Author Description

Charles Powys's eleven children form one of the most remarkable literary families of modern times. Three have won enduring fame: John Cowper Powys, author of Wolf Solent, Weymouth Sands and A Glastonbury Romance; Theodore Francis Powys, author of Unclay, Kindness in a Corner and Mr. Weston's Good Wine; and Llewelyn Powys, author of Dorset Essays, Somerset Essays and Skin for Skin. In the Brothers Powys Graves has written a survey of their lives which not only revises Malcolm Elwin’s earlier portrait of Llewelyn but also provides what are likely to be definitive portraits of John and Theodore, for whom no full-scale biographies exist. There are memorable descriptions of the melancholic and reclusive Theodore in his Dorset retreat; of the tubercular but irrepressible Llewelyn, with his advocacy of sexual freedom and his marriage complicated by a succession of mistresses; and of John, who survived an unhappy marriage and long periods of near-madness to find contentment at last with his chosen companion in a remote village in North Wales.