POTTED BIOGRAPHY of ALEXANDER THYNN
1932.
I was born at 19.07 hrs. on May 6th at 95 Seymour Place, London W1, but quickly emigrated to Wessex.
1933‑40.
My childhood was spent mostly at Sturford Mead, near Longleat, but also at our London house at 8 Tite Street, Chelsea, interspersed with holidays down in Cornwall with my mother's parents. The full family consisted of an elder sister, Caroline, and two younger brothers, Christopher and Valentine. Nanny and a governess featured prominently in our lives.
1940‑45.
I went to Ludgrove, (near Wokingham, Wessex,) which was a boarding school which specialised in preparing its pupils for Eton, and I eventually rose to be Captain of the School.
1945‑50.
I went on to Eton College, (near Windsor, Wessex,) and I was eventually elected into Pop, after representing the school on its boxing team, and on the river ‑ in the 2nd VIII. I was also receiving some praise for my paintings ‑ where I had been taught by Wilfrid Blunt, Oliver Thomas and Gerald Leet. It was in 1946 that my grandfather died, which obliged me to switch names from Alexander Thynne, to become the 11th Viscount Weymouth ‑ an event of some embarrassment for a schoolboy. And my father, who had then been promoted to become the 6th Marquess of Bath, was busy preparing Longleat for its opening to the public in 1949. It was a solution to the high cost of maintenance for stately homes, which was promptly copied by most of the others, and perhaps should be regarded as the launch of Britain's post‑war tourist industry. Caroline had now married David Somerset, the heir presumptive to the Duke of Beaufort.
1951‑52.
I did my two years of National Service in the Life Guards, after receiving my commission at Mons O.C.S. Part of my time as a subaltern was spent at Windsor Barracks, and the final year was at Wolfenbuttel Barracks in Germany. My only distinctions over this period were to win the Platoon Boxing Competition at my weight in Mons G Sqn, and then later going on to win the welter weight division in the Army Officers' Boxing Competition at Aldershot. I wrote my first novel The Millions and the Mansions while I was out in Germany; and fortunately it remained unpublished.
1953.
I spent nine months as an art student on the Left Bank in Paris ‑ at the Academie Ranson where I was taught by Roger Chastel and Henri Goetz. During this period my parents were divorced, and they both remarried. Sturford Mead was put up for sale, with my father and step‑mother moving to Job's Mill nearby. But when I myself returned to Wessex, it was agreed that I should take up my own abode at Longleat, since Job's Mill was too small to house the two sets of children with rooms of their own.
1953‑56.
I studied for my degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford. In my social life, I became the President of the Bullingdon Club. I went on travels through Spain and Italy during the long vacations. I started writing a journal over these years. My mother too was building up a literary reputation for herself with the publication of a succession of books ‑ under her new name of Daphne Fielding ‑ starting with an autobiography dealing with her life up to the time of the divorce. But I saw little of her nowadays, in that she had gone to live in Tangier. My own financial position had now been greatly improved by the fact that my father had transferred both land and capital to me, with a view to avoiding the payment of further duties in the event of his untimely death.
1956‑59.
I was developing a tendency towards becoming a recluse, while feuding with my family and writing my second (unpublished) novel, which went by the name of Angry Young Men. Then having completed it, I embarked on the task of writing all the retrospective volumes of my journal, covering the initial twenty-one years, prior to the date when I started keeping abreast of events within my life upon a weekly basis. There were also spells of living in Paris, once again as an art student at various schools which included the Grande Chaumière ‑ under Henri Goetz ‑ and at the Academie Julien ‑ under Andre Planson. While I went on some additional travels through France and Italy, my father added to the size of his family with the birth of my half‑sister Silvy ‑ whose conception had been assisted by fertility rites performed on the Cerne Abbas giant.
1960‑61.
I travelled round South America by Jaguar, in the company of Anna Gyarmathy, an Hungarian refugee whom I had met during the previous year in Paris. It was during this period that my youngest brother Valentine married for the first of three times, on this occasion to Vicki Jackson. My mother had now moved to Portugal.
1961‑64.
I returned to work at Longleat, with the tendency to become a recluse strengthening ‑ despite visits from Anna, who was now studying drama and (as Anna Gael) was soon obtaining leading roles on French television. We went on occasional travels together round Benelux, Germany and Scandinavia. I was now writing a three volume autobiography, entitled Images of my Identity, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I had tackled this task rather too soon in life, and that I had best accumulate more material and then re-examine it with the advantage of retrovision. Relations with my family remained very difficult.
1964‑66.
