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135-491: The Great Fortune is a novel by English writer Olivia Manning first published in 1960. It forms the opening part of a six-part novel series called Fortunes Of War . The Fortunes Of War series itself is split into two trilogies, The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy . The novels tell an unfolding story of how the Second World War impacts on the lives of a group of British expatriates. The Great Fortune covers

270-547: A jolie laide , possessing lovely hair, hands, eyes, and skin though an overlong nose, and fell in love at first sight. When he borrowed a half-crown from her on their first meeting and repaid it the next day, he knew they would marry. Manning was less certain of the relationship, but Smith quickly moved into her flat, proposing in bed a few weeks later. They were married at Marylebone Registry Office on 18 August 1939, with Stevie Smith and Louis MacNeice as witnesses. The bridegroom, unconventionally yet true to form, did not produce

405-441: A television serialisation of Fortunes of War starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh finally came to fruition in 1987, bringing her work to a wider audience. Greater Romania As a concept, its main goal is the creation of a nation-state which would incorporate all Romanian speakers . In 1920, after the incorporation of Transylvania , Bukovina , Bessarabia and parts of Banat , Crișana , and Maramureș ,

540-485: A British writer". Manning returned to London after the war and lived there until her death in 1980; she wrote poetry, short stories, novels, non-fiction, reviews, and drama for the British Broadcasting Corporation . Both Manning and her husband had affairs, but they never contemplated divorce. Her relationships with writers such as Stevie Smith and Iris Murdoch were difficult, as an insecure Manning

675-514: A brief stay with her still-grieving parents in heavily bombed Portsmouth, Manning moved into a London flat . Smith arrived in mid-1945 and found a job in the Features Department of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He was identified as a Communist spy by MI5 in 1947 and placed under surveillance. According to his file, Smith had been working to increase Soviet influence in Romania and

810-452: A committed supporter of organisations combating animal cruelty. Her love and interest in cats was illustrated in her book Extraordinary Cats , published in 1967. In December 1956, Manning published My Husband Cartwright , a series of twelve sketches about Smith that had originally appeared in Punch . It was not widely reviewed, and as usual, Manning was frustrated and annoyed. The book was to be

945-433: A difficult start, Smith adjusted and soon became a close friend of Slattery. Manning's adultery in some ways made it easier for Smith to justify his own frequent affairs, including his longstanding relationship with Diana Robson, who was to become his second wife. Manning never paid undue attention to his infidelities, usually responding, "you know what Reggie's like". The two never contemplated divorce, believing that marriage

1080-546: A fellow student described her as intellectual and aloof. In May 1928, she had a painting selected for an exhibition at Southsea , and was subsequently offered a one-woman show of her works. Manning seemed to be poised for a career as an artist, but she had meanwhile continued her interest in literature, and at the age of twenty determined instead to be a writer. Her artist's eye is apparent in her later intense descriptions of landscapes. Manning's first published works were three serialised detective novels, Rose of Rubies , Here

1215-519: A few unfavorable criticisms, and as usual, they ignited Manning's ire. Following the publication of the final volume of The Balkan Trilogy in 1965, Manning worked on her cat memoir and a collection of short stories, A Romantic Hero and Other Stories , both of which were published in 1967. Another novel, The Play Room (published as The Camperlea Girls in the US), appeared in 1969. The book of short stories and The Play Room both contained homosexual themes,

1350-509: A geopolitical reality after the First World War . Romania gained control over Bessarabia , Bukovina and Transylvania . The borders established by the treaties concluding the war did not change until 1940. The resulting state, often referred to as "România Mare" or, alternatively, as Romanian : România Întregită (roughly translated in English as "Romania Made Whole," or "Entire Romania"),

1485-448: A key concern for Romanian culture and politics. The Romanian national ideology in the first decades of the twentieth century was a typical example of ethnocentric nationalism. The concept of "Greater Romania" shows similarities to the idea of national state. The Romanian territorial claims were based on "primordial racial modalities" , the essential goal of them was to unify the biologically defined Romanians. The nation-building based on

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1620-571: A lack of formal schooling. At the age of 45, while visiting the port of Belfast , he met Olivia Morrow, a publican's daughter fourteen years his junior; they married less than a month later in December 1904, in the Presbyterian church in her home town of Bangor, County Down . Manning adored her womanising father, who entertained others by singing Gilbert and Sullivan and reciting poetry he had memorised during long sea voyages. In contrast, her mother

1755-862: A lasting mark on her work and personality. Manning was educated privately at a small dame school before moving to the north of Ireland in 1916, the first of several extended periods spent there while her father was at sea. In Bangor she attended Bangor Presbyterian School, and in Portsmouth Lyndon House School developing, as she recalled, "the usual Anglo-Irish sense of belonging nowhere". Schoolmates described her as shy and prone to tantrums; her tendency to tell boastful tall-tales about her family led to ostracism by her peers. Supported by her father, Manning read and wrote extensively, preferring novels, especially those by H. Rider Haggard . Her mother discouraged such pursuits, and confiscated material she thought unsuitable; when she found her daughter reading

1890-509: A lecturer at the New University of Ulster in Coleraine . The couple subsequently lived apart for long periods, as Manning rejected the idea of moving to Ireland. In 1974 Manning adapted two of Arnold Bennett 's works ( The Card and The Regent ) into an eight part BBC Radio play: Denry - The Adventures Of A Card . Graham Armitage portrayed the eponymous Denry with Ursula O'Leary as

2025-495: A malicious pair of snobs. In July 1939, Walter Allen introduced Manning to the charming Marxist R. D. "Reggie" Smith . Smith was a large, energetic man, possessed of a constant desire for the company of others. The son of a Manchester toolmaker, he had studied at Birmingham University , where he had been coached by the left-wing poet Louis MacNeice and founded the Birmingham Socialist Society. According to

2160-669: A novel, The Wind Changes , and saw it published by Jonathan Cape in April 1937. The novel, set in Dublin in June 1921 during the Irish War of Independence , revolved around a woman torn between an Irish patriot and an English writer with pro-Republican sympathies. It was well received, with one reviewer commenting that "the novel shows unusual promise". Soon after, Miles learnt that he had an inoperable brain tumour, and disappeared from Manning's life. Since

