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{{Short description|British film critic and writer (1901–1995)}}
{{Short description|British film critic and writer (1901–1995)}}
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'''Elizabeth Dilys Powell''', [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (20 July 1901 – 3 June 1995) was a British [[film critic]] and travel writer who contributed to ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the [[Independent Television Authority]] (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK. She was also the second female president of the [[Classical Association]]. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.
'''Elizabeth Dilys Powell''', [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (20 July 1901 – 3 June 1995) was a British [[film critic]] and travel writer who contributed to ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the [[Independent Television Authority]] (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK, and also served as the second female president of the [[Classical Association]]. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.


==Early life and education==
==Early life and education==
Elizabeth Dilys Powell was born in [[Bridgnorth]], Shropshire, to Thomas Powell (a bank manager) and Mary Jane Lloyd. She attended [[Talbot Heath School]], [[Bournemouth]] before winning a scholarship to read modern languages at [[Somerville College, Oxford]].<ref name="desertisland">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093ym6|title=Dilys Powell, Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|access-date=May 21, 2022}}</ref> Powell was in the significant minority of women studying at Oxford at that time.<ref name="desertisland" />
Born in [[Bridgnorth]], Shropshire, to Thomas Powell, a bank manager, and Mary Jane Lloyd, Dilys Powell attended [[Talbot Heath School]], [[Bournemouth]] before winning a scholarship to read modern languages at [[Somerville College, Oxford]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093ym6|title=Dilys Powell, Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|access-date=2017-11-22}}</ref> Powell was in the significant minority of women studying at Oxford at that time.<ref name=":0" />


Powell considered studying [[Literae humaniores|Classics (Literae Humaniores)]] – "Greats" – at Oxford University, but she was advised against it by her brother: '"Don't" he said; "the classics are a terrible grind for a girl, and you will be prematurely wrinkled."'<ref name="dilys2003">{{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2003|title=The Mirror of the Present|jstor=3567848|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=50|pages=237–249|doi=10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237}}</ref> Powell took his advice, only to regret it later, feeling that she had been robbed of "deep and solid pleasures", having "small Latin...and, goodness knows, less Greek".<ref name="dilys2003"/>
Powell considered studying [[classics]] (or [[Literae humaniores|greats]]) at Oxford University, but she was advised against it by her brother: '"Don't" he said; "the classics are a terrible grind for a girl, and you will be prematurely wrinkled."'<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2003|title=The Mirror of the Present|jstor=3567848|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=50|pages=237–249|doi=10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237}}</ref> Powell took his advice, but later regretted it, feeling that she had been robbed of "deep and solid pleasures", having "small Latin...and, goodness knows, less Greek".<ref name=":1"/>


At Oxford, Powell met an archaeologist, [[Humfry Payne]] (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936), whom she married in 1926. While studying at Oxford, she made news headlines in the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' after being "taken out for tea" and climbing over the wall to go out with her boyfriend (whom she would later marry); she was [[Rustication (academia)|rusticated]] for two terms, and the principal accused her of 'dragging the name of Somerville in the dust'.<ref name="desertisland" /> She graduated with a [[First class honours degree|first-class honours degree]] in modern languages in .<ref name="desertisland" />
At Oxford, Powell met an archaeologist, [[Humfry Payne]] (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936), whom she married in 1926. Whilst studying at Oxford, she made news headlines in the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' after being "taken out for tea" and climbing over the wall to go out with her boyfriend, whom she would later marry. She was [[Rustication (academia)|rusticated]] for two terms, and the principal accused her of 'dragging the name of Somerville in the dust'.<ref name=":0" /> She graduated with a [[First class honours degree|first-class honours degree]].<ref name=":0" />


==Career==
==Career==
After graduation, Powell spent a period as personal assistant to [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]] before joining the literary department of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' in 1928.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Powell, (Elizabeth) Dilys (1901–1995), film critic {{!}} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58012|year=2004}}</ref>
After graduation, Powell spent a period as personal assistant to [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]] before joining the literary department of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' in 1928.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Powell, (Elizabeth) Dilys (1901–1995), film critic {{!}} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58012|year=2004}}</ref>