I arrested the tendency towards reclusion by acquiring a maisonette in Notting Hill Gate/Kensington, where I began to get a savour of what was happening up in London mid‑weeks during the Sixties. I painted The Ages of Man Mural in my drawing‑room at Longleat, and there were occasions when I now invited the paying public to come and see what I was doing with my apartments. I was also commissioned to paint some murals for The Upper Cut, which was a dance hall in Forest Gate. At the same time I was painting a series of panels which were intended originally for the decoration of my London maisonette. These consisted of Mental Disorder, The Quest for Compatibility between the Sexes, A Cautionary Tale for Bedtime, and The Transition from Prey to Predator. I put in an application to build a Cableway in the upper Gorge at Cheddar, but was refused planning permission. My father meanwhile had taken another step forward in his own career by opening a safari park at Longleat, in co-operation with Jimmy Chipperfield ‑ something which was again copied by some other stately homes, both in Britain and abroad. And my mother had hit the best‑sellers' list with her biography of Rosa Lewis, in The Duchess of Jermyn Street. While holidaying with Anna in the South of France, we came upon a new holiday village development at Camarat, near Saint‑Tropez. In order to woo her, I acquired one of these villas. But she promptly married a French television director. While living in solitary down there, as decoration for the walls, I began painting the collection of animal figures which were eventually to be incorporated within my Noah's Ark Mural at Longleat.
1966‑69.
I acquired some notoriety by contracting what we described as an anti‑marriage with a girl from Ceylon ‑ until she moved to Rome in 1968. I was also learning to play the guitar, and started writing my own songs for it. Meanwhile I had assembled the Bull Mill group of young art students, to assist me in the task of muralising the walls of my apartments at Longleat, as a future attraction for the tourists, once the two separate parts of the house could be presented as a whole. Many large scale murals were completed over this period ‑ namely The Ages of History Mural, The Paranoia Murals, The Conversation Pieces, The Mural of Formative Footprints, The Heaven and Hell Mural and The Kama Sutra Mural. I also painted a sequence of paintings on the subject of Food while I was down at Camarat, which initiated me into the idea of completing the little insets for my murals while basking in hot sunshine. In addition to this, I wrote my third (unpublished) novel, entitled In the Running for God; and this time it may have come rather closer to the standard required for acceptance. With regard to the Longleat Estate, I was refused planning permission for building a Cableway from the pumping station on Longleat lake up to Heaven's Gate. But I did accomplish some major alterations to the complex of buildings at Cheddar Caves, so as to extend the size of the museum, the shops and the bars - plus some reconstruction of the route through Cox's Cave. My younger brother Christopher had now married Antonia Palmer.
1969‑72.
Anna had been continuing to visit me at Longleat over the previous period, and was now divorcing. She played a valuable role in easing the tension that had existed between my father and myself. She was about to give birth to our first child, so we married to legitimise what we assumed would be the son and heir to Longleat. But it turned out to be a daughter instead. We experienced severe problems in finding a responsible nanny for Lenka at Longleat, in that Anna continued with her film career in Paris. For several months I assumed sole charge of Lenka while down at Camarat, and it was during this period that I wrote my fourth novel The Carry‑Cot, which took the form of a psycho‑drama on the subject of baby‑battering. This time it was accepted for publication by W.H.Allen; so it ranks as my first published novel. I was also painting the Day‑time Mural on a children's fantasy theme, up in the nursery suite at Longleat. And after producing an illustrated booklet entitled Lord Weymouth's Murals, to explain all of my previous murals, I threw them open to the public on a slightly more permanent basis than hitherto. Then there were two half hour television documentaries made upon the theme of my activities at Longleat, one of them for BBC 2 ‑ entitled The Thynne Blue Line, and the other for ITV was called The Aristocrat. I first floated the idea for a Wessex identity at a conference in Taunton on the subject of Westcountry tourism; but there were interruptions from people telling me to sit down. I also came up with the idea of building a restaurant upon wooden piles driven down into the bed of the lake at Shearwater - designed by Ian Jelbart. But the capital for its construction wasn't to be found. Meanwhile Anna was transferring her professional activities from film work to journalism, which got off to an exciting start on an assignment to Vietnam.
1973‑76.
