Miscellaneous

The Girls of Radcliff Hall
"Adela Quebec"
Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners
dedicated by author to Emerald (Maud) Cunard
Publisher: privately printed
UK

Year


 		n.d.       early 1930s; see below
Cover / size: Soft cover / h 18 * w 12.5 cm / 100 pp

Dustjacket?   n/a

ISBN: n/a

Arbery Ref:   001329

Condition Good

Inscription on half-title reads "Emerald with love from Gerald October 1935" (see below). Front cover has slight marks and stains. Page edges foxed. Front endpaper has pencil note. Very slight creasing of corners. Pages clean.

Price £2,750.00
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The Girls of Radcliff Hall






Plot / Content:                             

According to Wikipedia (Jan 2012, references omitted):
"The Girls of Radcliff Hall is a roman à clef novel in the form of a lesbian girls' school story written in the 1930s by the British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Berners, the 14th Lord Berners, under the pseudonym "Adela Quebec", published and distributed privately in 1932. Berners depicts himself and his circle of friends, including Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named "Radcliff Hall" (punning on the name of the famous lesbian writer). The indiscretions alluded to in the novel created an uproar among Berners's intimates and acquaintances, making the whole affair highly discussed in the 1930s. Cecil Beaton attempted to have all the copies destroyed. The novel subsequently disappeared from circulation, making it extremely rare. The story is not included in the Berners anthology Collected Tales and Fantasies, which was reprinted in 2000."



Background / Biography:

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (18 September 1883 – 19 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer of classical music, novelist, painter and aesthete. Berners' father, a naval officer, was rarely home. He was raised by a grandmother who was extremely religious and self-righteous, and a mother who had little intellect and many prejudices. His mother ignored his musical interests and instead focused on developing his masculinity, a trait Berners found to be inherently unnatural. continued on Wikipedia


Maud Alice Burke (3 August 1872 – 10 July 1948), later Lady Cunard, known as Emerald, was an American-born, London-based society hostess. She had long relationships with the novelist George Moore and the conductor Thomas Beecham, and was the muse of the former and a champion of and fund-raiser for the latter. She was a supporter of Wallis Simpson during the British abdication crisis of 1936, vainly hoping for a court appointment. The Second World War ended her era of private patronage and lavish hospitality. continued on Wikipedia





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It was the first day of the Easter Term at Radcliff Hall. A group of girls who had just arrived were sitting clustered round the fire, laughing and chattering gaily. It was a merry scene, all these fresh young faces glowing i nthe firelight; a scene that Raphael or Botticelli would have loved to paint.

And what were they talking about? Well, what do girls talk about when they meet again after the hols? They all seemed to have had a very good time, and each one had some amusing adventure to relate. At present the interest centred in Lizzie Johnson, who had spent her hols in Paris and had brought back with her the most thrilling frilly undies which she was eagerly displaying to her friends, to the obvious disapproval of Daisy Montgomery, who stood in the background making unfavourable comments in audible untertones.

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