935.
The magazine was edited from first publication by Desmond MacCarthy after he lost interest in the '' New Statesman''. It had financial backi ...
''. Connolly travelled separately to
Villefranche and spent five weeks in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
with Longden before returning to London. Boothby lent him his London flat and he shared
Gerald Brenan's fascination with working-class prostitutes with experiences that appeared in his fragment for a novel ''The English Malady''. He spent Christmas at
Sledmere with the Sykes family.
At the beginning of 1929, Connolly went briefly to Paris and just before returning to London, he met Jean Bakewell and stayed an extra night to get to know her. After a while, he was drawn to Paris again and, through Jean and Mara, became acquainted with the bohemian
Montparnasse set, including
Alfred Perles and Gregor Michonze who was to become the basis for Rascasse in ''
The Rock Pool
''The Rock Pool'' is a novel written by Cyril Connolly, first published in 1936. It is Connolly's only novel and is set at the end of season in a small resort in the south of France. Connolly's main character, Naylor, starts with a study of the ...
''. He also met
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
about whom he wrote ''The Position of Joyce'' which appeared in ''Life and Letters''. Connolly and Bakewell went to Spain together where they met up with Peter Quennell.
Connolly then went to Berlin to stay with Nicolson until the latter managed to remove him as "not perhaps the ideal guest"
Unable to return to Big Chilling, he was stuck in Berlin for a month before returning to London.
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architectu ...
had moved into his room at Yeoman's Row, so he went to stay with
Enid Bagnold at
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotti ...
before visiting Dorset with Quennell. Bakewell had returned to America in the summer and was planning to return to Paris in the autumn to start a course at the Sorbonne. She had agreed before her departure to marry Connolly and Connolly established himself in Paris in September. They spent most of the rest of the year in Paris, and started their collection of pets, first ferrets and then lemurs. Connolly spent Christmas again at Sledmere.
Marriage
In February 1930, aged 26, Connolly and Bakewell set off for America. They married in New York on 5 April 1930. Jean Bakewell "was to prove one of the more liberating forces in his life... an uncomplicated hedonist, independent, adventurous, celebrating the moment... An attractive personality: warm, generous, witty and approachable...." She provided modest financial support that enabled him to enjoy travels, particularly around the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...
, hospitality and good food and drink. The newly married couple lived in various spots in England including the Cavendish Hotel, Bury Street, Bath, and Big Chilling, before in July 1930 settling at
Sanary, near
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is the ...
, in France. There their close neighbours were
Edith Wharton and
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxle ...
.
Although Connolly admired Huxley, the two men failed to establish a rapport, and the wives fell out. Connolly's bohemian home with the disorder of the lemurs was shunned and with debts rising they were forced to scrounge off Jean's mother. Sometime in 1931, they left Sanary and toured
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border ...
, Normandy,
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...
, Spain,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...
and
Majorca, before returning to Chagfor, Devon. In November, they found a flat near
Belgrave Square, and Connolly made his first contribution to the ''New Statesman'' in two years.
Connolly was also approached by
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architectu ...
of the ''
Architectural Review
''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...
'' to act as an art critic.
Connolly's art critiques appeared in the magazine in 1932, and he visited Betjeman at his home at
Uffington. There, he would meet
Evelyn Waugh, who delighted in teasing Connolly. The Connollys enjoyed being part of a sophisticated literary social scene in London, but towards the end of the year, Jean had to undergo a gynaecological operation. As a result, she could not have a child, and it was hard for her to control her weight.
In February 1933, Connolly took Jean to Greece to recover, where they met Brian Howard. While they were in Athens there was an attempted coup d'état, which Connolly later reported in the ''New Statesman'' as "Spring Revolution". The Connollys then went with Howard and his boyfriend to Spain and the Algarve. After a row in a bar, they were incarcerated in a police cell and were sent back to England with the help of the British Embassy. In June, encouraged by
Enid Bagnold, they rented a house at
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotti ...
.
