Summary
To be prolific, to be erudite, to be hardworking -- does that qualify a writer to be in the Shakespeare stakes? Probably not; but there is more to P. Q.'s writing than that. [Evelyn Waugh] qualified 'mastery of the language' with the phrase 'in his dry, vaucous way'. There is nothing dry or vacuous about the way [Peter Quennell] conjures up Lord Byron. Byron, the Years of Fame is my favourite among Peter's books.
Writer Peter Quennell is profiled. The author or editor of 62 books, Quennell was prolific, and he was extraordinarily well-read.See the full content of this document
Extract
Beautiful, Dandified Detachment
'Christmas without Ian, ' wrote my mother, 'was a bleak affair. He was always there at Christmas.' My mother was Ann Fleming and Ian the man the centennial of whose birth we have so markedly been celebrating this past year.
There was another man who was always there at Christmas: Peter Quennell, of whom Paul Johnson wrote in these pages, 'There has never been another bruiser like Behan or writing toff like Quennell' ('And Another Thing', 6 September 2008...See the full content of this document
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