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Philip Hoare

Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant Hardcover – January 1, 1990

by Philip Hoare (Author)

4.6 61 ratings

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Charts the course of the artist's life, from pampered childhood to artistic precocity, to his eccentric later years

Print length

463 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hamish Hamilton
Publication date

January 1, 1990
Dimensions

0.63 x 0.16 x 0.94 inches
ISBN-10

0241124166
ISBN-13

978-0241124161
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the subject of his first book, British journalist Hoare chooses a glamorous figure from England's past. The Hon. Stephen Tennant, artist/writer, accomplished little professionally during his life (1906-1987) but his beauty and wit dominated his circle of productive companions: Cecil Beaton, E. M. Forster, the Sitwells, the Bloomsbury group, etc. Admirers from abroad as well (Greta Gardo, the young Truman Capote) visited Wilsford Manor, Tennant's country estate in Wiltshire; Willa Cather, despite her initial impressions of the flashy youth, became a loyal friend. A cold side of Tennant, however, is revealed in his cruel break with his lover, poet Siegfried Sassoon, who never recovered from the rejection. Hoare's extensive research is backed by excerpts from the subject's correspondence, interviews with survivors of the glittering age and striking photos, all heightening interest in a definitive Peter Pan.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Blessed with literary and artistic talents, friend to E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, and other prominent writers of his time, Tennant never acquired the self-discipline to achieve substantial success. Journalist Hoare suggests that this wealthy, flamboyantly effeminate British aristocrat may actually have been too insecure to risk failure. He was also self-destructive, as the account here of his stormy afair with Siegfried Sassoon demonstrates. Of equal interest are the author's discussions of Tennant's social milieu and the many artists and writers he knew. Extensive use of diaries, letters, and interviews gives this well-written, often moving account an undoubted authenticity. Highly recommended for college and public libraries.
- Judy Mimken, Cardinal Stritch Coll . , Milwaukee
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hamish Hamilton; First Edition (January 1, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 463 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241124166
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241124161
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.23 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.63 x 0.16 x 0.94 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 61 ratings

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Philip Hoare

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Philip Hoare is the author of several books, including 'Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant'; 'Noel Coward: A Biography'; 'Oscar Wilde's Last Stand'; 'Spike Island' and 'England's Lost Eden'. He lives in Hoxton, London, and Southampton, and each summer visits Cape Cod, where, as a member of the Center for Coastal Studies, he undertakes twice-daily expeditions to watch its whales.

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4.6 out of 5

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mhmm

Good Biography

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2023

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Very good, detailed biography about the famous 1920's aesthete twink.

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Marian

Very documented and interesting account

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2019

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To people who are interested in the area and social background tackled here, this is a very detailed and crafted account of these time and places, and the fascinating golden people who lived there. I'm a French native reader but I could read the author without problem. Recommanded.

2 people found this helpful

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Taffy

"Ah! Those Bright Young Things."

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2013

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It falls to us Oldtimers (American) and Ancient Brits (English & Welsh) - people in their late Eighties - to remember just who "The Bright Young Things" were. They were the outrageously rich, outrageously idle, and frequently outrageously drunk young English men and women (many of them titled) whose lives were dedicated to partying day and night throughout the early Twenties and Thirties. Even so, on the most exaggerated scale of outrageousness none of them ever attained the level of Stephen Tennant.
When his father asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, Stephen said: "I want to be a Great Beauty, Sir!" And for the rest of his life, until his death in his 81st year, he devoted himself to that goal.
Phillip Hoare's brilliant and encyclopedic biography details a life in England, America and France that one feels if translated into a screenplay would be rejected by Hollywood for being "just too fantastic."
Phillip Hoare is - in my view - the finest biographer writing today and his life of Stephen Tennant is an experience that is not to be missed.

9 people found this helpful

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I read too much

Wonderful!

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2015

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Fascinating book about a lesser known iconic 20th century aristo! Well researched and fun to read as well. The cast of characters the author brings to life all mostly have biographies of their own out there. This makes me want to go and and read those.
Wonderful read!

One person found this helpful

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JD Doyle

Not sure this book was worth writing, or reading....Tennant did nothing except live a very affected life.

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018

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About half way through this book I seriously considered not finishing it, as I wondered why I should care about Tennant. Born in 1906 into an aristocratic English family, he became a very beautiful and charming young man. His immense wealth let him travel the world at whim, hobnobbing with the cream of society, literature, arts, royalty, etc...if there was a name that could be dropped, well, it was. He was a raving queen costumed, perfumed and made up to the hilt. He intended to be a writer and an artist, but just did not have the drive to accomplish much of anything. A book he bored telling people about for fifty years remained unfinished at his death, at age 80. Still, that he could cultivate devoted friends such as Willa Cather, Cecil Beaton, Christopher Isherwood, Tallulah Bankhead, and on and on must say something for his appeal.

I will say that the writer did amazingly detailed research in able to chronicle all Tennant's goings on. And I did finish the book, as in his declining years it became more and more like a train wreck that I did not want to miss.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

The cover which is cut (see picture) is the only ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2015

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The cover which is cut (see picture) is the only thing that makes it obvious that the book is used
Perfectly readable

One person found this helpful

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Book Reader

Excellent book, unworthy subject.