2295-567: A plane crash. The emotional upset this caused prevented her from writing novels for several years. The air raids became intolerable to Manning, and she soon moved back to Cairo, where in late 1941 she became press attaché at the United States Legation . In her spare time, she worked on Guests at the Marriage , an unpublished prototype for The Balkan Trilogy , as well as short stories and poetry, some of which she sent to Stevie Smith in

2430-436: A point of reference for nationalists , as well as a catalyst for various Romanian forces to achieve a single Romanian state. The Romanian revolution in 1848 already carried the seeds of the national dream of a unified and united Romania, though the "idea of unification" had been known from earlier works of Naum Ramniceanu (1802) and Ion Budai-Deleanu (1804). The concept owes its life to Dimitrie Brătianu , who introduced

2565-537: A precursor of her portrait of her husband in Fortunes of War , detailing comic episodes that highlighted Smith's character, including his gregarious nature and interest in social issues: "My husband Cartwright is a lover of his fellow-men. Lovers of their fellow-men can be maddening ... While lecturing abroad he suddenly conceived a resentment of 'sights' especially 'useless' sights, such as ruins or tombs. You might suppose that were it not for such distractions as Tiberias,

2700-441: A ring for the ceremony. A few days after the wedding, the couple received word that Smith had been recalled to Bucharest . They left within a matter of hours; Manning later wrote to Stevie Smith from Romania asking her to find out what had happened to their flat and to take care of her books while she was away. The couple travelled by train to Bucharest, arriving on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany. Between

2835-544: A similar way. In October 1941, Smith was offered a post as lecturer at Farouk University in Alexandria. The couple moved from Cairo to share a flat with fellow teacher Robert Liddell. The Germans regularly bombed the city, and the raids terrified Manning, who irritated Smith and Liddell by insisting that all three descend to the air raid shelter whenever the sirens wailed. Almost immediately after her arrival in Alexandria came devastating news of her brother Oliver's death in

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2970-467: A state of recoil". From Alexandria they went by train to Cairo , where they renewed contact with Adam Watson, who was now Second Secretary at the British Embassy. He invited them to stay at his Garden City flat that overlooked the embassy. Though nominally an independent country, Egypt had been effectively under British control since the late nineteenth century. With the outbreak of war, and under

3105-513: A stultifying mother. The reviews were generally favourable, but Manning was not satisfied. Perhaps annoyed at her depiction in the novel, Stevie Smith wrote what Manning described as a "bitchy review"; the two great friends barely spoke thereafter, despite Smith's efforts at a rapprochement. Eventually, Manning grudgingly forgave her: learning of Smith's final illness, she remarked, "Well, if she's really ill, we'll have to let bygones be bygones." Much time and focus were given to animals, especially

3240-588: A temporary home in the Atheni hotel where all the British journalists congregate in what is known as the English bar. They witness the arrival of the last remnants of the defeated Polish army, vanquished in the German invasion of Poland . In a piece of luck, Yakimov is hired as an assistant to work for a veteran journalist, Mcann, who has been wounded in the retreat and is desperate to get his story out. This enables Yakimov to live in

3375-403: A topic which interested Manning. The latter was a less than successful exploration of the lives and interests of adolescents, though the reviews were generally encouraging. A film version was proposed, and Ken Annakin asked her to write the script. The movie, with more explicit lesbian scenes than the book, was all but made before the money ran out; a second version, with a very different script,

3510-585: A train. They have just married, after a whirlwind romance over the summer vacation. They are travelling to Bucharest , where Guy has a job (paid for by the British Council ) at the English department of the University . On the train they first encounter Prince Yakimov, a once-wealthy English-educated White Russian émigré who is now nearly penniless and forced to live by scrounging. Once in Bucharest they set up

3645-469: A witty participant in London's literary scene; as in childhood she was given to making boastful inventions, such as claiming a family relationship to Marie Belloc Lowndes and that she had received a marriage proposal from Anthony Burgess the morning after his wife's death. Her insecurities also showed in other ways: she was very anxious about finances, and always alert for ways to make and save money. After

3780-512: A woman writer of war fiction and of the British Empire in decline. Her works are critical of war and racism, and colonialism and imperialism ; they examine themes of displacement and physical and emotional alienation. Olivia Manning was born in North End , Portsmouth on 2 March 1908. Her father, Oliver Manning, was a naval officer who rose from naval trainee to lieutenant commander despite

3915-579: Is Murder and The Black Scarab which appeared in the Portsmouth News beginning in 1929 under the pseudonym Jacob Morrow. Manning did not acknowledge these books until the 1960s; their publication dates might have given away her age, a secret she kept even from her husband. Between 1929 and 1935 she wrote about 20 short stories, including a ghost story that was the first work to be published under her own name, though using initials to obscure her gender. Manning also wrote two literary novels, neither of which

4050-564: Is commonly used in Romania, and it poses territorial claims over the region of Bessarabia. It is also used in Moldova. As of 2024 Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) supports the unification of Moldova and Romania . While S.O.S. Romania leader Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă proposed a law in 2023 for a project on the Romanian Parliament for the annexation by Romania of Northern Bukovina ,

4185-405: Is considered a triumph, but many Romanians wonder at the British ability to stage a cultural event like this during a time in which their country appears to be going to defeat in war. The play can be seen as an allegory for political events, with the beleaguered city of Troy as Britain and the invading Athenians led by the militaristic Achilles as the fascists. The book's title, The Great Fortune ,

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4320-449: Is forced to rent a room in an unfashionable bug-ridden suburban apartment. The head of the Drucker family is arrested on trumped-up charges, and the rest of his family flee. Harriet is shocked as she witnesses the extreme poverty that exists alongside the wealthy affluence of the capital. The suffering endured by the poor during the very severe Romanian winter is described. The novel follows

4455-737: Is taken from its final pages and refers to the potential unrealised economic wealth of Greater Romania . Olivia Manning Olivia Mary Manning CBE (2 March 1908 – 23 July 1980) was a British novelist, poet, writer, and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East. She often wrote from her personal experience, though her books also demonstrate strengths in imaginative writing. Her books are widely admired for her artistic eye and vivid descriptions of place. Manning's youth

