Harold And Me In 1947
Jul. 24th, 2021 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI've picked up the Nicolson Diaries again- and he and I are sauntering agreeably through the mid-twentieth century. Soon we will reach the point at which our time-lines overlap. As before, he is meeting all sorts of interesting people by the way- Somerset Maugham, Guy Burgess, Kenneth Clark, Ernie Bevin- but is no longer bumping into Churchill on a daily basis. Something Harold omits to tell us is that he happens to be sleeping with a goodly number of the younger male persons who cross his path. Sex seems to have been something he got a lot of- which you'd never guess from the diary- but never took seriously- which you might. He has recently been introduced to Truman Capote- and was charmed. Did they or didn't they? Who knows?
His last grab at a political career came with an attempt to win a by-election in North Croydon- and he followed his defeat with a weary, sniffy article about the experience which was published in the Spectator and must have had his might-have-been constituents thinking "good riddance". He is out of public life, but still gets invited to the parties, is hourly expecting to be elevated to the House of Lords (something which in fact never happened) and is about to embark on writing the official Life of George V- the dullest monarch in a very dull line- and regrets that he'll not be allowed to print the spicy bits, but is flattered that the people at the Palace still value him. He is sane, perceptive, writes very well- and is someone for whom the phrase "unexamined privilege" might well have been coined. He disapproves of anti-semitism but dislikes Jews, believes in Socialism but dislikes working-class people- and I'm not sure I could have stood him in person- for all his charm.
His last grab at a political career came with an attempt to win a by-election in North Croydon- and he followed his defeat with a weary, sniffy article about the experience which was published in the Spectator and must have had his might-have-been constituents thinking "good riddance". He is out of public life, but still gets invited to the parties, is hourly expecting to be elevated to the House of Lords (something which in fact never happened) and is about to embark on writing the official Life of George V- the dullest monarch in a very dull line- and regrets that he'll not be allowed to print the spicy bits, but is flattered that the people at the Palace still value him. He is sane, perceptive, writes very well- and is someone for whom the phrase "unexamined privilege" might well have been coined. He disapproves of anti-semitism but dislikes Jews, believes in Socialism but dislikes working-class people- and I'm not sure I could have stood him in person- for all his charm.