In 1929, her husband Humfry Payne was appointed director of the [[British School at Athens]]. From 1931 to 1936, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, frequently attending excavations where her husband was working, including the excavation of the [[Heraion of Perachora]], as well as attending an excavation at [[Abydos, Egypt]].<ref name="dilys2003" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Traveller's Journey Is Done|last=Powell|first=Dilys|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|year=1943|location=London|pages=53–88}}</ref> Payne died in Athens, Greece, in 1936 from a [[staphylococcus]] infection. They had no children.
In 1929, her husband Humfry Payne was appointed director of the [[British School at Athens]]. From 1931 to 1936, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, frequently attending excavations where her husband was working, including the excavation of the [[Heraion of Perachora]], as well as attending an excavation at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] in Egypt.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Traveller's Journey Is Done|last=Powell|first=Dilys|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|year=1943|location=London|pages=53–88}}</ref> Payne died in Athens in 1936 from a [[staphylococcus]] infection. They had no children.


Powell continued her periodic visits to Greece after 1936, until the [[Second World War]] made travel difficult. In 1939 Powell was appointed film critic at ''The Sunday Times''. In 1941, she found war work with a Greek connection in the [[Political Warfare Executive]], which oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe; she remained there until 1945,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XS4-AAAAQBAJ&q=Executive|title=An Affair of the Heart|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2011-09-01|publisher=Souvenir Press|isbn=9780285640733|language=en}}</ref> where she was tasked with making sure that the BBC's broadcasts to Greece accurately represented British policies.<ref name="greece">{{Cite book|title=Faces of Archaeology in Greece: Caricatures by Piet de Jong|last=Hood|first=Rachel|publisher=Leopard's Head Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0904920383|location=Oxford|pages=140–141}}</ref> In June 1943, she married [[Leonard Russell (journalist)|Leonard Russell]] (1906–1974), the literary editor at ''The Sunday Times''.<ref>Haag, M (5 June 1995). Obituary: Dilys Powell. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html ''The Independent'' archive] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416111930/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html |date=16 April 2015 }}. Retrieved May 21, 2022</ref>
Powell continued her periodic visits to Greece after 1936, until the [[Second World War]] intervened. In 1939 Powell was appointed film critic at ''The Sunday Times'', and in 1941 she found war work with a Greek connection in the [[Political Warfare Executive]], which oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe, where she worked until 1945:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XS4-AAAAQBAJ&q=Executive|title=An Affair of the Heart|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2011-09-01|publisher=Souvenir Press|isbn=9780285640733|language=en}}</ref> she was involved with making sure that the BBC's broadcasts to Greece accurately represented British policies.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Faces of Archaeology in Greece: Caricatures by Piet de Jong|last=Hood|first=Rachel|publisher=Leopard's Head Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0904920383|location=Oxford|pages=140–141}}</ref> In June 1943, she married [[Leonard Russell (journalist)|Leonard Russell]] (1906–1974), the literary editor at ''The Sunday Times''.<ref>Haag, M (5 June 1995). Obituary: Dilys Powell. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html ''The Independent'' archive] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416111930/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html |date=16 April 2015 }}. Retrieved 21 March 2013</ref>


