{"product_id":"the-crichel-boys-9781472132482","title":"The Crichel Boys","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1945, Eddy Sackville-West, Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Eardley Knollys - writers for the \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e and a National Trust administrator - purchased Long Crichel House, an old rectory with no electricity and an inadequate water supply. In this improbable place, the last English literary salon began. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQuieter and less formal than the famed London literary salons, Long Crichel became an idiosyncratic experiment in communal living. Sackville-West, Shawe-Taylor and Knollys - later joined by the literary critic Raymond Mortimer - became members of one another''s surrogate families and their companionship became a stimulus for writing, for them and their guests. Long Crichel''s visitors'' book reveals a \u003ci\u003eWho''s Who\u003c\/i\u003e of the arts in post-war Britain - Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Laurie Lee, Cyril Connolly, Somerset Maugham, E.M. Forster, Cecil Beaton, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson - who were attracted by the good food, generous quantities of drink and exce\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFascinating -- Laura Freeman * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eVery entertaining . . . the preservation of old houses, a cause with which many of the leading characters were involved one way or another, is skilfully used as a running theme in a book that, with a fine balance between nostalgia and clear-sightedness, commemorates a privileged world long since vanished. -- Peter Parker * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eHighly evocative . . . a portrait of an enchanted world -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eThe Crichel boys . . . left behind merely a memory of charm, kindness and generosity, to which Fenwick pays a tender tribute * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA rich, luscious account of a postwar Britain that often gets lost * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFenwick, it must be said, is very much at home in this somewhat rarefied milieu, writes perceptively about the quartet's\u003cbr\u003eachievements and is sensitive to some of the problems caused by having four neurotic personalities intermittently at large under a single roof\u003c\/p\u003e -- D. J. Taylor * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003eAbsorbing new history -- Alexander Larman * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eFenwick gives us some fascinating vignettes of the often downplayed cultural life of post-war Britain * The Lady *","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739381543255,"sku":"9781472132482","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781472132482.jpg?v=1720052077","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-crichel-boys-9781472132482","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}