Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE γένοιτο δ’ ἂν πᾶν ἐν τῷ μακρῷ χρόνῷ. Herodotus, V. 9. MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE BEING MEMOIRS OF THE YEARS 1915‒1972 WRITTEN IN THE YEAR OF GRACE 1988 BY OPAL, LADY PORSTOCK EDITED BY RONALD A. KNOX McCLELLAND & STEWART PUBLISHERS TORONTO PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN DEDICATED TO LAURA, TOMMY, E.V., AND MAURICE THE FIRST READERS OF THIS BOOK AND, I FEAR, ITS KINDEST CRITICS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE EDITOR’S PREFACE ix AUTHOR’S PREFACE xiii I CHILDHOOD (1915‒1930) 1 II SCHOOL DAYS (1930‒1934) 16 III OXFORD (1934‒1938) 33 IV TRAVELS ON THE CONTINENT (1938‒1940) 50 V ON THE SICK LIST (1940‒1941) 66 VI BUSINESS AND PLEASURE (1941‒1944) 81 VII WHAT I FOUND IN AMERICA (1944) 98 VIII MY MARRIAGE (1944) 112 IX LONDON SOCIETY AND ITS FOLLIES (1945‒1953) 128 X MY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION (1953) 144 XI IN PARLIAMENT (1953‒1959) 159 XII HOME LIFE (1953‒1963) 175 XIII GREAT MEN OF THE DAY (1960) 191 XIV AN OLD WAY OF MAKING A NEW DEPARTURE (1968) 210 XV ENGLAND ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT WAR (1972) 226 INDEX OF PERSONS REFERRED TO 241 EDITOR’S PREFACE _Being a fugal variation on the Author’s Preface, which follows_