Stephen Tennant

The Honourable
Stephen Tennant
Born
Stephen James Napier Tennant

(1906-04-21)21 April 1906
Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England
Died28 February 1987(1987-02-28) (aged 80)
Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England
Known forOne of the "Bright Young Things"
PartnerSiegfried Sassoon (1927–1933)
Parents
Relatives

Stephen James Napier Tennant (21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987) was a British socialite known for his decadent, eccentric lifestyle.[1][2] He was a central member of the socialite group referred to as "Bright Young Things" by the tabloid press of the time. Tennant was noted for his affected demeanor, appearance and behaviours.[3]

Early life

The Wyndham Sisters, by John Singer Sargent, 1899 (Metropolitan Museum)

Tennant was born into British nobility, the youngest son of a Scottish peer, Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and the former Pamela Wyndham, one of the Wyndham sisters and of The Souls clique. His mother was also a cousin of Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945), Oscar Wilde's lover and a sonneteer. On his father's death, Tennant's mother married Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, a fellow bird-lover. Tennant's eldest brother Edward – "Bim" – was killed in the First World War. His elder brother David Tennant founded the Gargoyle Club in Soho.[4]

Social set

During the 1920s and 1930s, Tennant was an important member – the "Brightest", it is said – of the "Bright Young Things". His friends included Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Lady Diana Manners and the Mitford girls. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate, one of the inspirations for Lord Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and a model for the Hon. Miles Malpractice in some of Waugh's other novels.

Writing

For most of his life, Tennant tried to start or finish a novel – Lascar: A Story You Must Forget.[5] It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at the house he inherited from his parents, Wilsford House[6] at Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, which he had redecorated by Syrie Maugham.

Though undoubtedly idle, he was not truly lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and developed many new friendships. His later reputation as a recluse became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to V. S. Naipaul, who immortalised Tennant in his novel The Enigma of Arrival.

Personal life

During the 1920s and 1930s Tennant had a long time sexual affair with the poet Siegfried Sassoon.[7] Prior to this he had proposed to a friend, Elizabeth Lowndes, but had been rejected (Philip Hoare relates how Tennant discussed plans with Lowndes about bringing his nanny with them on their honeymoon).

His relationship with Sassoon (twenty years his senior), however, was to be his most important: it lasted some six years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it and Sassoon was reportedly devastated.[8]

When Tennant died in 1987, he had outlived most of his contemporaries. A large archive of his letters, scrapbooks, personal ephemera and artworks is held in The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History in Hackney, London.[9]

The character of Cedric Hampton in the novel Love in a Cold Climate is based on Tennant.[10]

The character of Miles Malpractice in the novel Vile Bodies is based on Tennant.[11]

Lord Sebastian Flyte, a character in the novel Brideshead Revisited, is partly based on Tennant.[12]

The narrator of Shola von Reinhold's novel LOTE (2020) is obsessed ("transfixed") with Tennant, and mentions him throughout the book.[1]

He was played as a younger man by Calam Lynch and as an older man by Anton Lesser in the 2021 Terence Davies film Benediction.

References

  1. ^ Ash, John (3 February 1991). "The outrageous Stephen Tennant". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  2. ^ Waters, John (3 February 1991). "The Man Who Stayed in Bed". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Garman, Emma (12 May 2020). "The Great Writer Who Never Wrote". The Paris Review. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  4. ^ Hoare, Philip (9 April 2005). "Michael Luke: Writer, film producer and dashing chronicler of the Gargoyle Club". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  5. ^ "Stephen Tennant: Work in Progress". Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Yale University. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  6. ^ Historic England. "Wilsford House (1131008)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  7. ^ Thompson, Johnathan (22 October 2005). "New diaries reveal the 'dark secrets' of Siegfried Sassoon's swooning affair". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  8. ^ Green, Peter (20 February 2006). "The Siegfried Line". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  9. ^ "the viktor wynd museum of curiosities". Thelasttuesdaysociety.org. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  10. ^ "The Outrageous Stephen Tennant". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  11. ^ "24-hour arty people". The Independent. 14 September 2003. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  12. ^ Waters, John (3 February 1991). "The Man Who Stayed in Bed". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2019.

Further reading

  • Stephen Tennant Papers. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.