The first of a two-volume collection of writings by the much loved, original and brilliant critic, Cyril Connolly. This volume focuses on Connolly's critical writing and moves eclectically from writing on film, through an analysis of the effects of war on literature, to Eliot, Auden, Beckett, Camus and many others. It also includes extracts from his celebrated works ENEMIES OF PROMISE and THE MODERN MOVEMENT. Featuring Connolly at his penetrating, acerbic and entertaining best, this is a wonderful companion to the world of a man who had something interesting and provocative to say about everyone and everything literary. It is a definitive selection of his work.

Author Biography

Cyril Connolly was born in Coventry in 1903 and educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. He began reviewing for the New Statesman in 1927 and continued to write there, intermittently, over the next twenty years. He also wrote for the Architectural Review (1932-34) and the Daily Telegraph (1935-36), among other publications. His first book, and only completed novel, The Rock Pool , was published in 1935. In 1939, with Peter Watson and Stephen Spender, he founded the literary magazine Horizon, which he edited until closing it in 1950. From 1942 to 1943 he was also the literary editor of the Observer. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Sunday Times and was a lead book reviewer there until his death in 1974.Cyril Connolly was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1947, a CBE and Companion of Literature in 1972, and an Honorary Member of the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974.