MS 737 01 01

MS 737 01 01

Wyndham Lloyd postcard collection: Postcards from Anthony and Violet Powell

File

1931-1978

87 postcards in a box

A collection of eighty seven picture postcards sent by Anthony and Violet Powell from all parts of the world between 1931 and 1978 to Wyndham Lloyd. The first card dates from 1931 when both Anthony Powell and Wyndham Lloyd were living in Bloomsbury having previously met through Lloyd's brother John 'The Widow' Lloyd, who was a near contemporary of Powell's at Oxford. Wyndham Lloyd was the best man at Anthony and Violet's wedding, and there are two postcards sent from the honeymoon in this collection. Both of the Lloyd brothers appear in the first three volumes of Powell's Memoirs and in his Journals. The postcards reveal a long and relaxed friendship; the images on the cards are often referred to in a humorous way on the reverse and some receive additional markings to help make a joke. References are made to their many friends. Sixty one of the postcards are in Powell's hand with twenty six in Violet's. When the couple were separated during the war, each independently sent postcards to Lloyd.

The postcards show Powell's capacity for a sustained friendship and the sense of fun and wit he shared with Violet. It is also remarkable how often an event registered in his autobiographical works is also the occasion of a postcard to Wyndham Llloyd.