Anthony Powell A Life

"Unlike so many biographers, Barber takes the trouble to build up the secondary characters: essential in this case, not only because many of them are a good deal more colourful and entertaining than the main subject of the book, but because Powell liked to see himself as an observer, noting from the wings the absurdities and aberrations of his friends...and transmogrifying them into the characters in his books....Barber covers all this with admirable panache, interlacing Powell's own life with those of his friends....[W]hat comes across most strongly from Barber's biography is [Powell's] genuine interest in the variety and oddity of human nature."Barber, Michael is the author of 'Anthony Powell A Life', published 2005 under ISBN 9781585677108 and ISBN 1585677108.