Writing to Bagnold from Cannes in September, Jean complained that their cheques were being bounced and she asked Bagnold to appeal to her husband
Sir Roderick Jones of Reuters for help in work. That was dismissed, and in November, the
letting agents for the Rottingdean property wrote an appalling report on the state in which the Connollys had left the place.
Early in 1934, the Connollys took a flat at 312A
King's Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
, where they entertained their friends, including Waugh and Quennell. Elizabeth Bowen arranged a dinner with
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born ...
and her husband when Connolly and Virginia Woolf took an instant dislike to each other.
During the year, the Connollys went to Mallow and Cork in Ireland. At the end of the year. Connolly met
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Unde ...
at a party and early in 1935 invited him in the company of Anthony Powell, Waugh, Robert Byron and Desmond and Mollie McCarthy. By then, Connolly's father was finding himself short of funds and was no longer prepared to bail out his son.
However, Mrs Warner, Jean's mother, funded an expedition to Paris,
Juan-les-Pins, Venice,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
and Budapest. In Paris, Connolly spent some time with
Jack Kahane, the avant garde publisher, and
Henry Miller, with whom he established a strong rapport after an initial unsuccessful meeting. In Budapest, they found themselves in the same hotel as
Edward, Prince of Wales and
Wallis Simpson.
In 1934, Connolly was working on a trilogy: ''Humane Killer'', ''The English Malady'' and ''
The Rock Pool
''The Rock Pool'' is a novel written by Cyril Connolly, first published in 1936. It is Connolly's only novel and is set at the end of season in a small resort in the south of France. Connolly's main character, Naylor, starts with a study of the ...
''. Only ''The Rock Pool'' was completed, the others remaining only as fragments.
First books
Connolly's only novel, ''The Rock Pool'' (1936), is a satirical work describing a covey of dissolute drifters at an end of season French seaside resort, which was based on his experiences in the south of France. It was initially accepted by a London publishing house but it changed its mind.
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...
was one of the publishers that rejected it and so Connolly took it to Jack Kahane, who published it in Paris in 1936.
Connolly followed it up with a book of non-fiction, ''
Enemies of Promise'' (1938), the second half of which is autobiographical. In it he attempted to explain his failure to produce the literary masterpiece that he and others believed that he should have been capable of writing.
''Horizon''
In 1940, Connolly founded the influential literary magazine ''
Horizon'', with
Peter Watson, its financial backer and ''de facto'' art editor. He edited ''Horizon'' until 1950, with
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by t ...
as an uncredited associate editor until early 1941. He was briefly (1942–1943) the literary editor for ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...
'' until a disagreement with
David Astor. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, he wrote ''
The Unquiet Grave'', a noteworthy collection of observations and quotes, under the pseudonym '
Palinurus'.
From 1952 until his death, he was joint chief book reviewer (with
Raymond Mortimer) for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...
''.
In 1962, Connolly wrote ''Bond Strikes Camp'', a spoof account of
Ian Fleming's character engaged in heroic escapades of dubious propriety as suggested by the title and written with Fleming's support. It appeared in ''
London Magazine'' and in an expensive limited edition printed by the Shenval Press, Frith Street, London. It later appeared in ''Previous Convictions''.
Connolly had previously collaborated with Fleming in 1952 in writing an account of the Cambridge Spies
Guy Burgess
Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 195 ...
and
Donald MacLean entitled ''The Missing Diplomats'', an early publication for Fleming's
Queen Anne Press.
Personal life
Connolly was married three times. His first wife Jean Bakewell (1910–1950) left him in 1939, moving back to the United States. She later became the wife of Laurence Vail (former husband of
Peggy Guggenheim and
Kay Boyle) but, following years of health problems, she died of a stroke while on a trip to Paris at the age of 39.
Connolly married his second wife,
Barbara Skelton
Barbara Olive Skelton (26 June 1916 – 27 January 1996) was an English memoirist, novelist and socialite.
Background
Skelton was born at The Croft, Ellington Road, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, elder daughter of Eric George Skelton, who had been a Maj ...
