Newspaper Article

Obituary: Alan Pryce-Jones

Vickers, Hugo

2000

Overview

ALAN PRYCE-JONES was at the centre of the literary establishment for over half a century. He was variously editor of The Times Literary Supplement, novelist, book reviewer, theatre critic, co- author of a musical and man about many towns - London, Paris, Vienna, New York, Newport and latterly, Galveston, Texas. Brian Howard he dismissed as \"exotically handsome, after the manner of a Disraeli hero . . . he only needed the right spur to set him on the ladder of fame\"; Hamish St Clair Erskine was seen as a man of kingfisher charms, dazzling those whose life he touched but stumbling when more was required of him; and of Peter Watson Pryce- Jones wrote: Pryce-Jones came to terms with being born an aesthete in a military family. He was the elder of two sons of Col Henry Pryce- Jones CB DSO MVO MC, a Coldstream Guards officer and later a member of the Hon Corps of Gentlemen- at-Arms, who lived in Henry VIII Gateway at Windsor Castle. Alan's father hated wrist-watches, pocket combs and suede shoes. He was the youngest of eight children of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones, High Sheriff of Montgomery and MP for the Montgomery Boroughs. Sir Pryce, who assumed the additional surname, was in turn a son of William Jones, a solicitor in Newtown, Montgomeryshire. Alan's eldest uncle was created a baronet in 1918, having again been High Sheriff and MP, and chairman of Pryce-Jones Ltd, the Newtown woollen manufacturers.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Pryce-Jones, Alan Payan