To Keep the Ball Rolling Books in Order

Powell opens his memoirs with family history, childhood, and education at Eton and Oxford. Recollections of classmates and future writers reveal the early social and intellectual encounters that later helped furnish the world of his fiction.

Beginning with his move to London in 1926, Powell recalls learning publishing at Duckworth and finding his way into literary society. Friendships, parties, artistic influences, and his first novels shape this second volume of his memoirs.

Covering 1934 through the early 1950s, Powell recalls marriage, attempts at film writing, wartime military work, and renewed literary activity. The third memoir volume explores a period whose people and experiences fed into his later fiction.

The final memoir volume follows Powell into country life, magazine work, literary gatherings, and international travel through the 1970s. Anecdotes about acquaintances and professional experiences accompany reflections on the increasing recognition of A Dance to the Music of Time.

This abridged collection brings Powell’s four memoir volumes together, following his education, publishing career, wartime service, and life as a novelist. Portraits of writers and acquaintances connect his personal experiences with the social world explored in his fiction.