Blunt had been under investigation, interrogation and great pressure since 1952. By August 1953 he was suffering from an attack of Bell's palsy, the right side of his face having become paralysed.
Miranda Seymour,
Anthony Blunt, His Lives, 2001
More on Blunt's lecture tour of Greece can be found in Francis King's 1993 memoir,
Yesterday Came Suddenly:
See Francis King Obituaries
Francis King became a friend of Anthony Blunt, during Blunt's lecture tour of
Greece. Francis King spent a year in Corfu, on unpaid leave.
He was treated well by Marie Aspioti while he was there. He contributed poetry, stories and reviews to
Prospero; but he claims he was followed, and 'suspected of being a spy' when living on the island over the winter, while writing his novel
“The Dark Glasses” (dedicated to Marie Aspioti, published 1954).
*******
The British Council Corfu Branch Archive is held by Ioanna Desylla.
I was invited to inspect it on 7
August 2009. It includes:
A box file containing 4
files, loose materials and the Guest and Events book. One blue file is labelled
Institute Activities, 15 April 1946-May 1955
The Guest and Events book
begins on 7 November 1946. The last entries are on April 8, 1955, except for Francis King,
October 11, 1955.
The British Council, Corfu Branch, was at 46 George Theotoki Street
The archive includes programmes,
photos and cuttings eg
Book Exhibition
13/12/1947
Periodicals Exhibition
13 March 1949
Painting Exhibition
Summer 1950
Shakespeare Readings,
10 February 1953:
Francis King
Liana Desylla
Marie Aspioti
Pat Karydi
Hector Koliacopoulos
Oscar Wilde readings,
8 December 1953
Some visitors:
Patrick Leigh Fermor,
1953
Anthony Blunt,
23/11/53
Queen Frederika and
King Paul (at exhibition)
Mountbatten of Burma
Photographic Sets (62
sets 1946-1955)
Eg 1946 Dec.
1) Windsor Castle
2) English Ballet
1947
included
British Scenery, British Agriculture, English Cathedrals .
Gramophone Recitals
began in October 1949, weekly, during the Functional Season (October-April)
LECTURES from 1946
(samples)
1946, July, Paddy
Leigh Fermor on 1) British Philhellenes 2) Experience in Crete
1948, February, W.
Tatham, English Education
1949, February,
H.A.Lidderdale, English Music for Voices
1950, February, Irene
Dendrinou, Dino Theotoki as a Poet
1952, January, Edwin
Merlin, George Orwell
1952, October, Francis
King, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh
1953, November,
Professor Anthony Blunt, Royal Portraiture
Last lectures recorded
on file, May 1955
Out of a total of 99
lectures 65 were in Greek, 34 in English
In Prospero, the British Council Corfu literary periodical (issue 9, pages 350-351), the list of British Council events in Corfu in 1953 suggests an impressive contribution to the
development of Corfu’s intellectual and artistic activities. It includes lectures
by Irini Dendrinou, Anthony Blunt, M.I. Desyllas; literary events with readings
of works by Mavilis, Theotokis and Papadiamantis; drama events, with readings
of plays by L. MacNeice (translated by M. Aspioti) and Oscar Wilde, with
people like Hector Koliakopoulos taking part, as well as musical and film
events.
As Charles Climis writes in “The Illustrated History of Corfu” (1994):
“The British Council hosted a major post-war effort to keep the intellectual
standards to a level, if not raise them, considering always the dire
circumstances. Marie Aspiotis, Michael Desyllas, Irene Dendrinos and other literati met there and gave lectures
twice a month…This effort was abruptly curtailed in 1954, with the
Anglo-Cypriot crisis.”
By then the Council in
Corfu was at 43 Leoforos Alexandros
An earlier posting covering some of the same ground
In 1946, an article was published in Greek about the aims of The British Council, in Anglo-Elliniki Epitheorisi (Anglo-Greek
Review, Issue 1, 1946). I have translated this back into English from the
Greek:.
“The aims of the
British Council are neither political, nor economic, nor propagandistic-unless
we are using the word propaganda in a different sense…In order to be able to
define its purpose we should use the term “humanistic aims”, an expression with
a wider meaning, because any other term fails to capture the variety of the
Council’s pursuits and activities. Today, an organisation which helps
strengthen international friendship without political or economic motives, but
in the wider arena of mutual understanding and mutual respect, can play an
important role in the post-war world. If Peace is not based on the general
recognition of the worth of individuals and the peoples of the whole world,
it’s difficult for anyone to say on what else it can be based except some form
of tyranny. The main purpose of the British Council is to give the inhabitants
of the other countries of the world the opportunity to understand British
civilisation and the British way of life, and to give the British the
opportunity to understand the cultures of other countries. The British
Institute and other organisations of the British Council abroad, apart from
teaching the English language, literature, history, music, economics and many
other subjects, show films, organise art exhibitions, facilitate the founding
of clubs and societies, and many other things. In parallel, the British Council
supplies books, helps with the exchange of medical and scientific information,
organises lectures and theatrical performances. Although the Council has only
worked for a short time in Greece,
it has achieved something to date. The British Council helps the Ministry of
Education in training teachers of English for Greek schools; last summer there
were courses for teachers in Poros. The Council organised an exhibition of five
contemporary Greek painters in London.
In Athens it
established a musical library which helps Greek conductors and orchestras. 4000 students are learning English at the
Athens Institute, nearly 2000 in Salonika. The
Council in Salonika also plans a large, modern School of Nursing.
The representative of the British Council in Athens is the distinguished Byzantine
specialist, Mr. Steven Runciman. Last month it was decided that a British
Institute should be established, with a library of works of English literature
and scientific, medical, legal and economics books. Mr. Rex Warner, the poet
and novelist, is the Director of the Institute, and the Deputy Director is
Major Patrick Leigh-Fermor, DSO, OBE, well-known in Greece
as leader of the Resistance in Crete during
the period of the Occupation.
Among the lecturers
invited by the Council to speak in Greece to date are Mr. Harold Nicholson, who
spoke about British Democracy, and the work of Byron; General Smith, who spoke
about International Law; Mr. J. Richards, who spoke about Architecture; and Mrs
Dilys Powell, who spoke on one occasion about British Cinema, the other time
about her impressions of Greek life; Mr. Austin Harrison, the well-known
architect who undertook the planning for the restoration of Malta, will come to
Greece shortly to advise on the plan for the restoration of the ruined
buildings of Corfu.
Many other plans of
the British Council, like facilitating coaching in football and other sports,
have started to be realised, or are about to be realised. What needs to be remembered
above all the details is the ultimate aim of the Council’s activities; that is,
the spreading of mutual understanding, respect and love between the peoples of
the world. And that, above all is the Propaganda of Peace.”
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