Lehmann

ROSAMOND LEHMANN (1903 - 1990)

Rosamond Lehmann, whose delicate, perceptive novels have been republished by Virago Press in recent years, married Leslie Runciman of the Tyneside shipping family in December 1923. The couple moved to Newcastle, via Liverpool, in July 1924. They lived at 3 Sydenham Terrace (now demolished). It was here that she began (and finished) her best-selling first novel Dusty Answer (1927), whose autobiographical background of Buckinghamshire and Cambridge helped to ease the strain of an unhappy relationship.

Rosamond, though beautiful and popular, was uneasy in her Newcastle existence. Relations with her mother-in-law were strained, and not improved when Rosamond missed her cue during a pageant at Alnwick Castle:

'When I was first married and lived in the North, my mother-in-law organised a pageant at Alnwick Castle; I played the demeaning role of a (male) herald, with little to do except run along the battlements at one point, looking out for the enemy. Stephen [Tennant] was to play a similar part. As we sat in our rough sackcloth and cross garters awaiting our brief moment of glory, we fell to discussing our favourite colours. Blue, I said, then red. Then - pink. 'Oh, pink! I almost faint when I think of pink.' Such was our laughter that we totally missed our cue. I don't think we were forgiven.'

Rosamond also found that her handsome, clever husband had no desire for children. Despite a good deal of gracious living in Northumberland, and acquaintance with Lord Grey of Fallodon and Matthew White Ridley at Blagdon Hall, Rosamond grew to detest Newcastle itself (she never mentions it by name) . She had also become attracted to the Hon. Wogan Phillips, who was working for the Runciman concern at the time. Leslie felt his best chance of holding on to Rosamond was to be complaisant. He drove her to Dorset, where she could finish her novel in a rented farmhouse room and on her return to the north, Leslie and Phillips proposed a kind of menage a trois for a blissful summer in Anick Cottage, beautifully situated on the North Tyne just outside Hexham. Here, in May 1926, she could write, but soon Leslie and Phillips arrived with troops of friends. Her sister Beatrix Lehmann, the famous actress, was one visitor, the exotic Stephen Tennant, the son of Lady Grey of Fallodon another. George 'Dadie' Rylands came, and through him, Lytton Strachey, on his way to Edinburgh. Strachey was extremely taken with Leslie Runciman, and declared that the few days at Hexham had seemed 'almost incredibly civilised and delightful.'

The marriage was at an end, however, and Rosamond went off with Phillips (later Lord Milford). Phillips, incidentally, later became notorious as the only Communist peer in the House of Lords. When he took his seat in 1963, his maiden speech proposed the abolition of the institution. He in turn left Rosamond at the time of the Spanish Civil War.

Rosamond's second novel A Note in Music (1930) is dedicated to Phillips, and draws heavily on her Newcastle experience. Trapped in an unsatisfactory relationship, her main character, Grace, retreats into complete inaction, passively (though censoriously) observing the surface of things. ''Threadbare' is the key word in her one reference to the unemployed. Hugh Miller, the southerner working in the city, has social poise and grace of manner, conveyed here as moral qualities.

Rosamond loads the dice heavily against Newcastle (unnamed). To allow the city any real attractions would undermine Grace's rigidly aloof stance: the bustling and characterful life of Newcastle and its people therefore, is kept at an unsympathetic distance by giving the reader no familiar warming reference. The city's history and handsome regency townscape get no mention. Trams groan relentlessly past (along Osborne Road) throughout the novel. Spring never comes and even laburnum trees are somehow not genuine. There are cinemas, theatres and lively night-spots, but none are named. Grace and Hugh jig to the latest dance-tune, but we do not discover what it is. There is no talk with ordinary Newcastle individuals (apart from servants). Crowds stare with a 'bulging, northern look'. On the tram they have blank faces.

Enjoyment at the Hoppings is left to the prostitute Pansy. Correct pleasure for Grace and her circle lies at a Georgian Mansion in Northumberland (evidently Doxford Hall) with its bathing-pool and tennis courts. The fear of spontaneous commitment outside her accepted code is almost alarming. Jane Austen herself could not be more fearful of the wilderness. When one thinks of Swinburne (a southerner, after all) or Auden and his glad response to Northumberland, Grace's tone is plaintive indeed:

I think if you're born and bred a southerner you never quite get used to the climate - or anything - here. You may get to love it, but it's almost like living abroad, I think... You want to go home.'