The film version of my novel was shot on location at Longleat, but they entitled it Blue Blood. With regard to my art work, I was now overseeing the painting of my Night‑time Mural up in the nursery suite. Then in the general election of Feb. 1974, I stood as a Wessex Regionalist, receiving 521 votes. And this led to the formation of a fringe political party, seeking some degree of autonomy for Wessex within a United Regions of Europe. And I wrote A Regionalist Manifesto, 1975, in clarification of these ideas. Also arising from my preoccupation with my regional identity, I started collecting paintings by other Wessex artists upon the two particular themes of Wessex Landscape, and Life in Wessex. I was also involved with two Australians in forming a pop‑group, but it was finally on my own that I received an offer from Des O'Connor for him to produce an L‑P record of me singing sixteen of my own songs, entitled I Play the Host. It was at this time that I changed my family name from Thynne to Thynn, so as to revert to the name's original spelling, and to arrest the drift in its pronunciation to keep it rhyming with pin instead of pine. I was also writing my fifth (or second published) novel, The King is Dead ‑ a piece of science fiction, in which I aired some personal theories about the universe ‑ and I tried my hand at setting up my own publishing company, The Longleat Press, although I never managed to surmount the problems in distribution. I then started to write a six volume semi‑fictionalised autobiography entitled Marital Milestones. My mother had by now set up home at Uzes, in France, so that there were better opportunities of seeing her sometimes. Meanwhile Anna had finally given birth to Ceawlin, furnishing us with the required son and heir. On the Longleat scene, I embarked upon two projects to attract tourists to the estate. The first was to build a small tourist village, consisting of about a hundred villas, at Shearwater - a project which was refused planning permission. I was also refused planning permission for building a Cableway at Jacob's Ladder in Cheddar Gorge. An idea which did eventually go forward however, was to plant the World’s Longest Hedge Maze - designed and laid out by Greg Bright in 1975.
1977‑81.
I was now overseeing the painting of the Underground Mural up in the nursery suite. And when at Camarat, I was painting the insets for An Autobiographical Mural. I was also writing Pillars of the Establishment, ‑ a piece of social satire mapping the role of the aristocracy within 20th century Britain, which was eventually published by Hutchinson. I stood in the company of six other Wessex Regionalist candidates, at the general election of 1979, and also as the party's sole candidate for the first Euro‑election in the same year ‑ obtaining just a little short of 2,000 votes. My brother Valentine committed suicide (at the age of 41,) while my brother Christopher was now taking up employment with my father to assist in the running of Longleat during his lifetime. My mother, whose second marriage had now ended, went to live in the United States. I was then involved in the making of two lengthy television documentaries, the first for ITV entitled The Thynne Inheritance, where I was portrayed perhaps as the black sheep of the family; but in the second, which was for BBC 2 and was entitled A Year in the Life of Alexander Thynn, I had the pleasure of being cast as the hero. With regard to the Longleat Estate, I set up the Caravan Club site on the road between Longleat and Stalls Farm. But I was less successful in my endeavour to build a Dinosaur Park at the summit of Jacob's Ladder at Cheddar Gorge, with the planning permission refused even after Appeal.
1981‑86.
I was overseeing the painting of the Underwater Mural up in the nursery suite. Then I took the decision to transfer all of my murals which were currently hanging elsewhere, to Longleat, so that they could be incorporated with the rest of my life's work in painting ‑ adding additional sections where necessary to suit the new settings. There were the Life and Death panels as well. Then I completed the insets and assemblage of my Autobiographical Mural, and besides that, The Disco Mural. This latter work included a number of insets on a theme of rhythm and dance, which I completed once again down at Camarat. My sister Caroline ‑ as Duchess of Beaufort ‑ had finally taken up her residence in Badminton House. And my mother had returned from the United States, to dwell in the Old Laundry at Badminton. I did finally bring Marital Milestones to its conclusion, but felt dissatisfied that in fictionalising this autobiographical material, I had failed to come to grips with the total picture of my life's problems. I was also writing my seventh novel, The Holy Grail ‑ which is a morality tale with a modern setting, but as yet unpublished. During the course of writing it, I mastered the use of a word‑processor, which has now become an essential tool for me in authorship. Anna too had now written two novels, published in France, entitled La guerre est plutôt malsaine pour les enfants, and secondly, Il fait beau à n'y pas croire. I should also mention that, as my personal contribution to the Longleat Library, I started collecting original typescripts for a Wessex Archive ‑ advertising for our senior citizens to send in their potted autobiographies, to record their own nostalgic sense of how things once were in Wessex. And from the material sent in so far, my archivist Venetia Murray has compiled two volumes for publication, the first entitled Where Have All the Cowslips Gone?, and the second Shadows From the Past. I constructed a Waterfall Cave at Cheddar, into which I later introduced the theme of King Neptune's Mine - to which were later added a quantity of Holograms.
1987‑1992.
