Kenneth Widmerpool
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell
's sequence of novels, A Dance to the Music of Time
.
The author's most famous creation, Widmerpool appears in all twelve books comprising the cycle. By turns villain, victim, manipulator, fool, murderer, cuckold and traitor, and with bizarre sexual tastes, Widmerpool simultaneously appals and engages readers from his first appearance at school, wearing "the wrong kind of overcoat" in A Question of Upbringing
.
Widmerpool confides to Jenkins (the narrator) that his paternal grandfather was a Scottish
businessman called Geddes. Geddes married above himself and took his wife's name of Widmerpool to improve his social status
.
Years later, after Widmerpool's engagement to Mildred Blaides, Jenkins implies in conversation that Widmerpool's connection with Nottinghamshire
has deeper roots than the coincidence of a grandmother's maiden name, mentally justifying himself with the thought that Widmerpool himself considered this 'in no way a departure from the truth' (At Lady Molly's
). What Widmerpool actually said about this is not revealed in the novels, but from 1216 to the nineteenth century the Widmerpool family (descendants of Henricus de Diddisworth, who changed his name to 'Widemerpool' to secure the estate) did live at Widmerpool Hall; however, the Robertson family later owned the estate- and surrounding land, including the village- until 1924. At the time of the story, therefore, any claim he made would not have carried conviction with the people he was, presumably, hoping to impress, i.e., those taking an interest in county society.
Dr Nicholas Birns has pointed out in Understanding Anthony Powell that Powell would have come across the name of Widmerpool in Lady Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs, where it belongs to a Roundhead
Captain of Horse. Certainly the Blessed Robert Widmerpool, had his name been known to Powell, would have been a less appropriate namesake.
Widmerpool's Christian name of Kenneth is not revealed until the end of the second volume, A Buyer's Market
, when, typically, in the middle of delivering officious advice to Jenkins about his undesirable acquaintances - one of whom has persuaded Widmerpool to pay for her abortion - he insists that they should henceforth be on first name terms. Only in the fifth chapter of the ninth volume, The Military Philosophers
, do we learn that he is Kenneth G. Widmerpool, and what the G stands for remains a mystery.
He is transferred to London to work in the Cabinet Office
where his mastery of bureaucratic manipulation comes to the fore and he is promoted full Colonel. His new influence is deployed to settle old scores, resulting in the death of his old school fellow, Peter Templer. He is still seen to be living with his mother, a formidably bourgeoise matron.
After the war, Widmerpool is elected a Member of Parliament
in the Labour
landslide of 1945; losing his seat in a subsequent election, he is made a Life Peer
in 1958. After his disgrace in the Belkin espionage scandal and the notoriety caused by his wife's necrophiliac death, Widmerpool spends some time in the United States
.
He returns to the UK to serve as the chancellor of one of the new redbrick universities being built in the 1960s, espousing the cause of rebellious youth. He soon becomes part of a pagan cult
led by the sinister Scorpio Murtlock, and jettisons all the social respectability he had once sought after to end ignominiously as a powerless member of this group.
instincts, social and political, are transmuted into adherence to the Left
when the political wind is seen to blow in that direction, offering the possibility of advancement. Within a brief span of time in the 1940s, he progresses from a desire "to rule black men" to the conviction that his calling is to serve the people as a Socialist MP.
This leads to involvement in espionage
against his own country on behalf of an unnamed Soviet bloc power. In a later development of his political ideology he espouses the cause of youth in a form of anarchism
, articulated with his usual incoherence. (Widmerpool's speeches are treasured by Powell aficionados for their opaque verbosity and satire upon the utterings of public men). By the end of his life he has joined a pagan cult and is seen indulging in ritual. Even here the author has couched his conversion to the occult
in terms of a power struggle with Scorpio Murtlock, the cult leader. In losing, Widmerpool falls back upon his incipient masochism.
Powell's genius is to make of such an ill-formed individual a character of depth, and even to render him at times sympathetic. Like some of Dickens's monsters, Widmerpool evokes a fascination to see what malignity he will commit next. His wartime struggle with Sunny Farebrother, and machinations at divisional HQ, would have stood the test of publication in installments, and worked particularly well when adapted for radio serialisation by the BBC
.
Has Widmerpool a heart? There is evidence that he does, but that it is well-defended. His romance
, perhaps more properly arrangement, with Mildred Blaides is presented with undertones of pathos
when it fails in the bedroom. Widmerpool's subsequent exculpation to Jenkins is a minor masterpiece of characterisation, albeit in the understated manner of Powell at his sardonic best. Curiously, we are left to speculate about their motives when he and Pamela become betrothed. Is it about power, possession of a beauty craved by others, or some depraved sexual attraction that binds them? This, too, is part of Powell's technique: he allows us to fill in the emotional gaps, much as we do in real life.
