The British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Berners, the 14th Lord Berners, wrote a roman à clef girls' school story entitled The Girls of Radcliff Hall, in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named "Radcliff Hall". The novel was written under the pseudonym "Adela Quebec" and published and distributed privately; the indiscretions to which it alluded created an uproar among Berners's intimates and acquaintances, making the whole affair highly discussed in the 1930s. Cecil Beaton attempted to have all the copies destroyed. The novel subsequently disappeared from circulation, making it extremely rare. The story is, however, included in the Berners anthology Collected Tales and Fantasies.
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Famous quotes containing the word girls:
“There used to be two kinds of kisses. First when girls were kissed and deserted; second, when they were engaged. Now theres a third kind, where the man is kissed and deserted. If Mr. Jones of the nineties bragged hed kissed a girl, everyone knew he was through with her. If Mr. Jones of 1919 brags the same everyone knows its because he cant kiss her any more. Given a decent start any girl can beat a man nowadays.”
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