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agreed (having been joined by Michael Le Marchant, once Michael’s dealer) that M.A. was top of the second class. With rare gifts as a draughtsman, he lacked a colourman’s instinct; there was always something wished for, perhaps too considered, about his choice of pigment. The paintings at Agnew’s were almost all extremely nice. One sensed the influence of forgotten peers such as Rex Whistler. A biography of M., which would neither proclaim a genius nor decorate a reputation, excites and alarms G. Can Elisabeth be expected to relish a cocksman’s progress? I have no tenacious desire to remain on close terms with E. or her progeny. Her tone after Michael’s death assumed that she was very close to us, whether it was true or not. I liked and enjoyed M., because of similar interests and attitudes and because of the access he offered, by proxy, to a world never open to me. Yet his sense of exclusion, or eviction, was keener, and more rueful, than mine. G.’s candidate, Gordon Whattles, is doing research at New College and will doubtless be given a fellowship shortly. He is handsome, a member of Leander and altogether a coming man, though so burdened with abilities that he lacks any spontaneity. He is researching into the conversion of atheism into deism in the last years of the ancien régime. 21.5.84. My Byron evening at Athens College brought a good turn-out of Greek dignitaries and diplomatic stringers. The British ambassador, Perry Rhodes, limped in with his nice wife; he had injured his knee playing tennis. The Finnish ambassador was with a couple of Baltic female friends. Athens is still a village, at least for senior residents. They were there because it was one of the things people were going to; another was taking place in Kolonaki square, where the ex-foreign minister was billed to attack the government. The Greek orator is still an entertainer capable of theatrical panache. Supporters of Athens College are rabidly hostile to the Papandreou government, which has advertised disapproval of the privileged status of the private schools of which A.C. is the most conspicuous. The college’s charitable status has been challenged even in Mrs Vlachou’s paper: an article deplored the recruitment of the musical prodigy Dimitri Sgouros in order to attract funds. John Summerskill was in a state of apprehensive rage. He called Elena V. on the Saturday morning and was little gratified by her response. Despite the gibes of the socialists, the college is over-subscribed; many ministers and members of their entourages are graduates. Few leading figures in finance or government have failed to pass through its gates. The college was founded by exiles from Cairo and Istanbul. Mainland Hellas had a poor standard of education. Its apathy appalled the sophisticated diaspora. Recently Athens had a golden opportunity to enrich 269
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itself by becoming the financial centre of the Middle East. Refugees from Beirut poured in and raised real estate prices spectacularly. The Greeks failed to draw the dividends of their neighbours’ calamities. They lacked the flexibility, or opportunism, to elasticise their economic laws in order to admit the flow of capital which could have benefited them greatly. The Pasok government, so the businessmen say, is too full of ideologues and academics (many summoned from abroad by the ex-professor Andreas) to be prepared to pot the sitting ducks available to it. The Socialists have been hampered by their scruples on one hand, their greed on the other: determined to tax the rich as vigorously as they can, they know that Greek millionaires have always been resourceful in evading whatever nets have been spread to trawl their wealth. The means adopted have succeeded only in punishing the guileless. The charges on ostentatious wealth, such as yachts, have driven the shipping magnates to foreign harbours. The descendants of those who devoted their fortunes to the war of independence now summer in Turkish ports and enjoy their courtesies. The Roumanian-born Greek next to me on the flight home said that Pasok had closed down the country. A gourmet of fiercely anti-socialist purpose and passion, he regarded the Greeks with exasperated affection. In the video business, duplicating, dubbing and packaging material for the Middle Eastern market, he would not have them anywhere near his plant. He disliked Arabs and would work for them only so long as they kept out of his way. He respected the Israelis for their demanding competence. He had seen a good deal of suffering and cruelty; it had left him hostile to all ideologies. With no wish to trade on the infirmities of the destitute, he could not abide being in India, where his partners had seen the chance to make millions from the cheap labour in Bombay. The beggars had turned his stomach; although he had no large plans for their redemption, he could not live among them without seeing them, as some entrepreneurs did. He did not propose to stay in Greece after the business was sold (he hoped to make a million within a year or two), nor did he fancy the US. He favoured London where, he said, one ate extremely well. While homegrown rich Greeks have less open disdain for their compatriots, their cosmopolitanism announces a need for more admiration than their small country can offer. They are wary of the laos whose welfare Andreas is eager to cherish and whose votes are his confidence. The Greeks are divided, undisciplined, obtuse, and unreliable, qualities mirrored in their leaders. They will always find a way to survive, if sometimes at the expense of others. The Greek is a fiercely loyal family man, as well as tyrannical, selfish and unfaithful. Even someone like A., who does 270

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agreed (having been joined by Michael Le Marchant, once Michael’s dealer) that M.A. was top of the second class. With rare gifts as a draughtsman, he lacked a colourman’s instinct; there was always something wished for, perhaps too considered, about his choice of pigment. The paintings at Agnew’s were almost all extremely nice. One sensed the influence of forgotten peers such as Rex Whistler. A biography of M., which would neither proclaim a genius nor decorate a reputation, excites and alarms G. Can Elisabeth be expected to relish a cocksman’s progress? I have no tenacious desire to remain on close terms with E. or her progeny. Her tone after Michael’s death assumed that she was very close to us, whether it was true or not. I liked and enjoyed M., because of similar interests and attitudes and because of the access he offered, by proxy, to a world never open to me. Yet his sense of exclusion, or eviction, was keener, and more rueful, than mine. G.’s candidate, Gordon Whattles, is doing research at New College and will doubtless be given a fellowship shortly. He is handsome, a member of Leander and altogether a coming man, though so burdened with abilities that he lacks any spontaneity. He is researching into the conversion of atheism into deism in the last years of the ancien régime. 21.5.84. My Byron evening at Athens College brought a good turn-out of Greek dignitaries and diplomatic stringers. The British ambassador, Perry Rhodes, limped in with his nice wife; he had injured his knee playing tennis. The Finnish ambassador was with a couple of Baltic female friends. Athens is still a village, at least for senior residents. They were there because it was one of the things people were going to; another was taking place in Kolonaki square, where the ex-foreign minister was billed to attack the government. The Greek orator is still an entertainer capable of theatrical panache. Supporters of Athens College are rabidly hostile to the Papandreou government, which has advertised disapproval of the privileged status of the private schools of which A.C. is the most conspicuous. The college’s charitable status has been challenged even in Mrs Vlachou’s paper: an article deplored the recruitment of the musical prodigy Dimitri Sgouros in order to attract funds. John Summerskill was in a state of apprehensive rage. He called Elena V. on the Saturday morning and was little gratified by her response. Despite the gibes of the socialists, the college is over-subscribed; many ministers and members of their entourages are graduates. Few leading figures in finance or government have failed to pass through its gates.

The college was founded by exiles from Cairo and Istanbul. Mainland Hellas had a poor standard of education. Its apathy appalled the sophisticated diaspora. Recently Athens had a golden opportunity to enrich

269

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