4590-568: The Times Literary Supplement she scolded that "young men do not like women who read papers like that", and that Manning should focus on marketable job skills, such as typing. Indeed, when financial circumstances forced Manning to leave school at sixteen, she worked as a typist and spent some time as a junior in a beauty salon. A talented artist, she took evening classes at the Portsmouth Municipal School of Art , where

4725-606: The Iron Guard in Romania disconcerted and frightened Manning. The abdication of King Carol and the advance of the Germans in September 1940 increased her fears, and she repeatedly asked Smith "But where will the Jews go?" Just before German troops entered Romania on 7 October at the invitation of the new dictator Ion Antonescu , Manning flew to Greece, followed a week later by Smith. Manning

4860-612: The Palmers Green home that Smith shared with an eccentric aunt. According to a mutual friend, Manning found in Smith's home "an atmosphere of security and comfort which must have made her room in Oakley Street seem even chillier and more threadbare". The novelist and critic Walter Allen met Manning in 1937 and observed that she had a "devastating" wit "and was as formidable a young woman as any in London". Manning and Smith, he added, were

4995-465: The Russian Revolution . After declaring independence from Russia on 24 January 1918, the "Sfatul Țării" voted for union with Romania on 9 April 1918. Of the 138 deputies in the council, 86 voted for union, 3 against, 36 abstained (mostly the deputies representing minorities, 52% of the population at the time) and 13 were not present. The United Kingdom , France , Italy and Japan recognized

5130-755: The Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956. Manning also worked for the BBC; she wrote scripts for radio including adaptations of novels by George Eliot , Arnold Bennett and Ada Leverson . She completed her book on Stanley and Emin Pasha, titled The Remarkable Expedition in the UK and The Reluctant Rescue in the US, which was published in 1947, and subsequently reissued in 1985. The book received generally good reviews but remains comparatively unknown. In 1948, her book of short stories, Growing Up ,

5265-452: The Siamese cats of which Manning was especially fond. She was very concerned about the health and comfort of her pets, taking them on visits to friends, along with hot water bottles for them in case the temperature dropped. She frequently sacked vets – telling one "I do not pay you to tell me that there is nothing wrong with my animal" – and trying animal faith healers at times. She was also

5400-564: The (Romanian) unitary national state six and a half decades ago was a brilliant historic victory of the long heroic struggle of the masses for creating the Romanian nation and the coming true of the age old dream of all Romanians to live in unity within the borders of the same country, in one free and independent state. The fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and

5535-573: The 1930s. Bessarabia declared its sovereignty as the Moldavian Democratic Republic in 1917 by the newly formed "Council of the Country" (" Sfatul Țării "). The state was faced with the disorderly retreat through its territory of Russian troops from disbanded units. In January 1918, the "Sfatul Țării" called on Romanian troops to protect the province from the Bolsheviks who were spreading

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5670-697: The Balkan Trilogy"; in the event, it became the first novel in The Levant Trilogy , continuing the story of the Pringles in the Middle East. The first book proved "a long struggle" to write, in part because of Manning's lack of confidence in her powers of invention: the book juxtaposes the Desert War experiences of a young officer, Simon Boulderstone, with the securer lives of the Pringles and their circle. Manning, fascinated by sibling relationships, and remembering

5805-523: The British diplomatic legation. All seem relatively unconcerned by the war and the threat it poses. They are entertained by the Druckers, a family of Jewish bankers who enjoy extreme wealth, and whose eldest son Sacha is a student of Guy. The Pringles rent an underheated two-bedroom apartment in a block overlooking the Cotroceni Royal Palace just as winter begins. Yakimov's credit runs out and he

5940-437: The British intelligence organisation MI5 , Smith had been recruited as a communist spy by Anthony Blunt on a visit to Cambridge University in 1938. When he met Manning, Smith was on leave from his British Council position as a lecturer in Romania. He had diligently prepared himself for the introduction to Manning by reading her works, and felt that her book The Wind Changes showed "signs of genius". He described Manning as

6075-721: The Deputies of the Romanians of Transylvania, and supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Saxons of Transylvania . The Hungarians of Transylvania, about 32% at the time (including the Hungarian-speaking Jewish community), and the Germans of Banat did not elect deputies upon the dissolution of Austria-Hungary , since they were considered represented by the Budapest government of Hungary, nevertheless on 22 December 1918

6210-585: The French model of a unitary nation-state became an all time priority especially in the interwar and the Communist periods. The union of Michael the Brave , who ruled over the three principalities with Romanian population ( Wallachia , Transylvania and Moldavia ) for a short period of time, was viewed in later periods as the precursor of a modern Romania , a thesis which was argued by Nicolae Bălcescu . This theory became

6345-431: The Germans. Guy, a man at once admirable and unsatisfactory, and Harriet, a woman alternately proud and impatient, move from early passion to acceptance of difference. Manning described the books as long chapters of an autobiography, and early versions were written in the first person, though there was significant fictionalisation. While Manning had been 31 and Smith 25 at the outset of war, Manning's alter ego Harriet Pringle

6480-617: The Great has slept for centuries. In our moral energy and our valour lie the means of giving him back his birthright of a great and free Rumania from the Tisza to the Black Sea, and to prosper in peace in accordance with our customs and our hopes and dreams. (...) Part of the proclamation by King Ferdinand, 28 August 1916 Lucian Boia summarised the territorial extent of the nationalist dream as following: The concept of "Greater Romania" materialized as

6615-645: The Hungarian General Assembly in Cluj (Kolozsvár) reaffirmed the loyalty of Hungarians from Transylvania to Hungary. In the 1920 Treaty of Trianon , Hungary was forced to give up all claims over Transylvania and the treaty set the new borders between the two countries. In 1940, the Romanian state agreed to cede Bessarabia to the Soviet Union , as provided for by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between

6750-468: The Middle East throughout the war. Manning did not share her husband's political beliefs, but was quite aware that their phone was being tapped and feared that his open support for Communism would lead to him being sacked from the BBC. Smith was soon transferred away from Features to the less politically sensitive Drama department. The surveillance stopped when he resigned from the Communist Party after

6885-540: The Middle East. The final chapters describe the production of the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida by the University's English department in the spring of 1940. It is directed by Guy, who becomes completely focused on the work, ignoring the threatening nature of the war as it unfolds around him. Yakimov surprises everyone, including himself, with a great acting ability which restores his self-respect. The performance

