The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother, and Me
Page 44
Picasso, Pablo 37, 45, 150, 151
Pink Pigeons Trust 393
Polignac, Winnaretta ‘Winnie’ Singer, Princess de (d. 1943)
description of 44
falls in love with Violet Trefusis 44–5
friendship with Gerald 44–5, 125, 136, 209
leaves Sibyl Colefax’s with Rubinstein 128
Daisy Fellowes as niece of 144, 244
as visitor to Faringdon 155–6, 379
as grand old lady 222–3
spends wartime in London 222
death of 223
Port Lympne (Kent) 43
Porter, Cole 44
Powell, Anthony 183, 190
A Dance to the Music of Time 263
Prieto, Gregorio 213
Proll, Rosa (d. 2010)
description of 3–4, 311, 312–13
takes charge of Faringdon 4, 310, 327–8, 343
culinary talents 310–12, 341, 353, 356, 362, 364
sympathetic towards the Führer 311
devotion to Robert 312
dislikes Hugh Cruddas 312
refuses to give Mr Abel milk 313–14
tries on Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond ring 313
owns a Jack Russell known as a ‘silent biter’ 316
avoids Robert’s young men 317
dislikes Jonathan Burnham 338
objects to Robert’s marriage and leaves Faringdon 341–2
returns to Faringdon when Coote leaves 342
sadness at death of Robert 347
stays on at Faringdon after Robert’s death 347
guides Sofka around Faringdon 349–51
loyalty to Sofka 352–3
becomes increasingly unbalanced 356, 360–63
moves to house in Faringdon town 363–4
death of 388–9
Proust, Marcel 67, 168, 224, 231, 263
Public Order Act (1937) 123
Pye, Henry James 82–3, 353
Quennell, Glur 240, 263
Quennell, Peter 182, 232, 240, 263, 324
Rattigan, Terence 127, 127n
Ravel, Maurice 44
Ravilious, Eric 92, 136, 172, 230, 296
Ray, Man 34, 143
Redesdale, David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron 116
Rentoul, Sir Gervais 122
Rich, Mr (accountant) 315, 351
Robert Heber-Percy Will Trust 368
Rodd, Lilias ‘Lady Rude’ 34
Rodd, Sir Rennell 34
Rollo, Primula see Niven, Primula
Rome 32–5, 39, 47, 117–18, 127, 133, 140, 385–7
Rose, Francis 45, 145, 151
Ross, Alan (1922–2001)
description of 279
education 279
wartime Naval career 279–80
immediate post-war occupations 280
marries Jennifer 280–81
as part of London’s literary life 280
dismisses Mardie 281
loves being a stepfather to Jennifer 281
birth of his son Jonathan 295
failure of his marriage to Jennifer 295–9, 336
literary endeavours 295
love affairs 296–8
suffers severe depression 298–9
attends Victoria’s wedding 304
Ross, Jennifer see Heber-Percy, Jennifer
Ross, Jonathan (b. 1953) 295, 374
Rosslyn, Earl of 179
Rothermere, Lord 39, 118
Rowse, A. L. 78, 217, 234
Roxburgh, J. F. 60–61, 247
Rubinstein, Arthur 44, 128
Russian Revolution (1917) 36
Sackville-West, Vita (1892–1962)
relationship with Violet Trefusis 44
as country-dweller 92
bisexual 101
fictionalised by Virginia Woolf in Orlando 126
called ‘Rye Vita’ by Gerald 130
relationship with Dorothy Wellesley 133
attends Miss Wolff’s Girls’ School 167
contemplates German victory 191
at wartime poetry reading in Bond Street 220
St Clare’s 302
Salvin, Anthony 52
Salzburg 78
Sargent, Malcolm 155
Sassoon, Sir Philip 43
Sassoon, Siegfried (1886–1967)
descriptions of Gerald 13, 17
description of stay at Faringdon and its inhabitants 48
Satie, Erik 44
Saudi Arabia 188, 189, 195–200
Scharrer, Irene 234
Schiaparelli, Elsa 143–4, 272
Scott, Sir Walter 82–3
Second World War 190–91, 201–3, 222–5, 260–61
Sellers, Peter 356
Shell County Guides 92, 136
Shury, Fred 185, 215, 216, 237, 238
Shury, Mrs 300
Sickert, Walter 161, 205
Sisley, Alfred 96
Sissinghurst Castle 133
Sitwell, Edith (1887–1964) 82, 148, 149, 181, 220, 224
Façade 149
Sitwell family 2, 113, 208, 226
Sitwell, Osbert (1892–1969)
descriptions of Gerald 16, 25
comment on La Casati’s python 49