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2015

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I'm giving this book one star not because the book isn't any good - it is - but because it wasn't worth writing. The author has done tremendous research and is very obviously conversant with every aspect of the social milieu of his subject, Stephen Tennant. The writing style is also excellent. The problem is that Stephen Tennant, an aristocrat, raving queen and prominent decoration in the social scene of the 1920's on both sides of the Atlantic, accomplished nothing other than spending lots of money and being part of a quite circumscribed, largely homosexual, social circle concerned with fashion, interior decoration, the stage and, at one remove, writing fiction. I'm a great fan of the period and Tennant's name often comes up among the more outrageous party-goers, but his accomplishments were nil and his life is almost without interest. A few of his friends found him inspirational but that's not enough to justify this 460 page book. There are far more compelling "Bright Young People" to read about, and the fictional characters for which he was a model are much more amusing (Waugh's Myles Malpractice and Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's "Love in a Cold Climate")

6 people found this helpful

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Cosmo

An exquisitely written biography

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2013

Most of us would have found Stephen Tennant intolerable in real life, and indeed as with Cedric Montdore, may have been provoked to tear up his copy of Vogue! However, on this most unpromising and slender foundation Philip Hoare has created a sumptuous novelistic experience that includes some magnificently evocative writing. A simply wonderful book.

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ross

'Queer Saint' about Peter Watson is wildly superior - a fascinating

Reviewed in Canada on July 12, 2018

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The subject seems to spent much of his time taking the cure. I never finished the book due to boredom. 'Queer Saint' about Peter Watson is wildly superior - a fascinating, accomplished, and generous character. Tennant knew Watson and also Cecil Beaton, who also outshines him in every way.

One person found this helpful

SusannahB

Both Informative and Very Entertaining

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2017

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The brightest of the 'Bright Young People' of the 1920s and 1930s, Stephen Tennant was born in 1906 and was the son of Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner in 1911, and Pamela Wyndham, one of the renowned Wyndham sisters; his aunt was Margot Tennant who became Margot Asquith when she married Herbert Asquith (Liberal Prime Minister from 1908-1916), and his elder brother, David, founded the Gargoyle Club in Soho. Tennant spent his childhood growing up at Wilsford Manor, in Wiltshire, petted and spoiled by his mother and doted upon by his nurse, Nannie Trusler, to whom he was devoted. An effeminate, delicate and tubercular boy, Stephen spent very little time at school and he often needed periods of complete rest in order to conserve his energy and improve his strength. In 1922 (and with perhaps a little family 'string-pulling') Stephen Tennant entered the Slade School of Art, where he became close friends with Rex Whistler (who created the spectacular trompe-l'oeil murals at Mottisfont Abbey) and he later became very close to Cecil Beaton, who took many photographs of Tennant and his group of hedonistic young friends both in London and at various country house weekend parties.

Stephen Tennant could be disarmingly charismatic and with his painted face, his gold-tinted hair and his flamboyant clothes, the 1920s and 1930s were his halcyon days (it has generally been thought that Stephen was the model for Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' [although his biographer comments that though Waugh satirized Stephen and his friends in other books, there is no evidence that he drew directly from Stephen for 'Brideshead'] and he was certainly the inspiration for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's 'Love in a Cold Climate'). In 1927 Tennant met and became romantically involved with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, a relationship that proved cataclysmic for both of them, and one that ended very unhappily due to Tennant's totally self-centred behaviour and his cruelly dismissive attitude towards the devoted Sassoon. Decadent, vain, mercurial and wilfully eccentric, Tennant (apart from his travels abroad) spent a large part of his life supine, writing letters, painting, writing poems (which he self-published) and constantly working on (but never finishing) his novel 'Lascar'. As his looks faded, his weight ballooned and he underwent periods of deep depression, Tennant became practically a recluse, although he could still 'turn on the charm' when it suited him and he managed to retain a coterie of loyal and glamorous friends, despite being inconsiderate and casually dismissive towards many of them at times - including Cecil Beaton (who eventually felt compelled to write in complaint) and at one time even turning Princess Margaret away from the door when she called at Wilsford to see him.

Philip Hoare's biography is both entertaining and informative (although I was surprised, on page 144, to see the artist Dora Carrington referred to as Dorothy Carrington) and the author writes with perception and empathy for his subject; however Mr Hoare does not shy away from the less attractive aspects of Stephen Tennant's personality and behaviour and it was interesting to learn of various people's different opinions of him - for instance, the artist Lucian Freud greatly admired him and was able to quote from his verse by heart, but Freud's one-time wife, the writer Caroline Blackwood, thought him merely an exhibitionist, describing him as highly narcissistic and "just an eccentric gay who didn't really do anything". Having learnt a little about Stephen Tennant from biographies I have read of other individuals who frequented the same social circle as he did, I was pleased to have the opportunity to learn a lot more about him, and this accessible and very entertaining biography, which is filled with a whole host of interesting characters, is one I find easy to recommend.

5 Stars.

15 people found this helpful

D. Clark

Utterly blissful read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2009

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This is quite simply the most captivating biography I have ever read. Reading Philip Hoare is like cosying up on a luxurious sofa and being exclusively confided in by an entertaining yet all-knowing friend.
Stephen Tennant was a fascinating and unique personality living an enchanted life with connections to many icons of the age. One of those rare books that you want never to end and worth it's weight in gold.

15 people found this helpful

Beth

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

I had been searching for a book on Stephen Tennant for a while. I could not put this book down when it arrived. Lovely pictures place you at the scene and you can relive the life of this eccentric man.

3 people found this helpful

Trish

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2015

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Great book good service arrived safely as advertised.

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Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant Hardcover – January 1, 1990

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