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Stephen Tennant
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{{short description|British aristocrat and socialite}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{More citations needed|date=July 2013}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = [[The Honourable]] | name = Stephen Tennant | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Stephen James Napier Tennant | birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|4|21|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Wilsford cum Lake]], [[Wiltshire]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|2|28|1906|4|21|df=y}} | death_place = Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = One of the "[[Bright young things|Bright Young Things]]" | partner = [[Siegfried Sassoon]] (1927β1933) | children = | parents = | mother = [[Pamela Wyndham]] | father = [[Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner]] | relatives = {{Plainlist| **[[Margot Asquith|Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith]] (paternal aunt) *[[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon]] (stepfather) *[[Edward Tennant (poet)|Edward Tennant]] (brother) *[[David Tennant (aristocrat)|David Tennant]] (brother) *[[Emma Tennant]] (niece) *[[Stella Tennant]] (great-niece) }} | notable_works = }} '''Stephen James Napier Tennant''' (21 April 1906 β 28 February 1987) was a British [[socialite]] known for his [[decadent]], eccentric lifestyle.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ash |first=John |date=1991-02-03 |title=The outrageous Stephen Tennant |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1991/02/03/the-outrageous-stephen-tennant/6fde8a4d-a81d-45be-8d9f-428ed69c854f/ |access-date=2023-03-16 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/03/books/the-man-who-stayed-in-bed.html | title=The Man Who Stayed in Bed | work=The New York Times | date=3 February 1991 | last1=Waters | first1=John }}</ref> He was a central member of the socialite group referred to as "[[Bright young things|Bright Young Things]]" by the tabloid press of the time. Tennant was noted for his affected demeanor, appearance and behaviours.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Garman |first=Emma |date=2020-05-12 |title=The Great Writer Who Never Wrote |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/05/12/the-great-writer-who-never-wrote/ |access-date=2023-11-03 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> ==Early life== [[File:The Wyndham Sisters - Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tenant.jpg|thumb|right|''The Wyndham Sisters,'' by [[John Singer Sargent]], 1899 ([[Metropolitan Museum]])]] Tennant was born into British nobility, the youngest son of a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[peerage|peer]], [[Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner]], and the former [[Pamela Wyndham]], one of the Wyndham sisters and of [[The Souls]] clique. His mother was also a cousin of [[Lord Alfred Douglas]] (1870β1945), [[Oscar Wilde]]'s lover and a [[sonnet]]eer. On his father's death, Tennant's mother married [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon]], a fellow bird-lover. Tennant's eldest brother [[Edward Tennant (poet)|Edward]] β "Bim" β was killed in the [[World War I|First World War]]. His elder brother [[David Tennant (aristocrat)|David Tennant]] founded the [[Gargoyle Club]] in Soho.<ref name=Independent>{{cite news|last1=Hoare|first1=Philip|title=Michael Luke: Writer, film producer and dashing chronicler of the Gargoyle Club|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/michael-luke-6147974.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606230015/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/michael-luke-6147974.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 June 2014|access-date=3 June 2014|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=9 April 2005}}</ref> ===Social set=== During the 1920s and 1930s, Tennant was an important member β the "Brightest", it is said β of the "[[Bright young things|Bright Young Things]]". His friends included [[Rex Whistler]], [[Cecil Beaton]], [[the Sitwells]], [[Lady Diana Cooper|Lady Diana Manners]] and [[Mitford family|the Mitford girls]]. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in [[Nancy Mitford]]'s novel ''[[Love in a Cold Climate]]'', one of the inspirations for Lord [[Sebastian Flyte]] in [[Evelyn Waugh]]'s ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]'', and a model for the Hon. Miles Malpractice in some of Waugh's other novels. ==Writing== For most of his life, Tennant tried to start or finish a novel β ''Lascar: A Story You Must Forget''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/exhibitions-visiting/special-exhibitions/stephen-tennant-work-progress|title=Stephen Tennant: Work in Progress|website=Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Yale University|date=14 December 2018 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref> It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at the house he inherited from his parents, Wilsford House<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1131008|desc=Wilsford House|access-date=16 March 2023}}</ref> at [[Wilsford cum Lake]], Wiltshire, which he had redecorated by [[Syrie Maugham]]. Though undoubtedly idle, he was not truly lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and developed many new friendships. His later reputation as a [[recluse]] became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to [[V. S. Naipaul]], who immortalised Tennant in his novel ''[[The Enigma of Arrival]]''. ==Personal life== During the 1920s and 1930s Tennant had a long time sexual affair with the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Johnathan |title=New diaries reveal the 'dark secrets' of Siegfried Sassoon's swooning affair |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/new-diaries-reveal-the-dark-secrets-of-siegfried-sassoon-s-swooning-affair-321646.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/new-diaries-reveal-the-dark-secrets-of-siegfried-sassoon-s-swooning-affair-321646.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=The Independent |date=22 October 2005 |access-date=30 December 2020}}</ref> Prior to this he had proposed to a friend, Elizabeth Lowndes, but had been rejected ([[Philip Hoare]] relates how Tennant discussed plans with Lowndes about bringing his [[nanny]] with them on their honeymoon). His relationship with Sassoon (twenty years his senior), however, was to be his most important: it lasted some six years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it and Sassoon was reportedly devastated.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Green |first=Peter |date=2006-02-20 |title=The Siegfried Line |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/65301/the-siegfried-line |access-date=2023-11-04 |issn=0028-6583}}</ref> When Tennant died in 1987, he had outlived most of his contemporaries. A large archive of his letters, scrapbooks, personal ephemera and artworks is held in [[The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History]] in [[Hackney, London]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = the viktor wynd museum of curiosities|url = http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/museum-curiosities/viktor-wynd-museum/viktor-wynd-museum-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history-now-open/#.VhEZ24sk--I|website = Thelasttuesdaysociety.org|accessdate = 2015-10-04|archive-date = 6 May 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210506123951/http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/museum-curiosities/viktor-wynd-museum/viktor-wynd-museum-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history-now-open/#.VhEZ24sk--I|url-status = dead}}</ref> == In popular culture == The character of Cedric Hampton in the novel ''[[Love in a Cold Climate]]'' is based on Tennant.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1991/02/03/the-outrageous-stephen-tennant/6fde8a4d-a81d-45be-8d9f-428ed69c854f/|title=The Outrageous Stephen Tennant|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|accessdate=12 May 2019}}</ref> The character of Miles Malpractice in the novel ''[[Vile Bodies]]'' is based on Tennant.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/24-hour-arty-people-87009.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/24-hour-arty-people-87009.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=24-hour arty people|date=14 September 2003|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref> Lord [[Sebastian Flyte]], a character in the novel ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]'', is partly based on Tennant.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/03/books/the-man-who-stayed-in-bed.html|title=The Man Who Stayed in Bed|first=John|last=Waters|date=3 February 1991|access-date=13 February 2019|website=The New York Times}}</ref> The narrator of Shola von Reinhold's novel ''LOTE'' (2020) is obsessed ("transfixed") with Tennant, and mentions him throughout the book.[https://www.dukeupress.edu/lote] He was played as a younger man by [[Calam Lynch]] and as an older man by [[Anton Lesser]] in the 2021 [[Terence Davies]] film ''[[Benediction (film)|Benediction]]''. == References == {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== * [[Philip Hoare]]. ''Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1990) {{ISBN|978-0-24112-416-1}} == External links == * [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.tennant|Stephen Tennant Papers]]. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Tennant, Stephen}} [[Category:1906 births]] [[Category:1987 deaths]] [[Category:English people of Scottish descent]] [[Category:English socialites]] [[Category:Younger sons of barons]] [[Category:Tennant family|Stephen]] [[Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people]] [[Category:Siegfried Sassoon]]
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