Evan, Lord Tredegar : Selected Letters, Prose and Quotations

Here is a wonderful selection of letters and prose from the Hon. Evan Morgan, ( 1893-1949), in a first ever anthology of the surviving written works of the ‘ unique fairy prince of modern life’ before he became Lord Tredegar. Evan’s biographer, William Cross, author of five books on the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport has compiled an Introduction and background notes. Cross reveals Evan’s intimate correspondence to his beloved friend ‘Krylie’ ( Cyril Hartmann) culled from the Tredegar House Archive. In addition are Evan’s letters to the composer Cecil Gray and to literary giants George Bernard Shaw and G K Chesterton from the British Library Manuscripts Department, published for the first time in ninety years. The letters reveal a surprisingly whimsical, witty, whilst occasionally warped side to Evan thoughts, relationships and deeds. In addition the compilation combines a broad base of prose articles by Evan contributed to magazines and newspapers offering his own personal memoir of time spent in Algiers ( 1918); Paris ( 1919); Rome ( for the visit to the Pope at the Vatican of King George V and Queen Mary in 1923); and his view of Limehouse as its prospective Member of Parliament in 1929. Evan’s vision on Catholic matters is confronted in a serious article, but there is a lighter note with a lyrical piece about how the Victorians are remembered. The sizable collection of quotations about Evan will amuse and provoke. These pieces are rare, the results of Cross’s ten years of research. The work fills a gap as very little of Evan’s written words ( except his poems and verse) are readily available in the public domain.