sends his love to ‘Robert Le diable’ 79
seduced by Fascism 118
comment on Gerald between the wars 126
uses Sybil Colefax in his fiction 128
comment on Constant Lambert 148–9
as visitor to Faringdon 155
sends condolences to Robert on learning of Gerald’s death 287
Sitwell, Sacheverell (1897–1988) 39, 118
Skelton, Barbara
marriage to Cyril Connolly 283
has a fling with Alan Ross 297
marriage to George Weidenfeld 297
The Sketch 252
Skinner, James 320–21
Skinner, Joy 320–21
Smith, Andrew (groundsman at Faringdon) 386
Smith, Beatrix ‘Pixie’
becomes nanny to Jennifer Fry 165–6
legend of her ‘running the country’ 166–7
as Jennifer’s chaperone 172, 175
as visitor to Faringdon 245–6
helps out at Oare House 263
lives with Jennifer in her old age 336–7
‘Song of the Volga Boatman’ 36
Spencer, Stanley 92
Spender, Stephen 206
Spinage, Russell 314–15, 347
Stein, Gertrude (1874–1946) 2, 113
art collection 150–51
description of 150–52
as visitor to Faringdon 150, 151, 353
friendship with Gerald 151–2, 193, 208, 210
lives with Alice B. Toklas 151–3
death of 283
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas 151
They Must. Be Wedded. To Their Wife. 146
Stope, Marie, Married Love 170
Stowe School (Buckinghamshire) 59–61, 246–7
Strachey, Lytton 82
Stravinsky, Igor 2
friendship with Gerald 35–7, 41, 155, 208
comment on Gerald’s musical talent 38
visits Winnie in Venice 44
his mistress visits Faringdon 86
comment on food at Faringdon 88
influence of 147
Petrushka 35
The Rite of Spring 35
Sudeikina, Vera 86, 155
Sutherland, Graham 205
Takis (Panayotis Vassilakis) 328
Tatler 178
Tatler and Bystander 235
Taylor, Elizabeth 313
Tennant, David 231
Testino, Mario 368–70
Thomas, Dylan 205, 232
The Times 85, 97, 122, 177, 339
Toklas, Alice B. 150, 151–3, 353
The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book 155
Townshend, Pete, Tommy (rock-opera) 319
Towser (Jack Russell dog) 316
Trefusis, Denys 44
<
br /> Trefusis, Violet Keppel 44–5, 133, 167, 222, 245
Turner, J. M. W. 95–6
Tynchewycke Society 210
Tyrwhitt, Captain Hugh 15, 28–9
Tyrwhitt, Julia Foster 15, 16–18, 29, 41, 47–9
Tyrwhitt, Vera Williams, 15th Baroness Berners 286
Uffington Parochial Youth Fellowship 90
Valois, Ninette de 147
Vassilis see Papadimitriou, Vassilis
Vaughan, Keith 281, 296
Vaynol estate (north Wales) 11–12, 254
Venice 78, 112
Vickers, Hugo 110, 114
Victoria, Queen 85
Vogue magazine 107
Vsevolode, Prince 188
Walcott, Derek 295
Wallis Simpson, Mrs 110–11, 128–9, 144, 231
Walton, William 149, 208
Watson, Peter ‘Pierre’
as part of Gerald’s circle 12
involved with Oliver Messel and Cecil Beaton 107–8
gives Robert a motor-car and a golden retriever 108, 189
as Lizzie in The Girls of Radcliff Hall 112
as friend of Cyril Connolly 182
Cyril Connolly’s comment on 205
as regular visitor to Faringdon 216
Waugh, Evelyn (1903–1966) 202
as visitor to Faringdon 2
views on mad, jazz-flavoured partying 47, 66
homosexual relationships 67
as country-dweller 92
comment on Gerald’s paintings 96
bases Brideshead Revisited on Madresfield and its
inhabitants 102–3
teases the Lygon sisters unmercifully 103
contemporary and enemy of Beaton 105
description of 105–6
uses Sybil Colefax in his fiction 128
comment on Daisy Fellowes 146
marries and divorces Evelyn Gardner 168, 169–70
at Oxford 183, 190
comment on fate of ancestral seats 225–6
comment on Connolly’s book Unquiet Grave 233
attempts to convert Cyril Connolly to Catholicism 271
comments on Henry Yorke 2767
comment on Cyril Connolly’s vulnerability 280
comment on Robert at Faringdon after Gerald’s death 288
friendship with Coote Lygon 354
Black Mischief 103
Brideshead Revisited 183, 203
