6th September 2026
Anthony Powell Conference; 9 – 11 April 2027; Edinburgh
Anthony Powell, Author
The English author Anthony Dymoke Powell was born in London on 21 December 1905. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford where he met several other young writers and artists including Evelyn Waugh, Henry Green, John Betjeman, Graham Greene and Osbert Lancaster. Prior to World War II he worked in publishing and as a film-script writer, before becoming a full-time novelist and literary critic.
The Society
The Anthony Powell Society is a charity made up of members across the world particularly in the UK and North America who wish to promote interest in Powell and his work. Powell had a wide range of friends from George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh to V.S. Naipaul, Harold Pinter and Philip Larkin. Fans of Powell have similarly always been found across the political and literary spectrum : Kingsley Amis, Clive James, Tariq Ali, A.N.Wilson and Lady Pinter to name just a few. Hilary Spurling’s official biography is an invaluable guide to his life including the background to his literary masterpiece : the 12 volume sequence of novels entitled ‘A Dance to the Music of Time’. A TV film of ‘Dance’ was made by Channel 4 in 1997 and starred Simon Russell Beale in a BAFTA winning performance.
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19:30Online talk about the Dance character Ralph Barnby
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12:30
Newsletter #104 (Autumn 2026)
Contents
- Editor's Letter
- AP in Caledionia: Conference Booking Open
- Shakespeare, Powell and the Unscene; Simon Barnes
- AP and the Order of the Golden Dawn; Felix John Taylor
- Review: Auden by Peter Ackroyd; Michael Barber
- AP's Opinions: The Latest Instalment; Keith Jewitt
- "This Singular Extravaganza": Powell and Lady Chatterley's Lover; Guy Cutherbertson
- Creation Stories: Stringham, Templer and some Rhinemaidens; Robin Bynoe
- When a Festschrift is the Best Schrift; Giles Elgood
- Lifestyle, Stephen Eggins
- Uncle Giles’ Corner
- London Pub Meet
- Society Notices & Announcements
Full copies of Newsletter are uploaded approximately 6 months following publication
Quotable Powell
Powell is above all funny, and makes humour out of both the gravity and perceptiveness to which the narrative aspires, as witness the scene between Henchman and Sir Dixon Tiptoft at the breakfast table. ... In the end, it is not the way it is done which matters but the personality who controls it. ... But I could read whatever Powell writes from here to eternity, or at least until the Sultan decided that execution could no longer be stayed.
[John Bayley reviewing The Fisher King in London Review of Books, 17 April 1986]
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