Olivia Manning - Post-war England

Post-war England

After a brief stay with her still grieving parents in heavily bombed Portsmouth, Manning moved into a London flat. Reggie arrived during the summer of 1945, and found a job in the Features Department of the BBC. He was identified as a Communist spy by MI5 in 1947, and placed under surveillance. According to his file, Reggie had been working to increase Soviet influence in Romania and the Middle East throughout the war. Manning did not share her husband's political beliefs, but was quite aware that their phone was being tapped and feared that his open support for Communism would lead to him being sacked from the BBC. Reggie was soon transferred away from Features to the less politically sensitive Drama department. The surveillance stopped when he resigned from the Communist Party after the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956.

Manning also worked for the BBC; she wrote scripts for including adaptations of novels by George Eliot, Arnold Bennett and Ada Leverson. She completed her book on Stanley and Emin Pasha, titled The Remarkable Expedition in the UK and The Reluctant Rescue in the US, which was published in 1947, and subsequently reissued in 1985. The book received generally good reviews, but remains comparatively unknown. In 1948, her book of short stories, Growing Up, was published by Heinemann, with the title story a fictionalised account of her affair with Hamish Miles. Manning was to remain with the publisher until 1974.

After living in a series of rented flats, in 1951 the couple moved to a house in St. John's Wood, where they sublet rooms to lodgers such as the actors Julian Mitchell and Tony Richardson. Fuelled by plenty of gin and tonic to cover her shyness, Manning could be a witty participant in London's literary scene; as in childhood she was given to making boastful inventions, such as claiming a family relationship to Marie Belloc Lowndes and that she had received a marriage proposal from Anthony Burgess the morning after his wife's death. Her insecurities also showed in other ways: she was very anxious about finances, and always alert for ways to make and save money. After the war both she and Reggie were unfaithful. At parties, Reggie would regularly ask other women if they were interested in extramarital encounters, while Manning claimed to have had affairs with both William Gerhardie and Henry Green, and engaged in an unrequited pursuit of her lodger, Tony Richardson. Jerry Slattery, her doctor, became her long-term lover; her affair came as a shock to Reggie, who felt he must have disappointed his wife. However, after a difficult start, Reggie adjusted and soon became close friends with Jerry. Manning's adultery in some ways made it easier for Reggie to justify his own frequent affairs, including his longstanding relationship with Diana Robson, who was to become his second wife. Manning never paid undue attention to his infidelities, usually responding, "you know what Reggie's like". The two never contemplated divorce, believing that marriage was a lifelong commitment.

Manning's first post-war novel, Artist Among the Missing, an evocative account of life in the Middle East, was published in 1949, and received mixed reviews. She worked on an Irish travel book, The Dreaming Shore, which drew on her Anglo-Irish upbringing, but proved "a millstone" as it required multiple expensive journeys to Ireland. The book was notable for her view that Ireland would one day be united. Manning continued the series of publications with A School for Love, published in 1951. The novel concerned a boy growing up in Palestine during the Second World War. With its publication, Reggie, on whom Manning relied heavily for literary judgment, help and support, boasted that "My Olivia is what might be called an established author". The novel was generally well-received, but faced the possibility of a libel suit from Clarissa Graves, sister of Robert on whom Miss Bohun, one of the novel's characters, may have been based.

Manning supplemented her book writing by reviewing for The Spectator, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Punch and others, as well as making occasional contributions to the Palestine Post. Her fourth novel, A Different Face, was published in 1953. Set in a drab city based on Manning's hometown of Portsmouth, it chronicled the main character's attempts to leave his birthplace. The book was not well-reviewed, and as was frequently the case, Manning felt slighted, feeling that she did not get the reviews she deserved. Neurotic self-doubt and perfectionism made her difficult and easily offended, and she was very aware of younger writers outstripping her. Such an author was Iris Murdoch, with whom Manning shared an interest in flying saucers and an uneasy friendship that was tinged with jealousy at the younger Murdoch's greater success. Manning knew that she was spiteful, but could not help herself, frequently critiquing writer friends to others. However, she consistently praised and admired Ivy Compton-Burnett to whom she had been introduced in 1945, and whose friendship she greatly valued. She complained about her publisher Heinemann and her lack of recognition from her peers: Anthony Powell called her "the world's worst grumbler", and the publisher remembered that she was "never an easy author to handle." A friend gave her the nickname "Olivia Moaning", which was picked up by others, much to Manning's annoyance.

In 1955 Manning published The Doves of Venus, which drew on her experiences in London in the 1930s; the two friends, Ellie Parsons and Nancy Claypole, bore similarities to Manning and Stevie Smith. In the book, an isolated Ellie seeks to escape a stultifying mother. The reviews were generally favourable, but Manning was not satisfied. Perhaps annoyed at her depiction in the novel, Stevie Smith wrote what Manning described as a "bitchy review"; the two great friends barely spoke thereafter, despite Smith's efforts at a rapprochement. Eventually, however, Manning grudgingly forgave her: learning of Smith's final illness, she remarked that "Well, if she's really ill, we'll have to let bygones be bygones."

Much time and focus were given to animals, especially the Siamese cats of which Manning was especially fond. She was very concerned about the health and comfort of her pets, taking them on visits to friends, along with hot water bottles for them in case the temperature dropped. She frequently sacked vets – telling one "I do not pay you to tell me that there is nothing wrong with my animal" – and trying animal faith healers at times. Additionally, she was a committed supporter of organisations combating animal cruelty. Her love and interest in cats was illustrated in her book Extraordinary Cats, published in 1967.

In December 1956, Manning published My Husband Cartwright, a series of twelve sketches about Reggie that had originally appeared in Punch. It was not widely reviewed, and as usual Manning was frustrated and annoyed. The book was to be a precursor of her portrait of her husband in Fortunes of War, detailing comic episodes that highlighted Reggie's character, including his gregarious nature and interest in social issues: "My husband Cartwright is a lover of his fellow-men. Lovers of their fellow-men can be maddening While lecturing abroad he suddenly conceived a resentment of 'sights' especially 'useless' sights, such as ruins or tombs. You might suppose that were it not for such distractions as Tiberias, the Valley of the Kings or Hadrian's Villa, tourists abroad would occupy themselves solely in alleviating poverty."