, in 1950. His third wife, whom he married in 1959, was Deirdre Craven, a granddaughter of
James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, by whom he had two children later in life, including the writer
Cressida Connolly (born 1960). After Connolly's death in 1974, his widow married
Peter Levi.
In 1967, Connolly settled in Eastbourne, to the amusement of Beaton, who suggested he was lured back by the cakes they had enjoyed in school outings to the town. He died suddenly on 26 November 1974, having continued to the end as a ''Sunday Times'' journalist, and was buried in Berwick churchyard, Sussex. His grave bears the inscription ''Intus aquae dulces vivoque sedilia saxo'' (''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
'' book IX: "Within, fresh water and seats in the living rock.")
Since 1976, Connolly's papers and personal library of over 8,000 books have been housed at the
University of Tulsa
The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin ...
.
Assessment
In ''The Unquiet Grave'' Connolly writes: "Approaching forty, sense of total failure:... Never will I make that extra effort to live according to reality which alone makes good writing possible: hence the manic-depressiveness of my style,—which is either bright, cruel and superficial; or pessimistic; moth-eaten with self-pity."
Kenneth Tynan, writing in the March 1954 ''
Harper's Bazaar'', praised Connolly's style as 'one of the most glittering of English literary possessions.'
Dave Mason, in an essay on crime and booksellers, asserts that Connolly had a reputation amongst booksellers as a conniving thief: "That a man so important to modern literature acted so shoddily as to break an honourable code of conduct and steal from booksellers who had trusted him." He continues: "This man, Cyril Connolly, cheated and defrauded booksellers the way despicable conmen prey on elderly innocents, with no regard for basic decency."
References in popular culture
*Cyril Connolly's name appears in a
coda to the
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fo ...
song "
Eric the Half-a-Bee", as a mishearing of the words "semi-carnally". Despite being corrected, the backing vocalists then sing "Cyril Connolly" to the melody of the song.
[Cleese, Idle, Jones: "Eric the Half a Bee", ''Monty Python's Previous Record'', 1972, Charisma Records.] The same comedians made another reference to Connolly in ''
The Brand New Monty Python Bok
''The Brand New Monty Python Bok'' was the second book to be published by the British comedy troupe Monty Python. Edited by Eric Idle, it was published by Methuen Books in 1973 and contained more print-style comic pieces than their first effort, ...
'', which includes a facsimile
Penguin
Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
paperback, ''Norman Henderson's Diary'', complete with (invented) praise from Connolly.
*The critic and publisher Everard Spruce in
Evelyn Waugh's ''
Sword of Honour'' trilogy is a satire of Connolly.
*Ed Spain, "the Captain" in
Nancy Mitford's 1951 novel ''The Blessing'' is a satire of Connolly.
*
Michael Nelson's novel ''
A Room in Chelsea Square'' (1958) is a thinly disguised homosexualised account about Connolly's time editing ''Horizon''.
*
Elaine Dundy's novel ''The Old Man and Me'' (1964) is based on her affair with Connolly.
*A film producer in
Julian MacLaren-Ross's 1964 thriller ''My Name is Love'' is based on Connolly. MacLaren-Ross repeated many of the descriptions verbatim in his later memoir of Connolly.
*Connolly is quoted as saying "Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self" in Season 5, Episode 7 of ''
Criminal Minds
''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was revived in 2022. It ...
''.
*Since the film ''A Business Affair'' (1994) is adapted from Barbara Skelton's memoirs of her marriage to Cyril Connolly, Jonathan Pryce's character Alec Bolton in the film is based on Cyril Connolly
*Connolly is also fictionalised in
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
's novel ''
Atonement''. The principal character, eighteen-year-old Briony Tallis, sends the draft of a novella she has written to ''Horizon'' magazine and Cyril Connolly is shown as replying at length as to why the novella had to be rejected, apart from explaining to Briony her strong and weak points and also mentioning Elizabeth Bowen.
*Michael Lewis's book ''
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'' cites Connolly at the top of the first chapter – "Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising." (''Enemies of Promise'')
*
Donna Tartt's novel ''
The Secret History'' references Cyril Connolly in Chapter 5-"...Cyril Connolly, who was notorious for being a hard guest to please...".