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7020-453: The Nazis overran Eastern Europe. Her experiences formed the basis for her best-known work, the six novels making up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy , known collectively as Fortunes of War . Critics judged her overall output to be of uneven quality, but this series, published between 1960 and 1980, was described by Anthony Burgess as "the finest fictional record of the war produced by

7155-550: The Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the Grivița railroad workshops . In the mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture. French economic and political influence was predominant in the early 1920s but then Germany became more dominant, especially in

7290-459: The Romanian state reached its largest peacetime geographical extent ever (295,049 km ). Today, the concept serves as a guiding principle for the unification of Moldova and Romania . The idea is comparable to other similar conceptions such as the Greater Bulgaria , Megali Idea , Greater Yugoslavia , Greater Hungary and Greater Italy . The theme of national identity had been always

7425-673: The Romanian, German, and Polish deputies unanimously voted for union, the Ukrainian deputies (representing 38% of the population according to the 1910 Austrian census) and Jewish deputies did not attend the council. The unification was ratified in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye . On 1 December 1918, the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia proclaimed the union of Transylvania and other territories with Romania in Alba Iulia , adopted by

7560-701: The Soviet Union and Germany . It also lost Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region , which were not mentioned in the pact, to the Soviet Union. It lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary, through the Second Vienna Award , and the Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria by the Treaty of Craiova . In the course of World War II, Romania, which was allied with the Axis Powers , not only re-annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, but also took under administrative control lands to

7695-644: The Valley of the Kings or Hadrian's Villa, tourists abroad would occupy themselves solely in alleviating poverty." Between 1956 and 1964 Manning's main project was The Balkan Trilogy , a sequence of three novels based on her experiences during the Second World War; as usual she was supported and encouraged by Smith. The books describe the marriage of Harriet and Guy Pringle as they live and work in Romania and Greece, ending with their escape to Alexandria in 1941 just ahead of

7830-482: The accidental death of the young son of Sir Desmond and Lady Hooper. The incident was based on fact: Sir Walter and Lady Amy Smart's eight-year-old boy was killed when he picked up a stick bomb during a desert picnic in January 1943. Just as described in the novel, his grief-stricken parents had tried to feed the dead boy through a hole in his cheek. Manning had long been resentful at the Smarts' failure to include her and Smith in their artistic circle in Cairo. The scene

7965-496: The affair had been kept secret she had difficulty obtaining information about him, and could not afford to visit him in the Edinburgh hospital where he lay dying. She lost her job at Peter Jones, moved to a well-paid job at the Medici Society , but was sacked when she refused her boss's order to give up novel-writing in the evening so as to conserve her energy for the day job. Manning obtained other work assessing new novels for their potential as films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , but by

8100-654: The armed conflict in Moldova was due to the Romanian ethnic nationalism, in other words, "the attempt to create a unitary, ethnic state with power concentrated in the hands of ethnic nationalists in what was actually a multiethnic society." Furthermore, Bucharest's behavior toward Ukraine did not change until 1997 when Romanian politicians realized that resolving border disputes was a precondition for NATO membership. Present-day Romanian irredentists (such as members of PRM ) aim to take possession of territories of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia . These regions currently belong to Ukraine and Moldova. The Russian presence and

8235-424: The beautiful Countess of Chell. Manning was always a close observer of life, and gifted with a photographic memory. She told her friend Kay Dick that, "I write out of experience, I have no fantasy. I don't think anything I've experienced has ever been wasted. Her 1974 novel The Rain Forest showed off her creative skills in her portrayal of a fictional island in the Indian Ocean and its inhabitants. Set in 1953,

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8370-503: The capital, but her meeting with Miles made her more determined. She succeeded in obtaining a typing job at the department store Peter Jones , and, despite opposition from her mother, moved into a run-down bed-sit in Chelsea . Short of food and money, Manning spent long hours writing after work. Miles took Manning under his wing, dazzling her with dinners, literary conversation, and gossip, and providing unaccustomed support. A married man with two children, he told Manning that his wife

8505-422: The concept of "Greater Romania", instead they wanted only equality with the other nations in Transylvania. The concept became a political reality when, in 1881, the Romanian National Party of Transylvania gathered Romanians on a common political platform to fight together for Transylvania's autonomy. According to Livezeanu the creation of Greater Romania with "a unifying concept of nationhood" started to evolve in

8640-405: The concept of Greater Romania stood behind Romanian foreign policy toward Moldova therefore expressed concerns about possible developments on Dobruja . In 1992, the issue on unification of Moldova and Romania was negotiated between the Romanian and Moldovan governments and they wanted to achieve it by the end of the year. However, the "unionists" lost their dominance in Moldova in the middle of

8775-409: The contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded. Romanians! The war which for the last two years has been encircling our frontiers more and more closely has shaken the ancient foundations of Europe to their depths. It has brought the day which has been awaited for centuries by the national conscience, by the founders of the Romanian State, by those who united the principalities in

8910-601: The council's representative, C. F. A. Dundas , later immortalised as the ineffectual Colin Gracey in Fortunes of War . Manning's characters were often based on real people though she never drew precisely from life. Her mocking portrait of the British Council lecturer Professor Lord Pinkrose was loosely based on Lord Dunsany , sent to occupy the Byron Chair of English at Athens University in 1940. She also resented that Amy Smart , wife of Walter Smart and frequent patron of artists, poets, and writers in Cairo, paid so little attention to her and Smith; she later took revenge in

9045-581: The couple were overjoyed and Manning relaxed, becoming less critical of others, including her own mother, with whom she had long had a difficult relationship. Uncharacteristically, she rested, walked, painted and even knitted. In the seventh month the baby died in utero , and as was the practice at the time Manning was obliged to wait two difficult months to deliver her dead child. "I am like a walking cemetery", she sorrowfully repeated during this period. Grief-stricken, Manning became paranoid, constantly afraid that Smith would be assassinated. Smith decided that she

9180-400: The course of the historical events of 1939 and 1940 and how these successively affect the English community in Bucharest and Romanian society. These are: News of these events reaches the main characters by rumour, newspaper, German propaganda and via BBC radio. Harriet's friendship with Clarence deepens as Guy becomes absorbed in his university work. Guy's close friend David Boyd arrives from

