All I Could Never Be: Some Recollections

by Beverley Nichols

First Edition. Hardcover. Book Fair.

348 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

John Beverley Nichols (born September 9, 1898 in Bower Ashton, Bristol, died September 15, 1983 in Kingston, London), was an English writer, playwright, actor, novelist and composer. He went to school at Marlborough College, and went to Balliol College, Oxford University, and was President of the Oxford Union and editor of Isis.

Between his first novel, Prelude, published in 1920, and Twilight in 1982, he wrote more than 60 books and plays on topics such as travel, politics, religion, cats, novels, mysteries, and children's stories, authoring six novels, five detective mysteries, four children's stories, six plays, and no fewer than six autobiographies.

Nichols is perhaps best remembered as a writer for Woman's Own and for his gardening books, the first of which Down the Garden Path, was illustrated — as were many of his books — by Rex Whistler. This bestseller — which has had 32 editions and has been in print almost continuously since 1932 — was the first of his trilogy about Allways, his Tudor thatched cottage in Glatton, Cambridgeshire. A later trilogy written between 1951 and 1956 documents his travails renovating Merry Hall (Meadowstream), a Georgian manor house in Agates Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, where Nichols lived from 1946 to 1956. These books often feature his gifted but laconic gardener "Oldfield". Nichols's final trilogy is referred to as "The Sudbrook Trilogy" (1963–1969) and concerns his late 18th-century attached cottage at Ham, (near Richmond), Surrey.

Nichols was a prolific author who wrote on a wide range of topics. He ghostwrote Dame Nellie Melba’s "autobiography" Memories and Melodies (1925), and in 1966 he wrote A Case of Human Bondage about the marriage and divorce of William Somerset Maugham and Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, which was highly critical of Maugham. Father Figure, which appeared in 1972 and in which he described how he had tried to murder his alcoholic and abusive father, caused a great uproar and several people asked for his prosecution. His autobiographies usually feature Arthur R. Gaskin who was Nichols’ manservant from 1924 until Gaskin's death from cirrhosis in 1966. Nichols made one appearance on film - in 1931 he appeared in Glamour, directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes, playing the part of the Hon. Richard Wells.

Nichols' long-term partner was Cyril Butcher. He died in 1983 from complications after a fall.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

All you need to know about this book:

"I staggered into a large gold bed that looked as if it had been built for Leda and an outsize swan. As I floated away on fumes of absinthe, I realized that I was not alone. There were three other occupants of the bed, and they were all poodles."

" 'You must remember, Robert, to put sugar on the monkey's strawberries. Look! She's not eaten a thing.'
She pointed downwards. Near her feet was a silver plate, piled high with fraises du bois. By the edge of the plate a small monkey scowled and fidgeted, occasionally cramming a strawberry into its mouth and spitting it out again."

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

If ever there was an autobiography chock full of witty anecdotes and conversations, this is it. But this is the gossip of a bygone era. If you adore Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, get your hands on a copy immediately. The Bright Young Things of London in the twenties and thirties spring to life here, and they are delightful. As Porter sang in his Babes in the Wood,
"They discovered the Fountain of Youth,
It consisted of gin and vermouth."

[Squeak2017 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nichols describes this work as “an honest attempt at self portraiture”.

Once again he repeats many of the same anecdotes he mentioned in earlier works about the same famous people, and once again he omits to explain key events of his life, such as why he sold his beloved cottage.

But one new story in particular was shocking for exposing his selfish callousness. He was indirectly involved in the death of a young rent boy in Berlin and the only concern he showed was that he personally might be tainted by association and suffer reprisals from the Nazis. It was certainly honest; it was dramatic; and he turned it into another piece of fiction.

Nichols examines his own pacifism, presents his Christian convictions, skims over his nervous breakdown and details his travels and gaudy lifestyle as the 30s draw to a close and war looms over Europe.