The book had a poor reception being variously described as dull, banal and snobbish.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
ROSAMOND LEHMANN (1903 - 1990) Rosamond Lehmann, whose delicate, perceptive novels have been republished by Virago Press in recent years, married Leslie Runciman of the Tyneside shipping family in December 1923. The couple moved to Newcastle, via Liverpool, in July 1924. They lived at 3 Sydenham Terrace (now demolished). It was here that she began (and finished) her best-selling first novel Dusty Answer (1927), whose autobiographical background of Buckinghamshire and Cambridge helped to ease the strain of an unhappy relationship. Rosamond, though beautiful and popular, was uneasy in her Newcastle existence. Relations with her mother-in-law were strained, and not improved when Rosamond missed her cue during a pageant at Alnwick Castle: 'When I was first married and lived in the North, my mother-in-law organised a pageant at Alnwick Castle; I played the demeaning role of a (male) herald, with little to do except run along the battlements at one point, looking out for the enemy. Stephen [Tennant] was to play a similar part. As we sat in our rough sackcloth and cross garters awaiting our brief moment of glory, we fell to discussing our favourite colours. Blue, I said, then red. Then - pink. 'Oh, pink! I almost faint when I think of pink.' Such was our laughter that we totally missed our cue. I don't think we were forgiven.' Rosamond also found that her handsome, clever husband had no desire for children. Despite a good deal of gracious living in Northumberland, and acquaintance with Lord Grey of Fallodon and Matthew White Ridley at Blagdon Hall, Rosamond grew to detest Newcastle itself (she never mentions it by name) . She had also become attracted to the Hon. Wogan Phillips, who was working for the Runciman concern at the time. Leslie felt his best chance of holding on to Rosamond was to be complaisant. He drove her to Dorset, where she could finish her novel in a rented farmhouse room and on her return to the north, Leslie and Phillips proposed a kind of menage a trois for a blissful summer in Anick Cottage, beautifully situated on the North Tyne just outside Hexham. Here, in May 1926, she could write, but soon Leslie and Phillips arrived with troops of friends. Her sister Beatrix Lehmann, the famous actress, was one visitor, the exotic Stephen Tennant, the son of Lady Grey of Fallodon another. George 'Dadie' Rylands came, and through him, Lytton Strachey, on his way to Edinburgh. Strachey was extremely taken with Leslie Runciman, and declared that the few days at Hexham had seemed 'almost incredibly civilised and delightful.' The marriage was at an end, however, and Rosamond went off with Phillips (later Lord Milford). Phillips, incidentally, later became notorious as the only Communist peer in the House of Lords. When he took his seat in 1963, his maiden speech proposed the abolition of the institution. He in turn left Rosamond at the time of the Spanish Civil War. Rosamond's second novel A Note in Music (1930) is dedicated to Phillips, and draws heavily on her Newcastle experience. Trapped in an unsatisfactory relationship, her main character, Grace, retreats into complete inaction, passively (though censoriously) observing the surface of things. ''Threadbare' is the key word in her one reference to the unemployed. Hugh Miller, the southerner working in the city, has social poise and grace of manner, conveyed here as moral qualities. Rosamond loads the dice heavily against Newcastle (unnamed). To allow the city any real attractions would undermine Grace's rigidly aloof stance: the bustling and characterful life of Newcastle and its people therefore, is kept at an unsympathetic distance by giving the reader no familiar warming reference. The city's history and handsome regency townscape get no mention. Trams groan relentlessly past (along Osborne Road) throughout the novel. Spring never comes and even laburnum trees are somehow not genuine. There are cinemas, theatres and lively night-spots, but none are named. Grace and Hugh jig to the latest dance-tune, but we do not discover what it is. There is no talk with ordinary Newcastle individuals (apart from servants). Crowds stare with a 'bulging, northern look'. On the tram they have blank faces. Enjoyment at the Hoppings is left to the prostitute Pansy. Correct pleasure for Grace and her circle lies at a Georgian Mansion in Northumberland (evidently Doxford Hall) with its bathing-pool and tennis courts. The fear of spontaneous commitment outside her accepted code is almost alarming. Jane Austen herself could not be more fearful of the wilderness. When one thinks of Swinburne (a southerner, after all) or Auden and his glad response to Northumberland, Grace's tone is plaintive indeed: I think if you're born and bred a southerner you never quite get used to the climate - or anything - here. You may get to love it, but it's almost like living abroad, I think... You want to go home.' The book had a poor reception being variously described as dull, banal and snobbish.
Return to Index	On to next Author