The Girls of Radcliff Hall

[Lord Berners]

A reprint of Lord Berners' roman a clef, featuring many of the Faringdon circle. The Girls of Radcliff Hall was a direct parody of Radclyffe Hall's banned lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness, as well as being a spoof of the many school girl stories popular at the time. Lord Berners' characters are thinly disguised versions of his friends and set, and the book is a flawed but insightful record of the often complex relationships within his homosexual circle. Cyril Connelly's copy identifies figures inspired by Lord Berners, Cecil Beaton, Peter Watson, Oliver Messel, David Herbert, Robert Heber-Percy, Tchelitchew, Christian Berard, Doris Castlerosse and others. Despite publishing the book under the pseudonym of Adela Quebec, it was fairly obvious to those who knew Berners who the book was penned by and whom it was about. The book was frequently destroyed by those featured and copies are scarce. This welcome reprint brings the text to new audiences and benefits from the editor's introduction and postscript.



Lord Berners. Edited by John Byrne. Montcalm & The Cygnet Press. London. 2000. Reprint. Limited to 750 copies. First published in c.1934. Hardback; green cloth-backed patterned paper boards, dust jacket. viii, 102 pages. 2 illustrations. English. 220 x 145mm. 0.35kg. 9780907435136. Near fine, in near fine dust jacket; slight browning to spine, very slight knock to front lower forecorner.