Friendship remembered
Antony Barlow reflects on the past, friendship and some links in a chain
In the course of cataloguing some books I came across one that my maternal grandmother had given to my mother and that she, in turn, had given to me. It was published in the years leading up to the second world war and recounted the life of Antony Bulwer-Lytton, viscount Knebworth, who had died in 1933, tragically, in a flying accident at the age of only twenty-nine. He was, by all accounts, a remarkable person, endowed with all the graces of looks, intelligence, charm and ability. The historian Arthur Bryant wrote at the time that ‘had he lived, he would surely have given to the country gifts of leadership and imagination together with selfless service, which none who knew him could doubt for a moment’. The book was written by his father, Victor Bulwer-Lytton, the earl of Lytton, who used Antony’s letters written home from school and university along with the memories of his many friends.
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