The Savage Life
Frank Kermode: The Adventures of William Empson, 19 May 2005
William Empson: Vol. I: Among the Mandarins
by John Haffenden.
Oxford, 695 pp., £30, April 2005,0 19 927659 5 Show More
by John Haffenden.
Oxford, 695 pp., £30, April 2005,
“... offers detailed information about life at Winchester, where Empson’s companions included Richard Crossman, William Hayter, John Sparrow and other future grandees. It was, as he later remarked, ‘a ripping education’, a first-class ticket for life. The next stop was Cambridge, by means of a scholarship to Magdalene. At this optimum moment of ... ”