9315-459: The death of her own brother, also examined the relationship between Simon and his elder brother, Hugo. She felt inadequate in her ability to write about soldiers and military scenes; initial reviewers agreed, finding her writing unconvincing and improbable, though subsequent reviewers have been considerably kinder. While some parts of the book were inventions, she also made use of real-life incidents. The opening chapter of The Danger Tree describes

9450-450: The east of Dniester (parts of recently formed Moldavian SSR , and of Odessa and Vinnytsia oblasts of Ukrainian SSR ), creating Transnistria Governorate . Despite clear Ukrainian majority in the governorate's ethnic composition, demonstrated by a census conducted in December 1941 , Romanian government hoped to annex it eventually as a "compensation" for Northern Transylvania lost to Hungary . These territories were lost again when

9585-419: The economic downturn accompanying it led to a resurgence of nationalism in the region. Romania and Moldova, state comprising the bulk of Bessarabia which had become independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, confronted with their eastern neighbor, Ukraine . Bucharest and Chișinău announced territorial claims on Ukrainian lands (on parts of Chernivtsi and Odessa regions). Bulgaria surmised that

9720-576: The effects of the hundred years of political separation. Due to the inability of the government to solve the problems of the Transylvanian Romanians' integration and the effects of the worldwide and national economic depression , "the population gradually lost its faith in the democratic conception of Greater Romania". The Great Depression in Romania , which started in 1929, destabilised the country. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances,

9855-627: The end of her life. The Danger Tree was a considerable critical success, and though Manning was disappointed yet again that her novel was not shortlisted for the Booker prize, The Yorkshire Post selected it as their Best Novel of 1977. This award followed her appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1976 Birthday Honours . With Field Marshal Montgomery 's Memoirs as her guide, Manning found battle scenes easier to write in

9990-471: The end of the voyage, but Manning had the last word: when Mrs. Edwards later opened her hatbox she found that Manning had crushed the hats with a chamberpot. Arriving in Alexandria, the refugees gratefully devoured the food provided by the British military, but learned that the swastika was now flying over the Acropolis. Manning's first impressions of Egypt were of squalor and unreality: "For weeks we lived in

10125-522: The expatriate community, focussing instead on her writing. Nevertheless, this was a happy time for Manning; "Romania is abroad," said Manning, "but Greece is home". Manning had her admirers, including Terence Spencer, a British Council lecturer who acted as her companion while Smith was busy with other activities – he later appeared as the character Charles Warden in Friends and Heroes , the third book of The Balkan Trilogy . Soon after their arrival, Greece entered

10260-530: The final novel in The Levant Trilogy , The Sum of Things , in which Harriet agrees to sail home to the UK, but having said goodbye to Guy, changes her mind. The novel describes Harriet's travels in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, observes Guy's supposed widowerhood in Cairo after he hears of the sinking of Harriet's ship, and follows Simon Boulderstone's injury during the battle of El Alamein and recovery. The Sum of Things

10395-549: The first year of the war from September 1939 to June 1940, and is set in Romania . It is semi-autobiographical , mirroring the life of Olivia Manning during those years, but uses fictional characters. The work was praised by critics for its perception and for an adept and scrupulous attention to detail, seen in its vivid descriptions of people, places, and the natural world. The novel opens with an English couple, Guy and Harriet Pringle, travelling through Yugoslavia towards Romania on

10530-482: The heads of the Romanian Communist Party, as writing in his memo of April 1944: "the two parts of Transylvania should be reunited as an independent state." The Romanian Communist politicians' behavior were depicted as nationalist, and this circumstance brought about the concept of National Communism , which amalgamated elements of Stalinism and Fascism . According to Trond Gilberg the regime needed

10665-424: The hopes of getting them published. Over the years, Stevie had brooded over Manning's desertion of their friendship to marry Reggie Smith, and around this time Stevie's jealousy took an overt form; in 1942 she wrote a poem entitled "Murder", in which a man stands beside a grave and admits, "My hand brought Reggie Smith to this strait bed – / Well, fare his soul well, fear not I the dead". In subsequent reprintings,

10800-580: The hotel in great style, where he befriends the Pringles. Guy shows Harriet the sights of Bucharest, especially the cafes and the Cismigiu Park . She meets Sophie – a half-Jewish student of Guy, seeking the security of a passport – whom Harriet senses is a rival for Guy's affections. Harriet meets Professor Inchcape and two other members of the University English department, Clarence Lawson and diplomat Foxy Leverat. She also meets some junior members of

10935-645: The incident or to the couple in future volumes. Manning ignored both requests. She based the character of Aidan Pratt on the actor, writer, and poet Stephen Haggard , whom she had known in Jerusalem. Like Pratt, Haggard committed suicide on a train from Cairo to Palestine, but in Haggard's case it followed the end of a relationship with a beautiful Egyptian woman, rather than unrequited homosexual love. After years of complaints about her publisher Heinemann, Manning moved to Weidenfeld & Nicolson , and remained with them until

11070-473: The incorporation of Bessarabia through the Treaty of Paris . The United States and the Soviet Union however refused to do so, the latter maintaining a claim to the territory for the whole interwar period. Furthermore, Japan failed to ratify the treaty, which therefore never entered into force. In Bukovina , after being occupied by the Romanian Army, a National Council voted for union with Romania. While

11205-685: The late 1910s. World War I played a crucial part in the development of Romanian national consciousness. The Treaty of Bucharest (1916) was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 ( Old Style )/17 ( New Style ) August 1916 in Bucharest . The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary . The signatories bound themselves to keep secret

11340-522: The name "Reggie Smith" was replaced by "Filmer Smith", veiling the allusion, but Manning found out and was furious. During her time in Egypt, Manning became a contributor to two Middle East-based literary magazines, "Desert Poets" and "Personal Landscapes" , founded by Bernard Spencer , Lawrence Durrell and Robin Fedden . The last sought to explore the "personal landscapes" of writers experiencing exile during

11475-456: The novel's central characters are a British couple; the book examines their personal experiences and tragedies against the background of a violent end to colonial British rule. The book is one of Manning's lesser-known books, and she was disappointed that it was not shortlisted for the Booker prize . Early in 1975 Manning began The Danger Tree , which for a time she described as "The Fourth Part of