From the age of seventeen to late middle-age Widmerpool's evolution is depicted as that of one who ages convincingly, while achieving minimal emotional maturity. His last years are characterised by an infantilism that owes nothing to second childhood
. Even so there is much about Widmerpool's pretensions, figleaves to hide his shame, which are noteworthy: that one so keen to assume the dignity of office and rank should be prepared to make himself profoundly ridiculous speaks not just of a lack of self-awareness, but of a deep inner wound, inflicted in childhood, deepened at school, the natural healing of which is never permitted to take place. In this context his association with the Quiggin twins may be seen as an attempt to relive an alternative youth that is the opposite of his own adolescence. In failing, as it must, this strategy is pursued to its ultimate in becoming the obedient child to Murtlock, the strict father he never had.
Widmerpool's father had died young; Widmerpool maintains a close relationship with his mother, living with her for most of his life until his comparatively late marriage and portraying his mother as a central aspect of his ensemble. When he marries Pamela, though, Widmerpool's mother, by now advanced in age, becomes inconvenient to his plans and is bundled off to end her days in Kirkcudbrightshire
in Scotland. Widmerpool and his mother jokingly used to imagine her as a potential mate for Joseph Stalin
. In a final bit of irony, it is Widmerpool's mother's house in the country, near Sir Magnus Donners' former residence at Stourwater, that is turned over to the Murtlock cult.
, an officer under whom Powell had served briefly when posted to the Cabinet Office
in 1943. Widmerpool was hitherto believed to have been based upon Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller
, known at the Bar
as 'Bullying Manner', who became Lord Chancellor
in Harold Macmillan
's government, having been elevated as Viscount Dilhorne
. One episode which the author admitted drawing from Manningham-Buller was his getting a schoolfellow 'sacked' (expelled) from Eton
for making improper advances to another boy.
The novelist had planted clues to Widmerpool's true identity in the third volume of his autobiography. He refers to the nickname of an unnamed officer under whom he worked briefly in the Cabinet Office during the war. It is The Papal Bun - "a play upon his double barreled surname, creed, demeanour, personal appearance ... a never failing source of laughter." Kenneth Rose discovered that the historian Desmond Seward had managed to deduce Widmerpool's identity. This Rose put to Powell, who, in his elliptical way, replied: "My impression is that Seward, a most amusing fellow, is on to something there ...". The identification of Widmerpool as based upon Denis Cuthbert Capel-Dunn was then confirmed in Powell's Journals.
The son of a consular clerk in Leipzig
, Capel-Dunn became a barrister
, rising to colonel in the Intelligence Corps, under whom Powell served on attachment to the Cabinet Office for nine weeks in 1943. When Powell, an acting major, asked to be retained in his post for a further fortnight in order that his rank might become substantive, Capel-Dunn refused on the grounds "My nerves wouldn't stand it".
As Hugh Massingberd
pointed out in Daydream Believer, Capel-Dunn could not have provided the total model for Widmerpool as he was not with Powell at Eton.
"Like Widmerpool, Capel-Dunn was a very fat, extremely boring, overwhelmingly ambitious arriviste. His conversations were hideously detailed and humourless", noted John Colvin, former British ambassador to Mongolia
, who was a member of the same club, the St James, where Capel-Dunn was known there as 'Young Bloody'. The 7th Earl of Longford
claimed to be a source for later parts of Widmerpool's life, upon which Powell commented "Lord Longford would like to think so."
It has been argued that Widmerpool's espionage
career may echo the case of the barrister and MP Denis Nowell Pritt
, a fellow traveler expelled from the Labour Party for his Soviet sympathies in 1940. The author Nigel West has written that Pritt was a GRU
(Soviet Army Intelligence) agent involved in pre-war espionage
. The other possible source is Jeremy, later Lord, Hutchinson QC
, who was suspected by MI5
of running a Communist front organisation for lawyers. He defended George Blake
, the Russian spy in SIS
.
Capel-Dunn died in an air crash in 1945 returning with other officials from the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations
. As Kenneth Rose has pointed out, had he not sacked Powell the novelist would probably have shared his fate. "As it was, the subordinate survived to make his boss immortal". Rose seems to have had this from direct from Powell who repeated a similar, if more modest, assertion in Faces in my Time.
filmed an adaptation for TV. In it Widmerpool was played throughout by the Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale
, for which he won the Best Actor category at the British Academy Film & Television Awards in 1998. His portrayal met with the approval of both academic critics and Powell enthusiasts, resulting in his being invited to become President of the Anthony Powell Society, an office he still holds.