*In
William Boyd William, Willie, Will or Bill Boyd may refer to:
Academics
* William Alexander Jenyns Boyd (1842–1928), Australian journalist and schoolmaster
* William Boyd (educator) (1874–1962), Scottish educator
* William Boyd (pathologist) (1885–1979), ...
's James Bond novel ''
Solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ' ...
'' Bond recalls Connolly's description of Chelsea as "that tranquil cultivated ''spielraum''... where I worked and wandered" (Connolly, Boyd and the fictional Bond all lived in Chelsea), although Bond can not remember the author of the quote.
*In ''
An Englishman Abroad'' (1983) by
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two ...
, Guy Burgess keeps asking
Coral Browne "How is Cyril Connolly?"
*In ''
Solomon Gursky Was Here'' (1989) by
Mordecai Richler, Moses Berger, sorting his books as an excuse for not writing, finds his copy of ''The Unquiet Grave'' and reads "...the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece..." Muttering an imprecation, he throws the book across the room, but immediately retrieves it because of his regard for Connolly.
*Connolly makes an appearance as the 1940's editor of "Horizon" in Ian McEwan's 2022 novel, "Lessons".
Works
* ''
The Rock Pool
''The Rock Pool'' is a novel written by Cyril Connolly, first published in 1936. It is Connolly's only novel and is set at the end of season in a small resort in the south of France. Connolly's main character, Naylor, starts with a study of the ...
'', 1935 (novel)
* ''
Enemies of Promise'', 1938
* ''
The Unquiet Grave'', 1944
* ''The Condemned Playground'', 1945 (collection)
* ''The Missing Diplomats'', 1952
* ''The Golden Horizon'', 1953 (editor; compilation from ''Horizon'')
* ''Ideas and Places'', 1953 (collection)
* ''Les Pavillons: French Pavilions of the Eighteenth Century'', 1962 (with
Jerome Zerbe
Jerome Zerbe (July 24, 1904, Euclid, Ohio – August 19, 1988) was an American photographer. He was one of the originators of a genre of photography that is now common: celebrity paparazzi. Zerbe was a pioneer in the 1930s of shooting photogr ...
)
* ''Previous Convictions'', 1963 (collection)
* ''The Modern Movement: 100 Key Books From England, France, and America, 1880–1950'', 1965
* ''
The Evening Colonnade
''The Evening Colonnade'' is a collection of essays and reviews by the English writer and critic Cyril Connolly. The volume was published by David Bruce and Watson Ltd in 1973 to coincide with Connolly's 70th birthday. The jacket was designed b ...
'' 1973 (collection)
* ''A Romantic Friendship'', 1975 (letters to Noel Blakiston)
* ''Cyril Connolly: Journal and Memoir'', 1983 (edited by D. Pryce-Jones)
* ''The Selected Essays of Cyril Connolly'', 1984 (edited by Peter Quennell)
* ''Shade Those Laurels,'' 1990 (fiction, completed by Peter Levi)
* ''The Selected Works of Cyril Connolly'', 2002 (edited by Matthew Connolly), Volume One: ''The Modern Movement''; Volume Two: ''The Two Natures''
Notes
References
* Clive Fisher (1995): ''Cyril Connolly'', New York: St Martin's Press,
* Jeremy Lewis (1995): ''Cyril Connolly, A Life'', London: Jonathan Cape,
External links
Bibliography and critical checklist*
''Guardian'' profile of Connollyby
William Boyd (writer)
William Andrew Murray Boyd (born 7 March 1952) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.
Biography
Boyd was born in Accra, Gold Coast, (present-day Ghana), to Scottish parents, both from Fife, and has two younger sisters. ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, Cyril
1903 births
1974 deaths
20th-century English novelists
English literary critics
English male novelists
People educated at Eton College
People educated at St Cyprian's School
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
People from Coventry
British special constables
20th-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers
New Statesman people