A Handful of Dust 69
Put Out More Flags 230
Vile Bodies 65–6, 169
Waugh, Evelyn Gardner ‘She-Evelyn’
childhood 168
description of 168–9
marries Evelyn Waugh 168, 169–70
health of 169–70
divorce 170
comment on her father’s homosexuality 171
Webb, Martin 314, 324–5, 337, 341
Webb, Phyllis 256
Webb, Reginald 255–6, 286
Weidenfeld, George 232, 297, 325
Welch, Denton 205–6
paints portrait of Gerald 205
‘A Morning with the Versatile Peer Lord Berners in the Ancient Seat of Learning’ 206
Wellesley, Dorothy ‘Dottie’ 236
has an affair with Vita Sackville-West 133
behaves disgracefully at war-time poetry reading 220
Lost Planet and Other Poems 219–20
Wellesley, Gerald ‘Gerry’, 7th Duke of Wellington 133–4, 219–20, 236
Wells, H. G. 2, 144
West Dean (Sussex) 140
Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke 101
Whistler, Rex 43, 136
Whitaker (butler at Hodnet) 54
White Horse of Uffington 93
the Who (rock group) 319–20
Wilde, Oscar 67, 76, 912, 102
Williams, Eddie 393
Williams-Ellis, Clough 162–3, 172, 244
Wilmot, John, Earl of Rochester, The Dictionary of Love 240
Wilson, Angus 271
Winter & Co. 135
Wixenford school (Wokingham, Berkshire) 59
Wood, Christopher ‘Kit’ 45, 46, 150, 320
Wood, John ‘the Younger’ 83
Woolf, Virginia
anti-Semitism 17
attracted to Violet Trefusis 44
comment on the Cunards and Colefaxes 125
comment on Sybil Colefax 127
comment on the ‘daily drama of the body’ 297
Orlando 126
Wyndham, Francis 179, 265, 273, 383
comment on Cyril Connolly as ‘masterminding’
couples 280
comment on Jennifer’s boyfriend in 1941–2 380
Wyndham, Violet 175–6, 200, 263, 296
Yorke, Adelaide Biddulph ‘Dig’ 276
Yorke, Henry (‘Henry Green’) 183, 202
has affair with Jennifer 275–7
as writer 275, 276, 277
description of 276–7
married to Adelaide Biddulph 276
serves in the Auxiliary Fire Service 276
Caught 276
Loving 275, 277
Nothing 277
Yorke, Sebastian 276
Zinovieff, Annabelle Eccles 360–61, 362–3
Zinovieff, Leo
birth of 307
attends Robert’s funeral 346, 348
accepts Sofka’s inheritance of Faringdon 358
marriage to Annabelle Eccles 360–61
moves into Faringdon 360
finds Faringdon in chaos with silver missing 362–3
photographed at Faringdon 374
Zinovieff, Nicolas ‘Kolinka’ 307, 348, 358, 368
Zinovieff, Peter
sets up Electronic Music Studio (EMS) 8, 308
meets and marries Victoria 302–4
unhappy visit to Faringdon 304–6
affairs 307–8
failure of his marriage to Victoria 307–9
marries eighteen-year-old 343
Partita for Unattended Computer 308
Zinovieff, Sofka (b. 1961)
first vist to Faringdon 2–9
birth and childhood 8, 306
description of 8
inherits Faringdon 9, 343–5, 349–71
becomes regular visitor to Faringdon 326–35, 343–4
gets to know the regulars at Faringdon 328–9
relationship with Robert 330–35
at Cambridge University 332
attends ball at Buscot Park 333–5
lives with her boyfriend in Cambridge 333
lives in Greece 343
returns to Greece 351–2
conscious of the history of Faringdon 352–6, 397–9
moves Rosa Proll into a house in Faringdon town 363–4
looks after Faringdon and takes part in local
community 364–71
pregnancy and births of Anna and Lara 372, 374, 375
returns to Faringdon with Vassilis 372–4
attempts to unravel her biological relationships 375–83
moves to Rome with Vassilis 385–7
moves to Athens with Vassilis 387
returns to Faringdon to unveil blue plaque to
Gerald 391–6
Zinovieff, Victoria Gala Heber-Percy (b. 1943)
1943 photograph of 6, 7
birth and christening 248–50, 252–4
left by her mother in Harrods fabric’s department 277–8
looked after by bullying nanny 278
relationship with Robert 278–9, 283, 300–301
loves having Alan Ross as her stepfather 281–2
delighted at arrival of her half-brother Jonathan 295
education 299–302
