Letters to Louis Wilkinson 1935-1956 by John Cowper Powys

The eccentricity of Powys is the overriding factor I think. Of course the verbal eccentricity: the wild arabesques of digressive sub-clauses, the clatter of childlike playfulness and invention. But also the emotional eccentricity: the unexplainable pet hates, the opposing overweening predilections, the fears and bravura in odd circumstances. Some of it is I'm sure actorly - he is at pains to point out that he is an actor at heart, which he feels aided his long years of lecturing. But he is also quite honest about his incapacities, often trying to detect their genesis, and coming to sometimes wild, sometimes believable conclusions. I feel that he had quite an accurate view of himself; that something unerring within him kept his eyes to his own magnetic north, and that that quality inevitably extended to the members of his family also, being a Powys. This element gives an extra level of revelation to this collection - the view at one remove of Theodore and Llewelyn, let alone the lesser known brothers and sisters, is salutary and instructive. The intimate portrait of his life with Phyllis Playter in both Corwen and Blaenau Ffestiniog is endearing, and the side portraits of literary and personal figures who came into their lives, and indeed the books that fascinated them, provide a richness that intensifies the deep pleasure of his company.