Francis WyndhamCritiques

These are slight, highly autobiographical stories detailing a detached narrator's odd moments and peculiar relations, written by a minor member of the British aristocracy. It's a collection that might easily and understandly be overlooked, but I think that the author, Francis Wyndham, is worth getting to know. As an editor, journalist and "friend of the famous," he has insinuated himself into some of the most interesting lives of our time.

Francis Wyndham was born in 1924, and at the time that I am writing this review (early February 2011) he is still active in London literary circles. His literary and social ancestry is impeccable. His maternal grandmother was Ada Leverson, aka "The Sphinx," one of Oscar Wilde's closest friends. His father was a member of the social set of "The Souls" before World War I; his aunt was Pamela, Lady Glenconner, who was involved in a long-standing romantic relationship with Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary in 1914. Becoming active in the London cultural world of the 1950s, Francis Wyndham befriended Sonia Orwell, Jean Rhys, and V.S. Naipaul, among others; the painter Francis Bacon and the travel writer Bruce Chatwin were also among his intimates. What a memoir Francis Wyndham could write if he chose to - and one is left wondering why these short tales often seem like discarded fragments of what ought to have been a longer and more serious work.

My favorite story in the collection was "Ursula," a thinly veiled portrait of the author's half-sister Olivia Wyndham. (Considerably older than Francis, she was the offspring of Francis's father's first wife who died of the Spanish Flu in 1919.) As a young woman, Olivia served as a nurse on the Western Front; disillusioned with British society, she moved to New York City, settled in Harlem and became the lover of an African American actress named Edna Thomas. Olivia and Edna lived happily together for 35 years; in the 1940s Edna appeared in the world premiere on Broadway of Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire." (She later reprised her role for the 1951 film) Francis Wyndham portrays the relationship with his sister and her partner with great care and sensitivity - and I love finding out about cultural connections that I didn't know before!