11610-509: The novel's characters, may have been based. Manning supplemented her book writing by reviewing for The Spectator , The Sunday Times , The Observer , Punch and others, as well as making occasional contributions to the Palestine Post . Her fourth novel, A Different Face , was published in 1953. Set in a drab city based on Manning's hometown of Portsmouth, it chronicled the main character's attempts to leave his birthplace. The book

11745-753: The problem of "Soviet annexed Bessarabia" . The Romanian organizations ignored the result of the Moldovan referendum on independence because the referendum did not ask Romanians in Romania. Romanian politicians blamed Russia and the Moldovan regime that unification became unreal. According to Edward Ozhiganov (Head of the Division for Ethnopolitical Research at the Analytical Center of the Federation Council in Russia),

11880-434: The publisher remembered that she was "never an easy author to handle". A friend gave her the nickname "Olivia Moaning", which was picked up by others, much to Manning's annoyance. In 1955 Manning published The Doves of Venus , which drew on her experiences in London in the 1930s; the two friends, Ellie Parsons and Nancy Claypole, bore similarities to Manning and Stevie Smith. In the book, an isolated Ellie seeks to escape

12015-486: The rise of fascist and totalitarian power within ostensibly neutral Romania, while war threatened from without, driving thousands of refugees within its borders. The Smiths initially rented a flat, but later moved in with the diplomat Adam Watson , who was working with the British Legation. Those who knew Manning at the time described her as a shy, provincial girl who had little experience with other cultures. She

12150-506: The role of "spiritual victimization" , turning it into "spiritual police ", was a radical and challenging task for the Romanian intellectuals because they had to entirely revise the national identity and the destiny of the Romanian nation. In accordance with this view, Livezeanu states that the Great Union created a "deeply fragmented" interwar Romania where the determination of national identity met with great difficulties mainly because of

12285-492: The second volume of the trilogy, The Battle Lost and Won . After a slow start, Manning wrote with certainty and speed; the book was completed in a record seven months and published in 1978. The book follows the Pringles as Rommel and the Afrika Korps approach Alexandria, where Guy is teaching. Egypt remains a place of privilege and sexual exchange for the non-combatants and the Pringles' marriage slowly disintegrates. Manning

12420-526: The series of publications with School for Love , published in 1951. The novel concerned a boy growing up in Palestine during the Second World War. With its publication, Smith, on whom Manning relied heavily for literary judgment, help, and support, boasted that "My Olivia is what might be called an established author". The novel was generally well-received, but faced the possibility of a libel suit from Clarissa Graves , sister of Robert on whom Miss Bohun, one of

12555-482: The strongly nationalist attitude because of the social, economic and political challenges. After the retreat of the Soviet troops from Romania in 1958, the national ideology was reborn, however it raises questions about its reconcilability with internationalist communism . Nicolae Ceaușescu fancied the idea that the creation of Greater Romania was the fruit of the end of the nation-formation process. The setting up of

12690-536: The tense political situation in Moldova also inflame their demands. Nevertheless, radicals make territorial demands on Hungary too. The Greater Romania Party (Partidul România Mare – PRM) is an emblematic representative of the aforesaid concept, though the conception is fostered also by other right-wing groups (e.g. the organisation of the New Right – Noua Dreaptă ). Today, the phrase " Bessarabia, Romanian land " ( Basarabia, pământ românesc , with several variations)

12825-613: The term "Greater Romania" in 1852. The first step in unifying Romanians was to establish the United Principalities by uniting Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859, which became known as Romania since the 1866 Constitution and turned into a Kingdom in 1881, after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire . However, before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise , the elite of the Transylvanian Romanians did not support

12960-596: The terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 , the country was under virtual occupation by the British. At this stage in the war, the Germans were advancing apparently unstoppably across the desert towards Egypt, and Cairo was rife with rumours and alarms. Manning was jittery and fearful. She was constantly anxious about illness and was indeed frequently unwell. Concerned, Smith suggested that it might be best if she returned to England, but she retorted "Wherever we go, we go together. If we return home, we both go. I won't have

13095-640: The three dangerous days of the passage to Alexandria the passengers subsisted on oranges and wine. On board with the Smiths were the novelist Robert Liddell , the Welsh poet Harold Edwards, and their wives– the Smiths shared a cramped cabin with the Edwardses. Mrs. Edwards had brought with her a hat box full of expensive Parisian hats, which Manning kept placing in the passageway outside the cabin, and from whence Mrs. Edwards kept returning it. The two were not on speaking terms by

13230-561: The tide of the war turned. After the war, Romania regained the Transylvanian territories lost to Hungary, but not territory lost to Bulgaria or the Soviet Union. In 1948 a treaty between the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied Communist Romania also provided for the transfer of four uninhabited islands to the Soviet Union, three in the Danube Delta and Snake Island in the Black Sea . After

13365-440: The time she had saved sufficient money for a trip to Edinburgh, Miles was too ill to see her. He died in December 1937. Miles did not normally introduce his literary friends to each other, but before his death, he had been forced by circumstance to introduce Manning to the poet Stevie Smith . The two developed an immediate rapport and enjoyed exploring London's backstreets, with regular outings to museums, cinema, and visits to

13500-587: The two world wars, Romania had looked to France to guarantee its security against German territorial aspirations. The impact of the Munich Agreement (1938), the German–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939), and the Fall of France (1940) increased German influence and control over the country, and included demands that Romania cede territory and resources. The couple's time in Bucharest coincided with

13635-533: The war against the Axis. In spite of early successes against invading Italian forces, by April 1941 the country was at risk of invasion from the Germans; in a later poem Manning recalled the "horror and terror of defeat" of a people she had grown to love. The British Council advised its staff to evacuate, and on 18 April Manning and Smith left Piraeus for Egypt on the Erebus , the last civilian ship to leave Greece. For

13770-450: The war both she and Smith were unfaithful. At parties, Smith would regularly ask other women if they were interested in extramarital encounters, while Manning claimed to have had affairs with both William Gerhardie and Henry Green , and engaged in an unrequited pursuit of her lodger, Tony Richardson. Jerry Slattery, her doctor, became her long-term lover; her affair came as a shock to Smith, who felt he must have disappointed his wife. After

