Public Faces

by Harold Nicolson

In public they were models of respectability--their private lives were something else
Harold Nicolson came from one of England's oldest and most distinguished families. His marriage to Vita Sackville-West was one of the most brilliant and intriguing alliances of the century. No man better represented a civilized sensibility and advanced ideas of love and life than did this charming, immensely sophisticated and talented man. All these qualities are on dazzling display in his totally candid novel of men and women whose private lives were far, far different from their public images.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.

Reviews

[Flob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a quite remarkable book. It is, I think, currently out of print and that is a shame, I found an original Penguin from a second hand bookshop. It was published in 1932 and, I suppose, written in 1931. It is concerned with a world crisis set in 1939 with a world on the brink of world war but no Hitler in sight, the somewhat incompetent badies are the British. Like others, I was seriously surprised to see that rocket powered aeroplanes form part of the story and also the atomic bomb. However, for me the real pleasure in this novel is the description of the British Government at work. And Nicolson was in a position to know. The Foreign Secretary is a man called Bullinger who for me has all the distant superiority and 'born to rule' certainty of Lord Halifax. Can it be a that Halifax was a model for this character? Halifax isn't mentioned elsewhere even though Churchill is, Baldwin, Chamberlain, Mosely, Belisha et al. Certainly if you are interested in how the British Government functioned in the lead up to WW2 this is the book for you. It is also a ripping yarn.

Incidentally he also includes man made climate change and presents some of the language changes that appear in Clockwork Orange. This is a remarkable book.

[David P · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Public Faces" was written in 1932, a fictional novel about diplomacy in 1939, within a framework of science fiction (credible scj-fi, not fantasy!). The author Harold Nicolson was a diplomat, and he spins his tale around British government maneuvering and intrigues of the 1930s. As a prediction of the future (from 1932), it is a mixed success: no Hitler, no Stalin, no Great Depression. Then, again, it predicts the rocket airplane and the atomic bomb--the latter pretty accurately by what we now know (more like an H-bomb, really).
It is this prophetic component which merits its 4 stars; in other ways, it may seem a bit dated, perhaps because it IS faithful about the (rather peaceful!) 1930s background. For something completely different, it is definitely worth reading now.

[J]

Wrong description from Goodreads... This 1933 novel imagines Britain getting an atomic bomb first in 1939 (and no Hitler in sight in Germany, for that matter).