Temporary Kings

‘He is, as Proust was before him, the great chronicler of his culture in his time.’ Guardian

‘The elegance of the style draws you in like incense to reverie.’ Sunday Times

‘Gives pattern to the spectacle of human existence.’ Louisa Young

‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Now in the first volume’s 75th anniversary year, this twelve-volume series is ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.

In this eleventh volume, Nick Jenkins, persuaded by his old friend Mark Members, attends a literary conference in Venice. Meanwhile in London, his old school friend, Widmerpool, continues to climb the social ranks, this time to the status of Life Peer. However, his position in power is under threat.

Widmerpool finds himself the subject of whispered accusations of espionage and his wife, Pamela, former lover of the dead writer X. Trapnel, also becomes the centre of attention as the mystery around the writer continues to draw ghoulish interest from readers and academics alike. Even surrounded by the beautiful vistas of Venice, Nick cannot escape his friends’ turbulent lives.

Praise for 'A Dance to the Music of Time’
‘A world as rich as Joyce's on the one hand and P. G. Wodehouse’s on the other.’ Guardian
‘One of the great novel-sequences in English Literature.’ William Boyd
‘One of the greatest pleasures of my reading life.’ Michael Palin
‘An epic, elegant masterpiece.’ Lauren Groff
‘A joyous experience.’ Roddy Doyle
‘An intricately wrought work of art.’ John Banville
‘The finest long comic novel that England has produced.’ Anthony Burgess
‘Mr Powell’s imagination is inexhaustible.’ Evelyn Waugh
‘One of English fiction’s few twentieth-century masterpieces.’ London Review of Books
‘There is no other novelist whose work gives so much or such consistent pleasure.’ Times Literary Supplement