Misfortune has appeared to dog winners of the award, who receive "an engraved wrong sort of overcoat".
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
's sequence of novels, A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...
.
The author's most famous creation, Widmerpool appears in all twelve books comprising the cycle. By turns villain, victim, manipulator, fool, murderer, cuckold and traitor, and with bizarre sexual tastes, Widmerpool simultaneously appals and engages readers from his first appearance at school, wearing "the wrong kind of overcoat" in A Question of Upbringing
A Question of Upbringing
A Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century....
.
Origins
A certain mystery surrounds Widmerpool's name. When they are both staying at La Grenadiere in A Question of UpbringingA Question of Upbringing
A Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century....
Widmerpool confides to Jenkins (the narrator) that his paternal grandfather was a Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
businessman called Geddes. Geddes married above himself and took his wife's name of Widmerpool to improve his social status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
.
Years later, after Widmerpool's engagement to Mildred Blaides, Jenkins implies in conversation that Widmerpool's connection with Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
has deeper roots than the coincidence of a grandmother's maiden name, mentally justifying himself with the thought that Widmerpool himself considered this 'in no way a departure from the truth' (At Lady Molly's
At Lady Molly's
At Lady Molly's is the fourth volume in Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. A first person narrative, it is written in precise yet conversational prose...
). What Widmerpool actually said about this is not revealed in the novels, but from 1216 to the nineteenth century the Widmerpool family (descendants of Henricus de Diddisworth, who changed his name to 'Widemerpool' to secure the estate) did live at Widmerpool Hall; however, the Robertson family later owned the estate- and surrounding land, including the village- until 1924. At the time of the story, therefore, any claim he made would not have carried conviction with the people he was, presumably, hoping to impress, i.e., those taking an interest in county society.
Dr Nicholas Birns has pointed out in Understanding Anthony Powell that Powell would have come across the name of Widmerpool in Lady Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs, where it belongs to a Roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
Captain of Horse. Certainly the Blessed Robert Widmerpool, had his name been known to Powell, would have been a less appropriate namesake.
Widmerpool's Christian name of Kenneth is not revealed until the end of the second volume, A Buyer's Market
A Buyer's Market
A Buyer's Market is the second novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series, A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1952, it continues the story of narrator Nick Jenkins with his introduction into society after boarding school and university....
, when, typically, in the middle of delivering officious advice to Jenkins about his undesirable acquaintances - one of whom has persuaded Widmerpool to pay for her abortion - he insists that they should henceforth be on first name terms. Only in the fifth chapter of the ninth volume, The Military Philosophers
The Military Philosophers
The Military Philosophers is the ninth of Anthony Powell's twelve-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. First published in 1968, it covers the latter part of Nicholas Jenkins' service in World War II...
, do we learn that he is Kenneth G. Widmerpool, and what the G stands for remains a mystery.
Career
Widmerpool does not attend university, but on leaving school is articled to a firm of solicitors, Turnbull Welford and Puckering. Six or seven years later he secures a position at Donners-Brebner, the financial conglomerate headed by Sir Magnus Donners. An early enrollee in the Territorials, Widmerpool moves quickly into the regular army during wartime, serving as the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at a divisional headquarters, where, in exercising his taste for intrigue, he over-reaches himself, incurring then, through a fortunate concatenation of circumstances escaping, the General's wrath.He is transferred to London to work in the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
where his mastery of bureaucratic manipulation comes to the fore and he is promoted full Colonel. His new influence is deployed to settle old scores, resulting in the death of his old school fellow, Peter Templer. He is still seen to be living with his mother, a formidably bourgeoise matron.
After the war, Widmerpool is elected a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
landslide of 1945; losing his seat in a subsequent election, he is made a Life Peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
in 1958. After his disgrace in the Belkin espionage scandal and the notoriety caused by his wife's necrophiliac death, Widmerpool spends some time in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He returns to the UK to serve as the chancellor of one of the new redbrick universities being built in the 1960s, espousing the cause of rebellious youth. He soon becomes part of a pagan cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
led by the sinister Scorpio Murtlock, and jettisons all the social respectability he had once sought after to end ignominiously as a powerless member of this group.