meets and marries Peter Zinovieff 302–4
photographed by Cecil Beaton 302
pregnancy and birth of Sofka 304, 306
unhappy stay at Faringdon 304–6
births of Leo and Nicolas 307
failure of her marriage 307–9
/> joins Robert on a cruise to South Africa 308–9
as follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 326–7
attends Robert’s funeral 346–7
relationship with Simon Craven 358–9, 360
visits Faringdon after Robert’s death 358
scatters Robert’s ashes at Faringdon 359–60
discovers that Robert was not necessarily her biological father 375–83
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My mother, Victoria Zinovieff, showed great generosity of spirit while this book was being written. It was not easy for her to see what is also her story being opened up by her daughter, but she remained positive and helpful throughout. I am especially grateful.
Many people contributed to my research, but none more than Mary Gifford, Secretary of the Berners Trust. She was tireless in searching through archives and providing data from the work for her thesis on Lord Berners. Eternal thanks.
Several people explored Gerald Berners’s life long before I did and much of the material we all used is now gathered in the British Library. Gavin Bryars carried out research and interviews in the 1970s and ’80s, and although his biography was abandoned in favour of his work as a composer, the vital material remains. It was very useful to me, as were Mark Amory’s Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric and Peter Dickinson’s Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter. Like Peter Dickinson, whose devotion to the music and entire Berners oeuvre has lasted many decades, Philip Lane has also done much to promote Lord Berners’s music. He gave me material from his own research and was always helpful. Francis Wyndham was one of the few people who were able to tell me first-hand about my grandmother’s life from when she was young. His insights were profound and I came to see him as Jennifer’s guardian angel. Some others also stand out for the quality of help they gave me: Cressida Connolly, Clarissa Eden, Jack Fox, Algernon Heber-Percy.
I am enormously grateful to everyone I interviewed: Lyn Ash, Des Ball, Betty Bennett, Hamish Bowles, the late Richard Brain, Jonathan Burnham, Robert Carsen, Tessa Charlton, Sylvia Crack, Deirdre Curteis, Gordon Dowell, Charles Duff, Nell Dunn, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, Sarah Gibb, Barbara Gilmore, Henry Harrod, Dennis Haynes, Susan Hazel, Jocelyn Hillgarth, Samuel Horrocks, Sarah Horrocks, Nicholas Johnston, Susanna Johnston, Henry Keswick, Bill King, Candida Lycett Green, Joanna Mersey, Jeremy Newick, Benedict Nightingale, the late Don Pargeter, Janetta Parlade, Joe Pauling, Victoria Press, Anne Redmon, Jonathan Ross, James Skinner, Joy Skinner, Andrew Smith, Mario Testino, Hugo Vickers, Roger Vlitos, Judith Webb, Martin Webb, Eddie Williams, Annabelle Zinovieff, Leo Zinovieff, Peter Zinovieff.
That gratitude also goes out to those who assisted my research in various ways: Howard Bailes, Nicolas Bell, Al Cane, Bridget Dickinson, Jane Fox, Howard Friend, Katherine Freisenbruch, Fred Koch, Jeremy Lewis, Susan Maddock, Christopher Mason, Adam Nicolson, Sarah Raven, Juliet Souter, Margaret Townsend, Anthony Wallersteiner, Michael Wells, Alyosha Zinovieff, Jenny Zinovieff.
Candida Lycett Green very kindly gave permission to quote from two poems by her father John Betjeman: The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel and Before the Anaesthetic. Thanks to her and to Jane Ross for permission to quote from Alan Ross’s poem, JW51B.