Lady Violet Powell
Lady Violet Georgiana Powell (née Pakenham; 13 March 1912 – 12 January 2002) was a British writer and critic. Her husband was the author Anthony Powell.
Lady Violet Powell | |
|---|---|
Lady Violet and Anthony Powell on their wedding day in 1934. | |
| Born | Lady Violet Georgiana Pakenham 13 March 1912 |
| Died | 12 January 2002 (aged 89) |
| Occupation | Writer, critic |
| Genre | Memoir, biography |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, including Tristram Powell |
| Parents | |
| Relatives |
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Life and career
Lady Violet was the third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford, and the former Lady Mary Child-Villiers, daughter of Victor Child-Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey. She was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey.[1]
Lady Violet was a member of a literary family; her brothers were Edward Pakenham and Frank Pakenham, while her sisters included the novelist and biographer Lady Pansy Lamb and the historian Lady Mary Clive. She was herself a distinguished memoirist and biographer. Her The Life of a Provincial Lady (1988), on the life of E. M. Delafield, has been called by the scholar Nicholas Birns "one of the best literary biographies of a British writer in the twentieth century".[2] Those who knew the couple well believed that Lady Violet made significant contributions to the richness, depth and polish of her husband's work.[2] She also wrote a biography of the English novelist Flora Annie Steel.[3]
Influence
She is generally taken to be the model for the character of Isobel Tolland in her husband's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time.[1]
Books
Some of her books are:
- The Album of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time
- A Compton-Burnett Compendium
- A Jane Austen Compendium: The Six Major Novels
- The Constant Novelist: A Study of Margaret Kennedy, 1896–1967
- Flora Annie Steel: Novelist of India
- The Irish Cousins: The Books and Background of Somerville and Ross
- The Life of a Provincial Lady: A Study of E.M. Delafield and Her Works
- Margaret, Countess of Jersey: A Biography
- A Substantial Ghost: The Literary Adventures of Maude ffoulkes
Autobiography
- Five Out of Six: An Autobiography (a reference to her birth order amongst her siblings)
- Within the Family Circle: An Autobiography
- The Departure Platform: An Autobiography
- A Stone in the Shade: Last Memoirs[4]
Personal life
She married Anthony Powell (21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) on 1 December 1934 at All Saints Anglican Church, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge; they had two children, Tristram and John.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "Lady Violet Powell". The Daily Telegraph. 15 January 2002. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- ^ a b Nicholas Birns, Understanding Anthony Powell (2004), p. 7
- ^ Mannsaker, Frances M. (Autumn 1982). "Flora Annie Steel, Novelist of India by Violet Powell". Victorian Studies. 26 (1): 105–106. JSTOR 3827506.
- ^ Taylor, D.J. (10 August 2013). "A Stone in the Shade, by Violet Powell – review". The Spectator. Retrieved 15 September 2014.