13905-468: The war of independence, by those responsible for the national renaissance. It is the day of the union of all branches of our nation. Today we are able to complete the task of our forefathers and to establish forever that which Michael the Great was only able to establish for a moment, namely, a Romanian union on both slopes of the Carpathians. For us the mountains and plains of Bukowina, where Stephen

14040-538: The war separating us. End of story." Her father had made her a firm believer in the British Empire and the benefits it had brought the world, and Manning was a patriotic Briton, confident of ultimate Allied success. In Egypt, she confronted the fact that British occupation had never been popular. Smith quickly discovered the Anglo-Egyptian Union in Zamalek , where he drank and talked politics and poetry. As usual, he

14175-502: The war, the concept was interpreted as "obsolete" because of the Romanian defeat. However, even the Communist politicians between 1944 and 1947 plainly supported the re-establishment of Greater Romania. Gheorghe Apostol 's reminiscence strengthens the view for the nationalist argument of the Communists at the negotiations with Stalin about the future of Northern Transylvania. In contrast with this view, Romsics quotes Valter Roman , one of

14310-447: The war. In her novels, Manning described Bucharest as being on the margins of European civilisation, "a strange, half-Oriental capital" that was "primitive, bug-ridden and brutal", whose citizens were peasants, whatever their wealth or status. Manning spent her days writing; her main project was a book about Henry Morton Stanley and his search for Emin Pasha , but she also maintained an intimate correspondence with Stevie Smith, which

14445-454: The war. The founders, like Manning, maintained a strong attachment to Greece rather than an artistic and intellectual engagement with Egypt. In remembering the departure from Greece Manning wrote "We faced the sea / Knowing until the day of our return we would be / Exiles from a country not our own." During their time in Egypt and Palestine Manning and her husband maintained close links with refugee Greek writers, including translating and editing

14580-626: The work of George Seferis and Elie Papadimitriou . Manning described her impressions of the Cairo poetry scene in "Poets in Exile" in Cyril Connolly 's magazine Horizon . She defended the writers from the claim of a London reviewer that they were "out of touch", suggesting that their work was strengthened by their access to other cultures, languages and writers. Her review was much critiqued by those featured, including Durrell, who objected to Spencer's poetry being praised at his expense. In 1942 Smith

14715-429: The year. Bucharest admitted the existence of the two Romanian states (Romania and Moldova) and defined priorities in reference to this matter: "the creation of a common cultural space; the creation of an economically integrated zone; and gradual political integration" . The Moldovan Snegur government became more pragmatic and realized that the nationalist propaganda from Bucharest did not help their aims especially on

14850-446: The younger Murdoch's greater success. Manning knew that she was spiteful, but could not help herself, frequently critiquing writer friends to others. She consistently praised and admired Ivy Compton-Burnett to whom she had been introduced in 1945, and whose friendship she greatly valued. She complained about her publisher Heinemann and her lack of recognition from her peers: Anthony Powell called her "the world's worst grumbler", and

14985-514: Was a lifelong commitment. Manning's first post- war novel , Artist Among the Missing , an evocative account of life in the Middle East, was published in 1949 and received mixed reviews. She worked on an Irish travel book, The Dreaming Shore , which drew on her Anglo-Irish upbringing, but proved "a millstone" as it required multiple expensive journeys to Ireland. The book was notable for her view that Ireland would one day be united. Manning continued

15120-496: Was a mere 21, and her husband a year older. Manning was a writer by profession, while her creation was not. The first book in the trilogy, The Great Fortune , received mixed reviews, but subsequent volumes, The Spoilt City and Friends and Heroes were generally well-received; Anthony Burgess announced that Manning was "among the most accomplished of our women novelists" and comparisons were made to Lawrence Durrell , Graham Greene , Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell . There were

15255-473: Was accepted for publication. Her second manuscript sufficiently impressed Edward Garnett , a literary editor at Jonathan Cape , that he asked his assistant Hamish Miles to write her a note of encouragement. Miles, a well-connected literary adviser and translator in his late thirties, invited Manning to visit if she were ever in London. Manning, feeling stifled in Portsmouth, had already made efforts to move to

15390-419: Was also developed but came to nothing. "Everything fizzled out", she said. "I wasted a lot of time and that is something which you cannot afford to do when you are sixty"; in keeping with her obfuscations about her age, she was actually sixty-two. The 1970s brought a number of changes to the household: the couple moved to a smaller apartment following Smith's early retirement from the BBC and 1972 appointment as

15525-470: Was an invalid and no longer able to tolerate sex; they soon became lovers. Manning later recalled that "sex for both of them was the motivating charm of life". A case of mistaken identity involving an artist with a similar name led Manning to a better-paid job antiquing furniture, at which she worked for more than two years, still writing in her spare time. She recalled this as "one of the happiest seasons" of her life. With Miles' encouragement she completed

15660-633: Was appointed as Controller of English and Arabic Programming at the Palestine Broadcasting Service in Jerusalem ; the job was to begin later but in early July, with the German troops rapidly advancing on Egypt, he persuaded Manning to go ahead to Jerusalem to "prepare the way". The couple were to spend three years in Jerusalem. On arrival, Manning approached the Jerusalem Post for a job, and

15795-434: Was bossy and domineering, with a "mind as rigid as cast-iron", and there were constant marital disputes. The initially warm relationship between mother and daughter became strained after the birth of Manning's brother Oliver in 1913; delicate and frequently ill, he was the centre of his mother's attention, much to the displeasure of Manning, who made several childish attempts to harm him. This unhappy, insecure childhood left

15930-399: Was both dazzled and appalled by Romania. The café society , with its wit and gossip, appealed to her, but she was repelled by the peasantry and the aggressive, often mutilated, beggars. Her Romanian experiences were captured in the first two volumes of The Balkan Trilogy ( The Great Fortune and The Spoilt City ), considered one of the most important literary treatments of Romania during

16065-469: Was considered in poor taste even by Manning's friends, who were also outraged that the quiet and faithful Lady Smart was associated with Manning's very different Lady Hooper. Though both Sir Walter and his wife had died by the time of publication, Manning's publisher received a solicitor's letter written on behalf of the Smart family, objecting to the scene and requiring that there should be no further reference to

