Stephen Tennant: Difference between revisions
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When he was nineteen, Tennant became the lover of the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]]. Prior to this he had proposed to a dear friend of his, Elizabeth Bowen, but had been rejected. (Hoare relates how Tennant proposed to Bowen to bring his Nanny on their honeymoon.) His relationship with Sassoon, however, was to be his most important: it lasted some 4 years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it. Sassoon was reportedly depressed afterwards for 3 months, until he got into a short-lived and unhappy marriage. |
When he was nineteen, Tennant became the lover of the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]]. Prior to this he had proposed to a dear friend of his, Elizabeth Bowen, but had been rejected. (Hoare relates how Tennant proposed to Bowen to bring his Nanny on their honeymoon.) His relationship with Sassoon, however, was to be his most important: it lasted some 4 years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it. Sassoon was reportedly depressed afterwards for 3 months, until he got into a short-lived and unhappy marriage. |
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For most of his life, Tennant tried to start or finish a novel - "Lascar". It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at his family [[manor]] at [[Wilsford, Wiltshire]]. Though undoubtedly idle, he was not that lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and struck up many new friendships, despite his later reputation as a recluse. This became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to [[V. S. Naipaul]] who immortalised Tennant in his novel, The Enigma of Arrival. Tennant died in 1987, far |
For most of his life, Tennant tried to start or finish a novel - "Lascar". It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at his family [[manor]] at [[Wilsford, Wiltshire]]. Though undoubtedly idle, he was not that lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and struck up many new friendships, despite his later reputation as a recluse. This became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to [[V. S. Naipaul]] who immortalised Tennant in his novel, The Enigma of Arrival. Tennant died in 1987, far outliving most of his contemporaries. |
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Revision as of 21:07, 28 May 2005
Stephen Tennant (1906-1987) was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle. It has been said that he spent most of his life in bed.
The Honourable Stephen Tennant was born in England, the youngest son of a Scots peer, Lord Glenconner, and the former Pamela Wyndham, one of The Souls. His mother was also a cousin of Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945), Oscar Wilde's lover and a sonneteer. On his father's death, Tennant's mother married Lord Grey, a fellow bird-lover. Tennant's eldest brother was Edward - "Bim" - who was killed in the First World War.
During the twenties and thirties, Tennant was an important member - the "Brightest", it is said - of the "Bright Young Things". His friends included Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Lady Diana Manners and the Mitford girls. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's novel, Love in a Cold Climate; and of Lord Sebastian Flyte in Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and Hon. Miles Malpractice is some of his other novels.
When he was nineteen, Tennant became the lover of the poet Siegfried Sassoon. Prior to this he had proposed to a dear friend of his, Elizabeth Bowen, but had been rejected. (Hoare relates how Tennant proposed to Bowen to bring his Nanny on their honeymoon.) His relationship with Sassoon, however, was to be his most important: it lasted some 4 years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it. Sassoon was reportedly depressed afterwards for 3 months, until he got into a short-lived and unhappy marriage.
For most of his life, Tennant tried to start or finish a novel - "Lascar". It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at his family manor at Wilsford, Wiltshire. Though undoubtedly idle, he was not that lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and struck up many new friendships, despite his later reputation as a recluse. This became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to V. S. Naipaul who immortalised Tennant in his novel, The Enigma of Arrival. Tennant died in 1987, far outliving most of his contemporaries.
Books
- Phillip Hoare - Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant (1992)
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