The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother, and Me (55 page)

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

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 wartime 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

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.

Thank you, Alan Hollinghurst, for reading the manuscript with amazing care and taking the art of correcting to new heights. Thanks also to Paul Johnston, Gavin Bryars and Peter Dickinson who commented on early drafts.

Thanks to my dear agent Caroline Dawnay for her marvellous support. And to Sophie Scard and United Agents.

Dan Franklin has been the most wonderful editor from the initial proposal right through to the final corrections. I am deeply grateful. Also, to everyone at Jonathan Cape who has been involved with the book, especially Clare Bullock, Neil Bradford, Penelope Goodare, James Jones, Mikaela Pedlow, Eugenie Todd and Peter Ward.

Thank you, Lara and Anna, for all your support – the best daughters that anyone could wish for.

This book is dedicated with love to my husband, Vassilis Papadimitriou.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note: Unpublished documents come from a number of different sources. Most of Lord Berners’ papers, including letters and notebooks, are gathered in the British Library – thanks to the Berners Trust for permission to quote from them. Letters from Billa Harrod to Roy Harrod are in the archives of the Norfolk Record Office (ACC2005/362 box 7). Other letters, diaries and notebooks are in private collections. Diana Mosely letters are reproduced by kind permission of Charlotte Mosely and the Mitford Archive.

Aberconway, Christabel, A Wiser Woman: A Book of Memories, Hutchinson, London, 1966