It was now that I embarked on the task which I may well have difficulty in completing within the time that is left to me - because it will be very long indeed. This takes the form of a mammoth sized (unfictionalized) autobiography, which goes by the name of Strictly Private: (or in full, From Strictly Private to Public Exposure.) It is written in a spirit of total candour, for which reason any fully unexpurgated version will have to be withheld from release until the last person that I have written about is finally deceased. But the intention was finally developing to place an expurgated version of Strictly Private on to the Internet. Initially, however, I was only concerned with the writing of Series I A Plateful of Privilege, which subdivides into three books: The Early Years, Top Hat and Tails, and Two Bites of the Apple - dealing respectively with my life up to the point of leaving my preparatory school when I was 13, my time at Eton up to the age of 18, and then finally with my two years doing my National Service in the Life Guards, in addition to the short period when I was first an art student in Paris. The latter book brought me up to the age of 21. But I went straight on with the writing of Series II of Strictly Private, which deals with my three years at Oxford, under the collective title of A Degree of Instability, but subdivided once again into three books, (4, 5 and 6,) entitled First, Second, and Third Year at Oxford, respectively. Then as far as my painting was concerned, I completed the background for the mural in the dining-room, which is A Mural of Wessex Identity – although most of the spaces for the intended insets were left unfilled, while I rushed ahead with the completion of another two projects where I have painted a sequence of portrait heads for each of the spiral staircases at Longleat – the first being on a theme of Bluebeard’s Collection, which comprises all of my (past or present) lady-loves. The second consists of Ancestral Heads, starting with all of my direct patrilineal ancestors, right back to Sir John Thynn, who built Longleat. At Cheddar I upgraded the attractions in the Waterfall Cave by introducing the theme of The Crystal Quest. At Longleat, I constructed an Adventure Castle, where adults would only be admitted if accompanied by a child. Finally, over the last three years of this period, I was delighted to co-operate with Center Parcs on their project to build their third holiday village in Aucombe Wood, between Shearwater and Longleat; and on this occasion, after the Minister had called in our application for a Public Inquiry, we did receive planning permission to proceed. Finally, I made my first visit to the United States, in the company of Jo-Joe Laine, visiting Boston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and briefly crossing over the Mexican border at Tiahuanacu.
1992-1996.
This marks the point at which my father died from cancer of the oesophagus, at the age of 86, after which I became the 7th Marquess of Bath. I took over from Christopher the role of running Longleat as a touristic enterprise, and he went to live in Dorset after funds had been released to him by my father’s arrangement. An HTV profile on me was transmitted within the series Great Westerners. Roy Willcock and Claire Rendall began the task of laying out the Penthouse Suite up on the top floor, to furnish me with a strictly personal set of rooms at Longleat: commissioning a new desk by David Shepherd as its focal point: along with a television console designed by Cato, and a hologram portrait of me for the dining-room, by Martin Richardson. I commissioned a series of additional labyrinths at Longleat: The Love Labyrinth by Graham Burgess, and the Sun Maze and Lunar Labyrinth by Randoll Coate. I spoke at the Oxford Union, advocating Pantheism. I commissioned Ivan McBeth to design Thynnhenge: a project which never finally received planning permission. While at Camarat, I continued with my work on both Bluebeard’s Collection, and the Ancestral Heads. I took up my seat in the House of Lords, to sit on the Liberal-Democrat benches, making my maiden speech shortly afterwards on the subject of Nursery Education. I had by then been chosen to represent the House of Lords on their chess team, during the years which followed. I started compiling a genealogical family tree, to include the most distant of traceable forebears. I also started compiling a paper-back library of the world’s most significant novels for the Penthouse. I received an award for the quality and upkeep of our woodlands. I addressed various local Chambers of Commerce on the subject of starting a Wessex League, for the purposes of promoting local tourism. I hosted a 90th birthday lunch party for my mother. A project to make wallpaper in Holland, based upon photographs of my Kama Sutra mural, eventually collapses. Our painting by Titian was stolen from the State Drawing-room at Longleat. I participated within the Wedlock is Padlock debate at the Cambridge Union. I visited the United States (New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles) with Ron and Jenny Lyon, and Mariella Antonella. There was also a short holiday in Istanbul with Mariella. My elder sister Caroline died from cancer of the pancreas, at the age of 66. Then I finally completed Series III of Strictly Private – which goes by the name of A Labyrinth of Rejection, and which covers the period of my life from 1956 to 1965, with the individual titles of An Angry Young Man, (Book 7), In Pursuit of a Fantasist, (Book 8), and Rejoining Society, (Book 9). Longleat joined the Treasure Houses group of stately homes for marketing purposes. Ceawlin was finally rescued after being buried alive in Delhi, but his two closest friends did not survive. I was fined after assaulting a man in Campden Hill Road: (a question of mistaken identity.)
