A Distant Prospect

by Lord Berners

'Autobiography of the very finest quality. Having enjoyed in the course of reading it the loudest and longest laughs I have enjoyed in the last two years I am quite incapable of making any critical observations. I found the book enchanting from cover to cover.' Compton Mackenzie, Daily Mail

'First Childhood and A Distant Prospect are quietly remarkable volumes of autobiography. Both books are alive with unforgotten terrors and unforgiven indignities.' Alan Hollinghurst, TLS, March 1998

''Not only witty and amusing, but contains things to ponder over in plenty behind the mere youthful years. The portraits of his friends are complete portraits, sketched brilliantly in a few strokes.' Tatler

A Distant Prospect is the second volume of Lord Berner's perfectly formed, hilarious, and beautifully written memoirs. Berners was a great English eccentric, a composer, novelist, painter and conspicuous aesthete whose friends included Gertrude Stein, Diaghilev and Sitwell. The character of Lord Merlin in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love is based on Lord Berners, who would dip his pigeons into basins of magenta, green and ultramarine so that when released they resembled, Mitford wrote, 'a cloud of confetti in the sky'. These memoirs are classics of their kind.

125 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, was an English composer, novelist, painter and aesthete, as well as an accomplished eccentric.

Reviews

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Lord Berners' account of his Eton years. The gossip, intrigue, rumors, cliques, friendships and shunning were as intense as today with social media. In this one he goes deeper into appreciating and playing music, though his family still wants him to become a diplomat.
I'm eager to start the next volume now but it's in transit from a bookmonger.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following on from First Childhood, this second volume of memoirs chronicles Lord Berners’ days at Eton in the last years of Queen Victoria. His descriptions are as engaging as ever. Here’s the remote and almost mythical headmaster:

“Like the God of the Israelites he was sublime and terrible, making an occasional appearance as from a cloud, and withdrawing himself again into his heaven without anyone being the better for it.”

A highlight is Lord Berners brief involvement with classical pantomime – a sort of earnestly impressionistic dance form undertaken by a boy named Bartlett who “had a small, narrow face and a prominent beak-like nose that was surmounted by enormous goggles...The general effect was that of a shrimp with spectacles.” Needless to say, this unwise and transient enthusiasm does not meet with much success...

The quotidien cycle of schooldays – even the Eton of yesteryear – does, however, put some constraint on the content and A Distant Prospect lacks some of the unpredictability and charm of the first volume. Still very readable, nonetheless.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part two of this great eccentric's memoirs. Lord Berners is a remarkable figure in early 20th Century 'culture' life. Any man who liked to dye his birds into bright colors is ok with me.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witty, enjoyable memoir of the author's school days at Eton.