In the first full-length biography of Anthony Powell, Michael Barber — publisher, journalist, and man-about-town — takes a close look at the man and the writer. He finds someone whose temperament was often at war with his upbringing. The son of an army officer, educated at Eton and Oxford, Powell chose as his closest friends people like Malcolm Muggeridge and the composer Constant Lambert, who were not out of the top drawer, or the one below it. Although happily married for more than sixty years to Lady Violet Pakenham, the daughter of an earl, he admitted that he had "always been attracted by girls who looked as if they'd slept under a bush for a week." Powell believed that creative writing was, like alchemy, a mysterious, indefinable process by which experience became art.

Michael Barber focuses on the experience that provided Powell with his raw material. He pays particular attention to the entre-deux-guerres, that sharply divided cultural interlude when the artists and good-timers with whom Powell identified in the twenties were followed, in the thirties, by the politicians and the prigs. Amusing, candid, and highly entertaining, this is a delightfully readable account of the author.

"'An uninspiring figure, to say the least.' So wrote Anthony Powell (1905 — 2000) in his journals about his future first biographer, after Barber (The Captain: The Life of Simon Raven) interviewed him in 1983. It's a tribute to the genial Barber that he can quote this dismissal with bemusement in his sprightly, anecdote-filled biography of the sometimes prickly author best known for that 12-volume chronicle of the human comedy, A Dance to the Music of Time. Drawing on his several interviews with Powell, Powell's four volumes of memoirs, published journals, unpublished letters and more, Barber charts the high points of his subject's career, from his days at Eton and Oxford, through his brief stint in Hollywood, service as a staff officer in WWII and the composition of his masterpiece (published between 1951 and 1975), to his retirement as a book reviewer for the British Telegraph in 1990, after being savaged in its pages by Auberon Waugh. That Dance has always been more a critical than a popular success Barber persuasively attributes at least in part to Powell's personal reticence. As Barber admits in his preface, he was not Powell's choice for official biographer, but until a full, authorized account comes along, this entertaining life serves as a satisfying appetizer for Powell fans. 23 b&w photos. (Sept. 24) Forecast: The relatively small but extremely loyal Powell following in the U.S. should guarantee sales success. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Barber proves an adept critic....For those who know this too-little-known modern master, here's a chance to revisit old friends." Booklist