Character development
Widmerpool is portrayed as a man of will, whose emotional and intellectual development is skewed by his pursuit of power. The implicit suggestion is that he would rather be feared than loved, perhaps because he is aware of his inner corruption. Nevertheless he is not shown to be a man of courage, preferring to exercise his malice behind a smokescreen of office. His initially conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
instincts, social and political, are transmuted into adherence to the Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
when the political wind is seen to blow in that direction, offering the possibility of advancement. Within a brief span of time in the 1940s, he progresses from a desire "to rule black men" to the conviction that his calling is to serve the people as a Socialist MP.
This leads to involvement in espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
against his own country on behalf of an unnamed Soviet bloc power. In a later development of his political ideology he espouses the cause of youth in a form of anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, articulated with his usual incoherence. (Widmerpool's speeches are treasured by Powell aficionados for their opaque verbosity and satire upon the utterings of public men). By the end of his life he has joined a pagan cult and is seen indulging in ritual. Even here the author has couched his conversion to the occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
in terms of a power struggle with Scorpio Murtlock, the cult leader. In losing, Widmerpool falls back upon his incipient masochism.
Powell's genius is to make of such an ill-formed individual a character of depth, and even to render him at times sympathetic. Like some of Dickens's monsters, Widmerpool evokes a fascination to see what malignity he will commit next. His wartime struggle with Sunny Farebrother, and machinations at divisional HQ, would have stood the test of publication in installments, and worked particularly well when adapted for radio serialisation by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Has Widmerpool a heart? There is evidence that he does, but that it is well-defended. His romance
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
, perhaps more properly arrangement, with Mildred Blaides is presented with undertones of pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
when it fails in the bedroom. Widmerpool's subsequent exculpation to Jenkins is a minor masterpiece of characterisation, albeit in the understated manner of Powell at his sardonic best. Curiously, we are left to speculate about their motives when he and Pamela become betrothed. Is it about power, possession of a beauty craved by others, or some depraved sexual attraction that binds them? This, too, is part of Powell's technique: he allows us to fill in the emotional gaps, much as we do in real life.
From the age of seventeen to late middle-age Widmerpool's evolution is depicted as that of one who ages convincingly, while achieving minimal emotional maturity. His last years are characterised by an infantilism that owes nothing to second childhood
Second childhood
Second childhood is an informal phrase used to describe adults whose declining mental capabilities mean they need care similar to that of children. It is an unscientific term, similar in meaning to the old terms dotage or senility...
. Even so there is much about Widmerpool's pretensions, figleaves to hide his shame, which are noteworthy: that one so keen to assume the dignity of office and rank should be prepared to make himself profoundly ridiculous speaks not just of a lack of self-awareness, but of a deep inner wound, inflicted in childhood, deepened at school, the natural healing of which is never permitted to take place. In this context his association with the Quiggin twins may be seen as an attempt to relive an alternative youth that is the opposite of his own adolescence. In failing, as it must, this strategy is pursued to its ultimate in becoming the obedient child to Murtlock, the strict father he never had.
Widmerpool's father had died young; Widmerpool maintains a close relationship with his mother, living with her for most of his life until his comparatively late marriage and portraying his mother as a central aspect of his ensemble. When he marries Pamela, though, Widmerpool's mother, by now advanced in age, becomes inconvenient to his plans and is bundled off to end her days in Kirkcudbrightshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright or Kirkcudbrightshire was a county of south-western Scotland. It was also known as East Galloway, forming the larger Galloway region with Wigtownshire....
in Scotland. Widmerpool and his mother jokingly used to imagine her as a potential mate for Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. In a final bit of irony, it is Widmerpool's mother's house in the country, near Sir Magnus Donners' former residence at Stourwater, that is turned over to the Murtlock cult.
Character model
Powell, reluctantly, admitted his source when confronted with an educated guess. The principal character model was Col. Denis Capel-DunnDenis Capel-Dunn
Denis Cuthbert Capel-Dunn was a British lawyer and military bureaucrat immortalised by Anthony Powell in many aspects of the character of Kenneth Widmerpool, the anti-hero of Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels...
, an officer under whom Powell had served briefly when posted to the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
in 1943. Widmerpool was hitherto believed to have been based upon Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller
Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne
Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne PC, QC , known as Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, Bt, from 1954 to 1962 and as The Lord Dilhorne from 1962 to 1964, was an English lawyer and Conservative politician...
, known at the Bar
Barristers in England and Wales
Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. -Origin of the profession:The work of senior legal professionals in England and Wales...
as 'Bullying Manner', who became Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
in Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's government, having been elevated as Viscount Dilhorne
Viscount Dilhorne
Viscount Dilhorne, of Greens Norton in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1964 for the lawyer, Conservative politician and former Lord Chancellor, Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Baron Dilhorne...