16200-400: Was deeply affected by the sudden death in 1977 of Jerry Slattery, her lover and confidant for more than a quarter of a century. Manning's last years were also made difficult by physical deterioration; arthritis increasingly affected her, leading to hip replacements in 1976 and in 1979 and she suffered poor health related to amoebic dysentery caught in the Middle East. Manning began work on

16335-490: Was divided between Portsmouth and Ireland, giving her what she described as "the usual Anglo-Irish sense of belonging nowhere". She attended art school and moved to London, where her first serious novel, The Wind Changes, was published in 1937. In August 1939 she married R. D. Smith ("Reggie"), a British Council lecturer posted in Bucharest , Romania, and subsequently lived in Greece, Egypt, and British Mandatory Palestine as

16470-756: Was envious of their greater success. Her constant grumbling about all manner of subjects is reflected in her nickname, "Olivia Moaning", but Smith never wavered in his role as his wife's principal supporter and encourager, confident that her talent would ultimately be recognised. As she had feared, real fame only came after her death in 1980, when an adaptation of Fortunes of War was televised in 1987. Manning's books have received limited critical attention; as during her life, opinions are divided, particularly about her characterisation and portrayal of other cultures. Her works tend to minimise issues of gender and are not easily classified as feminist literature. Nevertheless, recent scholarship has highlighted Manning's importance as

16605-407: Was full of Bloomsbury gossip and intrigue. She undertook a dangerous journalistic assignment to interview the former Romanian Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu in Cluj , Transylvania , at the time full of German troops, and soon to be transferred by Romania to Hungary as part of the Second Vienna Award of August 1940, imposed by the Germans and Italians. Like many of her experiences, the interview

16740-461: Was having a nervous breakdown and in October 1944 accompanied her to Cyprus for a month's holiday. Returning to Jerusalem, she was still far from well, and the poet Louis Lawler noticed the discontent of this "strange and difficult woman" and Smith's "wonderfully patient" behaviour, despite Manning calling her husband by his last name throughout the period. Manning never fully recovered from her loss and

16875-424: Was not well-reviewed, and as was frequently the case, Manning felt slighted, feeling that she did not get the reviews she deserved. Neurotic self-doubt and perfectionism made her difficult and easily offended, and she was very aware of younger writers outstripping her. Such an author was Iris Murdoch , with whom Manning shared an interest in flying saucers and an uneasy friendship that was tinged with jealousy at

17010-661: Was precisely how Manning had imagined Guy Pringle's reaction to Harriet's supposed death in The Sum of Things . Manning was cremated and her ashes buried at Billingham Manor on the Isle of Wight. Manning had long complained about the lack of recognition she had received as a writer and was not consoled when her husband and friends responded that her talent would be recognised, and her works read for years to come. "I want to be really famous now, Now ", she retorted. As it happened, her renown and readership developed substantially after her death;

17145-480: Was published by Heinemann , with the title story a fictionalised account of her affair with Hamish Miles. Manning was to remain with the publisher until 1974. After living in a series of rented flats, in 1951 the couple moved to a house in St. John's Wood , where they sublet rooms to lodgers such as the actors Julian Mitchell and Tony Richardson . Fuelled by plenty of gin and tonic to cover her shyness, Manning could be

17280-649: Was published posthumously, for on 4 July 1980 Manning suffered a severe stroke while visiting friends in the Isle of Wight . She died in hospital in Ryde on 23 July; somewhat typically, Smith, having been recalled from Ireland, was not present when she died. He could not bear to see her "fade away" and had gone to London to keep himself busy. Manning had long predicted that the frequently tardy Smith would be late for her funeral, and he almost was. His mourning period, characterised by abrupt transitions from weeping to almost hysterical mirth,

17415-688: Was rarely to talk or write of it. She was unable to have further children and in the future directed her maternal feelings towards animals, especially cats. During her time in the Middle East Manning had picked up amoebic dysentery , which led to several admissions to hospitals in Cairo and Palestine. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, her state of health led the couple to decide that Manning should return to Britain earlier than Smith. They travelled to Suez together, whence she sailed for home alone. After

17550-405: Was reticent and uncomfortable in social settings and remained in the background. She acted, in her own words, as a "camp-follower", trailing after Smith as he went from bar to bar, often choosing to go home early and alone. While Manning remained faithful to Smith during the war, their friend Ivor Porter was to report that Smith had numerous affairs. The approaching war and rise of fascism and

17685-473: Was seen as the 'true', whole Romanian state, or, as Tom Gallagher states, the " Holy Grail of Romanian nationalism". Its constitution, proclaimed in 1923, "largely ignored the new ethnic and cultural realities". The Romanian ideology changed due to the demographic, cultural and social alterations, however the nationalist desire for a homogeneous Romanian state conflicted with the multiethnic, multicultural truth of Greater Romania. The ideological rewriting of

17820-534: Was soon appointed a reviewer. Between 1943 and 1944 she served as press assistant at Jerusalem's Public Information office, and then moved to the same position at the British Council office in Jerusalem. Manning continued to work on her book about Stanley and Emin Pasha, and took advantage of army drivers who were willing to give lifts to civilians; she visited Palestine, Petra and Damascus , gathering material for future works. In 1944, Manning became pregnant;

17955-491: Was subject to anxieties bordering on paranoia throughout her life. She had good reason to be concerned about Smith, who travelled from Romania to Greece on the German Lufthansa airline – Lufthansa planes were sometimes diverted to Axis countries. He arrived safely, bringing a rucksack, a suitcase full of books, but no appropriate clothes for work. Smith relaunched his hectic social life, but his wife interacted little with

18090-443: Was to be incorporated into a future work; others included her impromptu baptism of Smith with cold tea because she feared being separated from him after death, and Smith's production of a Shakespeare play, in which she was promised a prime role that was given to another. Smith was relentlessly gregarious, and throughout his life, his warmth, wit, and friendliness earned him many friends and drinking companions. In contrast, Manning

18225-451: Was well liked, and according to Lawrence Durrell often had a string of disreputable friends with him. Manning was much less popular. Durrell described her as a "hook-nosed condor", whose critical manner was unappreciated by many who knew her. Manning was incensed that the British Council did not immediately find a job for Smith, whom she considered one of their most brilliant teachers. She took her revenge by writing scurrilous verse about

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