Bryan Walter Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne (27 October 1905 – 6 July 1992), was a British writer, poet, socialite, and heir to part of the Guinness family brewing fortune. He was vice-chairman of Guinness plc and authored several works of poetry and novels.
As an heir to the Guinness family brewing fortune and a handsome, charming young man, Guinness was considered an eligible bachelor. One of London's "Bright young things", he was an organiser of the 1929 "Bruno Hat" hoax art exhibition held at his home in London.[2]
The couple became leaders of the London artistic and social scene and were dedicatees of Evelyn Waugh's second novel Vile Bodies. However, they divorced in 1933 after Diana deserted Guinness for British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
In 1931, Guinness bought Biddesden House – an 18th-century country house in Wiltshire, near Ludgershall village and the Hampshire town of Andover – together with about 200 acres (81 ha). In 1990, he and his family owned about 600 acres in Ludgershall parish, including Biddesden Farm.[3]
Guinness remarried in 1936 to Elisabeth Nelson (1912–1999), daughter of Thomas Arthur Nelson, of the Nelson publishing family, with whom he had nine children:
Hon. Rosaleen Elisabeth Guinness (born 7 September 1937)
Hon. Diarmid Edward Guinness (23 September 1938 – 15 August 1977)
Hon. Fiona Evelyn Guinness (born 26 June 1940)
Hon. Dr. Finn Benjamin Guinness (born 26 August 1945)
Hon. Thomasin Margaret Guinness (born 16 January 1947)
Hon. Kieran Arthur Guinness (born 11 February 1949)
Hon. Catriona Rose Guinness (born 13 December 1950)
Hon. Erskine Stuart Richard Guinness (born 16 January 1953)[4]
Hon. Mirabel Jane Guinness (born 8 September 1956)
After the war, Lord Moyne was on the board of the Guinness corporation as vice-chairman from 1947 to 1979, as well as the Guinness Trust and the Iveagh Trust, and sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.[5] He served for 35 years as a trustee of the National Gallery of Ireland and donated several works to the gallery. He wrote a number of critically applauded novels, memoirs, books of poetry, and plays. With Frank Pakenham he sought the return of the "Lane Bequest" to Dublin, resulting in the 1959 compromise agreement.[6] He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[7] He served as pro-chancellor of Trinity College Dublin from 1965 to 1977 and was made an honorary fellow in 1977.[8][9]
Plays: The Fragrant Concubine, A Tragedy (1938); A Riverside Charade (1954)
Children's books: The Story of Johnny and Jemima (1936); The Children of the Desert (1947); The Animal's Breakfast (1950); Catriona and the Grasshopper (1957); Priscilla and the Prawn (1960); The Girl with the Flower (1966).
Poetry: Twenty-three Poems (1931); Under the Eyelid (1935); Reflexions (1947); Collected Poems (1956); The Rose in the Tree (1964); The Clock (1973); On a Ledge (1992).
Novels: Singing Out of Tune (1933); Landscape with Figures (1934); A Week by the Sea (1936); Lady Crushwell's Companion (1938); A Fugue of Cinderellas (1956); Leo and Rosabelle (1961); The Giant's Eye (1964); The Engagement (1969); Hellenic Flirtation (1978)
Memoirs: Potpourri (1982); Personal Patchwork 1939–45 (1986); Diary Not Kept (1988).