. One episode which the author admitted drawing from Manningham-Buller was his getting a schoolfellow 'sacked' (expelled) from Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
for making improper advances to another boy.
The novelist had planted clues to Widmerpool's true identity in the third volume of his autobiography. He refers to the nickname of an unnamed officer under whom he worked briefly in the Cabinet Office during the war. It is The Papal Bun - "a play upon his double barreled surname, creed, demeanour, personal appearance ... a never failing source of laughter." Kenneth Rose discovered that the historian Desmond Seward had managed to deduce Widmerpool's identity. This Rose put to Powell, who, in his elliptical way, replied: "My impression is that Seward, a most amusing fellow, is on to something there ...". The identification of Widmerpool as based upon Denis Cuthbert Capel-Dunn was then confirmed in Powell's Journals.
The son of a consular clerk in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Capel-Dunn became a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, rising to colonel in the Intelligence Corps, under whom Powell served on attachment to the Cabinet Office for nine weeks in 1943. When Powell, an acting major, asked to be retained in his post for a further fortnight in order that his rank might become substantive, Capel-Dunn refused on the grounds "My nerves wouldn't stand it".
As Hugh Massingberd
Hugh Massingberd
Hugh John Massingberd , also known as Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, was an English journalist and genealogist....
pointed out in Daydream Believer, Capel-Dunn could not have provided the total model for Widmerpool as he was not with Powell at Eton.
"Like Widmerpool, Capel-Dunn was a very fat, extremely boring, overwhelmingly ambitious arriviste. His conversations were hideously detailed and humourless", noted John Colvin, former British ambassador to Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, who was a member of the same club, the St James, where Capel-Dunn was known there as 'Young Bloody'. The 7th Earl of Longford
Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
claimed to be a source for later parts of Widmerpool's life, upon which Powell commented "Lord Longford would like to think so."
It has been argued that Widmerpool's espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
career may echo the case of the barrister and MP Denis Nowell Pritt
Denis Nowell Pritt
Denis Nowell Pritt , usually known as D.N. Pritt, was a British barrister and Labour Party politician. Born in Harlesden, Middlesex, he was educated at Winchester College and London University....
, a fellow traveler expelled from the Labour Party for his Soviet sympathies in 1940. The author Nigel West has written that Pritt was a GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
(Soviet Army Intelligence) agent involved in pre-war espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. The other possible source is Jeremy, later Lord, Hutchinson QC
Jeremy Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington
Jeremy Nicolas Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington QC is a British lawyer.-Education:Hutchinson was educated at Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics.-Career:He was Called to the Bar, Middle Temple in 1939...
, who was suspected by MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
of running a Communist front organisation for lawyers. He defended George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
, the Russian spy in SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
.
Capel-Dunn died in an air crash in 1945 returning with other officials from the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. As Kenneth Rose has pointed out, had he not sacked Powell the novelist would probably have shared his fate. "As it was, the subordinate survived to make his boss immortal". Rose seems to have had this from direct from Powell who repeated a similar, if more modest, assertion in Faces in my Time.
TV portrayal
Following a successful BBC TV radio dramatisation of A Dance to the Music of Time some years earlier, in 1997 Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
filmed an adaptation for TV. In it Widmerpool was played throughout by the Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
, for which he won the Best Actor category at the British Academy Film & Television Awards in 1998. His portrayal met with the approval of both academic critics and Powell enthusiasts, resulting in his being invited to become President of the Anthony Powell Society, an office he still holds.
The Widmerpool Award
An annual Widmerpool Award is made to the public figure judged to have behaved in the most Widmerpudlian fashion during the previous twelve months. Nominations are proposed and voted upon by members of the Anthony Powell Society. Past winners have included:- British Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg,
- Republican electoral advisor Karl RoveKarl RoveKarl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, and - former newspaper editor Sir Max HastingsMax HastingsSir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. He is the son of Macdonald Hastings, the noted British journalist and war correspondent and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar.-Life and career:Hastings was educated at Charterhouse...
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Misfortune has appeared to dog winners of the award, who receive "an engraved wrong sort of overcoat".
External links
- For an analysis of Widmerpool's career, character and relationships, together with textual references, see B.J.Moule "An Index to 'A Dance to the Music of Time'" For fully navigable hyperlinks, use the PDF version(published with consent)
- http://www.widmerpoolhall.co.uk/index.php/history Information on the Widmerpool family's connection to the village.