1996-1999.
I introduced a helium balloon for tourists to obtain panoramic views over the park. I made my second speech in the Lords, on the subject of Devolution, and then a year later I gave my third speech on the subject of the current State of the Arts in Britain. My mother died of old age, at 94. Roy Willcock designed and constructed a roof garden for me. The family’s genealogical chart was completed, tracing back the line of our forebears through all manner of recorded patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry. I opened the new Banqueting Suite up on the top floor at Longleat, having completed the series of Ancestral Heads, to serve as its decor. The table was commissioned from John Makepeace, the chairs from John Barnard and the chandelier from Jocelyn Burton. The transmission of Lion Country went out over BBC 1, in a series of 55 episodes. There have been quite a number of guest appearances on other television shows since then. I completed Series IV of Strictly Private, which is entitled The Quest for Maturity (Books 10, 11, 12 and 13,) going by the individual titles of A Splash of Colour, A Master of the Arts, and A Political Platform, Rounds 1 and 2. This takes the story of my life from 1965 to 1979. I opened a fifth labyrinth, King Arthur’s Mirror Maze, by Adrian Fisher in the Stable Courtyard at Longleat. Then I set up a couple of websites on the Internet, for myself and for Longleat; and I started the process of placing the earlier portions of Strictly Private (which by now had reached the 3 million words mark) on the first of these websites, to obtain maximum public exposure for all my enterprises. I addressed the Durham Union on the subject of my attitude to life. Then I was invited back to the Oxford Union to speak for the motion at their Millennium debate, that The Best Is Yet To Come. After making four additional speeches on the subjects of The Abolition of the Hereditary Peers, The Regional Development Agencies, The Leisure Industries, and House of Lords Reform in the House of Lords, (while also being invited to appear on various Continental television programmes to discuss these matters,) I did not permit my name to go forward for election as one of the surviving hereditaries on the grounds that I was not prepared to put in the hours of attendance that would be expected for any Life Peer. My plans to commission Ivan McBeth to construct ‘Thynnhenge’ below Park Hill had to be dropped because ‘English Heritage’ wouldn’t support it. Then I was invited to sing The Stately Homes of England in The End of the Peers Show, at a concert organised by the charity ‘Mencap’. Finally I was diagnosed as diabetic.
1999-
After leaving the House of Lords, I was able to focus my activities more upon writing and upon Longleat, and the popularisation of my Internet website. I had now embarked upon writing Series V of Strictly Private, entitled Sibling Rivalry (or Books 14, 15, 16, 17 18, 19 and 20,) which cover the years of my life from 1979 to 1993, with the individual titles being A Flamboyant Public Image, Problems in Polygyny, Thwarting the Alternative Empire, Roguery Afloat, The Length of a Bargepole, Attaining the Crown, and Consolidation of Power – amounting by now to a total of 6 million words. I became President of the RWA’s Millennium Appeal. I addressed the Wessex Liberal Democrats on the subject of Regional Government for Wessex. My nephew Alexander continued with his work on glass mosaics for the ceilings in my private apartments at Longleat, finally bringing them to completion. I contributed towards the Pantheistic text for the concert performance of the oratorio Let Us Live This Day, by Marcus Tilt. I gathered together some essays I have written on the subjects of Religion, Politics and Morality, which have now been published by Starhaven, as The New World Order of Alexander Thynn. Animal Park I, II and III were transmitted on BBC 1. I commissioned The Blue Peter Maze for The Adventure Castle. I commissioned Paul Norris to build ‘Heaven’s Henge’, a half-circle of sculpted granite megaliths at Heaven’s Gate, and I commissioned Angela Connor to construct an Entrance Arch to Park Hill. I completed the remaining Ancestral Heads for display on the top floor. We received The Family Attraction of the Year award in the Good Britain Guide. I sent for auction at Christie’s a very small portion of the family treasures which were sold for £27 million, enabling us to create a Maintenance Fund for Longleat. I commissioned a new set of dining-room chairs, and two new desks, to replace what had been sold by auction. Artnik will be publishing an abridged version of the first six books from Strictly Private under the titles of A Plateful of Privilege and A Degree of Instability, which cover the years of my life from 1932-1956. The first three of these were published in 2003. Books 4, 5 and 6 condensed into one volume published March 2005.
Latest Update April 2005
|