Powell was one of the founding members of the [[Independent Television Authority]] (ITA) from 1954, despite initial concerns about her possible conflicts of interest (she wrote for a newspaper that was backing one of the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV network]] franchises, but its bid was eventually withdrawn).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvCvCwAAQBAJ&dq=dilys+powell&pg=PP1|title=Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62|last=Sendall|first=Bernard|date=1982-10-14|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349058969|language=en}}</ref> She resigned her post at the ITA in 1956, in protest at the government's refusal to come up with funding which it had promised to the authority in the [[Television Act 1954|Television Act of 1954]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvCvCwAAQBAJ&dq=dilys+powell&pg=PP1|title=Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62|last=Sendall|first=Bernard|date=1982-10-14|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349058969|language=en}}</ref> She was a long-time regular panel member of the BBC radio word game, ''[[My Word!]]''.
Powell was one of the founder members of the [[Independent Television Authority]] (ITA) from 1954, despite initial concerns about her possible conflicts of interest (she wrote for a newspaper that was backing one of the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] franchises, but its bid was eventually withdrawn).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvCvCwAAQBAJ&dq=dilys+powell&pg=PP1|title=Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62|last=Sendall|first=Bernard|date=1982-10-14|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349058969|language=en}}</ref> She resigned her post at the ITA in 1956 in protest at the government's refusal to come up with funding which it had promised to the authority in the [[Television Act 1954]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvCvCwAAQBAJ&dq=dilys+powell&pg=PP1|title=Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62|last=Sendall|first=Bernard|date=1982-10-14|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349058969|language=en}}</ref> She was a long-serving panel member of the BBC radio word game, ''[[My Word!]]''.


Powell's journalism led a change in the writing of cinema criticism. To quote the [[British Film Institute]]: "she was open to new directions in cinema and was not constrained by the middle class shibboleths of 'good taste', unlike her rival [[C. A. Lejeune]], film critic for ''[[The Observer]]'' from 1928 to 1960." She remained film critic at ''The Sunday Times'' until 1979 – a compilation of her reviews was published in 1989 as ''The Golden Screen'' – but from 1976 she also began writing about films on television, which she continued to do until the end of her life. Her last piece, a review of ''[[Barry Lyndon]]'', appeared in ''The Times'' on the day of her death. She also served as film critic for ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' until its first closure in 1992.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Haag, Michael|newspaper=The Independent|location=U.K.|title=OBITUARY: Dilys Powell|date=5 June 1995|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Dilys Powell, Film Critic, 93|date=6 June 1995|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/06/obituaries/dilys-powell-film-critic-93.html}}</ref>
Powell's journalism led a change in the writing of cinema criticism. To quote from the [[British Film Institute]]: "she was open to new directions in cinema and was not constrained by the middle class shibboleths of 'good taste', unlike her rival [[C. A. Lejeune]], film critic for ''[[The Observer]]'' from 1928 to 1960." She remained film critic at ''The Sunday Times'' until 1979 – a compilation of her reviews was published in 1989 as ''The Golden Screen'' – but from 1976 she also began writing about films on television, which she continued to do until the end of her life. Her last piece, a review of ''[[Barry Lyndon]]'', appeared in ''The Times'' on the day of her death. She also served as film critic for ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' until its first closure in 1992.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Haag, Michael|newspaper=The Independent|location=U.K.|title=OBITUARY: Dilys Powell|date=5 June 1995|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Dilys Powell, Film Critic, 93|date=6 June 1995|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/06/obituaries/dilys-powell-film-critic-93.html}}</ref>


