{"id":7984,"date":"2019-02-12T15:21:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=7984"},"modified":"2019-05-14T09:02:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T09:02:09","slug":"the-peter-de-polnay-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2019\/02\/the-peter-de-polnay-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peter de Polnay project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"peter
Peter de Polnay and Dodo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In search of
\nPeter de Polnay<\/h2>\n

I’m fascinated how some people, who one may have thought might be worthy of some note, can,\u00a0even in this age of total information, almost completely disappear from view.<\/p>\n

The writer Peter de Polnay<\/strong>, whom I came upon\u00a0via a post on the excellent Neglected Books<\/a> blog, is an excellent example of such phenomena.<\/p>\n

The post in question was a review of de Polnay’s novel\u00a0Angry Man’s Tale<\/a> (1939). I was first hooked by the book’s title and then by the striking portrait of the author posing with his dog, Dodo.<\/p>\n

I searched online for de Polnay, expecting at least a Wikipedia entry, but there is no page for him there and next to no biographical information elsewhere.<\/p>\n

And yet, he was a writer with almost 100 books to his name.\u00a0 He was good friends with well known literary figures such as the essayist\u00a0Cyril Connolly<\/a> and poet Dylan Thomas<\/a>, The writer\u00a0Auberon Waugh<\/a> praised the “the beautiful lucidity of his prose” and he had a close relationship with writer\u00a0Nancy Mitford<\/a>.\u00a0He even had an entry within Who’s Who.<\/p>\n

The project<\/h2>\n

So, I’ve decided to put matters straight. With the Peter de Polnay project<\/strong> I intend to:<\/p>\n