In the Fifties
by Peter Vansittart
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Good/Good
- ISBN 10
- 0719553008
- ISBN 13
- 9780719553004
- Seller
-
Wamuran, Queensland, Australia
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
In good condition - ex library - has markings from use - due to differing weights in books, postage maybe adjusted at checkout.
The Fifties are often dismissed as a featureless interlude but here Peter Vansittart, distinguished novelist and anthologist, rediscovers their forgotten yet distinct flavour, recalling the funny and bizarre, the sad, the momentous, sometimes the atrocious.
Uninterested in fashion and fleeting reputations, he relishes the inescapable figures of Churchill and Lord Goddard, the generous but vain Shaw, the public-spirited Leonard Woolf. He sees Donald Wolfit sneezing, Alec Guinness nodding, John Masefield surviving.
He teaches at a school to the left of A. S. Neill and Bertrand Russell, a breeding-ground of mirth and inconsequence. At the newly founded Institute of Contemporary Art he witnesses T. S. Eliot being rebuked in person for anti-Semitism and Colin Wilson lambasting gentility; and elsewhere, Elias Canetti talking nonsense to a waitress. In Pooterish style, he advises a fat stranger (J.B. Priestley) to try his hand at writing, and tells a pleasant woman that C.P. Snow is no good, without realizing they are engaged. He gets tipped half a crown by Randolph Churchill, admires Camus, Pasternak and Isaiah Berlin, meets Arnold Toynbee and A.J. Ayer, and is grateful to Evelyn Waugh. But all these take their place alongside coffee-bar grotesques, a painted tramp on Hampstead Heath, everyday commonplaces of London life, and living survivors from a forgotten age.
Pinpointing the decade's characteristic mixture of optimism and nostalgia, he also offers a unique perception of its literary and artistic landscape.
The Fifties are often dismissed as a featureless interlude but here Peter Vansittart, distinguished novelist and anthologist, rediscovers their forgotten yet distinct flavour, recalling the funny and bizarre, the sad, the momentous, sometimes the atrocious.
Uninterested in fashion and fleeting reputations, he relishes the inescapable figures of Churchill and Lord Goddard, the generous but vain Shaw, the public-spirited Leonard Woolf. He sees Donald Wolfit sneezing, Alec Guinness nodding, John Masefield surviving.
He teaches at a school to the left of A. S. Neill and Bertrand Russell, a breeding-ground of mirth and inconsequence. At the newly founded Institute of Contemporary Art he witnesses T. S. Eliot being rebuked in person for anti-Semitism and Colin Wilson lambasting gentility; and elsewhere, Elias Canetti talking nonsense to a waitress. In Pooterish style, he advises a fat stranger (J.B. Priestley) to try his hand at writing, and tells a pleasant woman that C.P. Snow is no good, without realizing they are engaged. He gets tipped half a crown by Randolph Churchill, admires Camus, Pasternak and Isaiah Berlin, meets Arnold Toynbee and A.J. Ayer, and is grateful to Evelyn Waugh. But all these take their place alongside coffee-bar grotesques, a painted tramp on Hampstead Heath, everyday commonplaces of London life, and living survivors from a forgotten age.
Pinpointing the decade's characteristic mixture of optimism and nostalgia, he also offers a unique perception of its literary and artistic landscape.
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Details
- Seller
- DASHbooks (AU)
- Seller's Inventory #
- DASHbooks601
- Title
- In the Fifties
- Author
- Peter Vansittart
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0719553008
- ISBN 13
- 9780719553004
- Publisher
- John Murray
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1995
- Keywords
- peter vansittart, in the fifties, novelist, anthologist, bizarre, distinct, winston churchill, lord goddard, leonard woolf, donald wolfit, alec guinness, john masefield, bertrand russell, contemporary art, engaged, isaiah berlin, london,
- Bookseller catalogs
- Social History;
Terms of Sale
DASHbooks
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
DASHbooks
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Wamuran, Queensland
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