Anthony Blunt in Corfu, November 1953

Anthony Blunt, Corfu , 23/11/1953. 

British Council Greece Lecture Tour.

Photograph inserted by Marie Aspioti in British Council Corfu Visitors Book, on a page signed Anthony Blunt, Courtauld Institute. Blunt visited Corfu in connection with his lecture on Royal Portraiture.

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.

"Bell's palsy was a highly public betrayal of his inner trials, turning his face into something resembling the mask he had been metaphorically wearing for many years".

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.”