Powell, a [[Philhellenism|philhellene]], made frequent visits to Greece, including attending the [[British School at Athens]]' excavations at Emporio on [[Chios]] in 1954 in order to report on the excavations for ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref name="greece" /> She was the author of several books about the country, including ''Remember Greece'' (1941); ''An Affair of the Heart'' (1958), describing her repeated visits to the village of Perachora, site of Payne's excavations of the [[Heraion of Perachora|Heraion]]; and ''The Villa Ariadne'' (1973), a memoir of the archaeologists associated with the house built by [[Arthur Evans|Sir Arthur Evans]] near the palace of [[Knossos]], including several (such as [[John Pendlebury]]) who were active in the [[Cretan Resistance]] during World War II. Other works include a biography of Payne, ''The Traveller's Journey is Done'' (1943). Powell served as President of the [[Classical Association]] from 1966–1967, giving her presidential address at the University of Reading on 5 April 1967.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2003|title=The Mirror of the Present|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=50|pages=237–249|jstor=3567848|doi=10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237}}</ref> She was only the second female President of the Classical Association, following Professor [[Dorothy Tarrant]] (President 1958-1959). Powell was made a [[CBE|Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)]] in 1974,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Dilys-Powell|title=Dilys Powell {{!}} British critic|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-09-20|language=en}}</ref><ref name="hartley">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFGR2OvCAS4C&dq=dilys+powell+second+woman+president+classical+association&pg=PA359|title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women|last=Hartley|first=Cathy|date=2013-04-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135355333|language=en}}</ref> awarded a [[British Film Institute Fellowship]] in 1983,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/473849/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Powell, Dilys (1901-1995) Biography|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=May 21, 2022}}</ref> and made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford University, in 1991.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html|title=OBITUARY:Dilys Powell|date=1995-06-05|work=The Independent|access-date=May 21, 2022|language=en-GB}}</ref> Powell was a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref name="hartley" />
Powell, a [[Philhellenism|Philhellene]], made frequent visits to Greece, including attending the [[British School at Athens]]' excavations at Emporio on [[Chios]] in 1954 in order to report on the excavations for ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref name=":2" /> She was the author of several books about the country, including ''Remember Greece'' (1941); ''An Affair of the Heart'' (1958), describing her repeated visits to the village of Perachora, site of Payne's excavations of the [[Heraion of Perachora|Heraion]]; and ''The Villa Ariadne'' (1973), a memoir of the archaeologists associated with the house built by [[Arthur Evans|Sir Arthur Evans]] near the palace of [[Knossos]], including several, such as [[John Pendlebury]], who were active in the [[Cretan Resistance]] during World War II. Other works include a biography of Payne, ''The Traveller's Journey is Done'' (1943). Powell served as President of the [[Classical Association]] from 1966–7, giving her presidential address at the University of Reading on 5 April 1967.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Dilys|date=2003|title=The Mirror of the Present|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=50|pages=237–249|jstor=3567848|doi=10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237}}</ref> She was only the second female President of the Classical Association, following Professor [[Dorothy Tarrant]] (President 1958-9). Powell was made a [[CBE|Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)]] in 1974,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Dilys-Powell|title=Dilys Powell {{!}} British critic|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-09-20|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFGR2OvCAS4C&dq=dilys+powell+second+woman+president+classical+association&pg=PA359|title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women|last=Hartley|first=Cathy|date=2013-04-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135355333|language=en}}</ref> awarded a [[British Film Institute Fellowship]] in 1983,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/473849/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Powell, Dilys (1901-1995) Biography|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-09-20}}</ref> and made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford University, in 1991.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarydilys-powell-1585062.html|title=OBITUARY:Dilys Powell|date=1995-06-05|work=The Independent|access-date=2017-11-22|language=en-GB}}</ref> Powell was a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref name=":3" />


In 1991, the [[London Critics' Circle Theatre Award]] established the annual Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film in her honour. The first recipient of the award, in 1991, was [[Dirk Bogarde]]; other recipients have included [[Christopher Lee]], [[Richard Attenborough]], [[Judi Dench|Dame Judi Dench]], [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Kenneth Branagh]], and [[Kate Winslet]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://criticscircle.org.uk/film/critics-circle-film-awards/|title=Critics' Circle Film Awards|website=The Critics' Circle|access-date=May 21, 2022|language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 1991, the [[London Critics' Circle Theatre Award|Dilys Powell Award]] was established in her honour, and awarded to [[Dirk Bogarde]]; the award is given annually, and recipients have included [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Kristin Scott Thomas]], [[Judi Dench]], and [[Kate Winslet]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/kate-winslet-to-receive-top-accolade-at-film-awards/|title=Kate Winslet to receive top accolade at Film Awards {{!}} The Critics' Circle|date=2017-12-11|work=The Critics' Circle|access-date=2018-09-20|language=en-GB}}</ref>


==Publications==
==Publications==

Revision as of 20:28, 23 May 2022

Dilys Powell
Dilys Powell in 1984
Dilys Powell in 1984
BornElizabeth Dilys Powell
(1901-07-20)20 July 1901
Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England
Died3 June 1995(1995-06-03) (aged 93)
London, England
OccupationFilm critic, journalist, author
LanguageEnglish
EducationSomerville College, Oxford (BA)
SubjectFilm
Years active1939–1992
Spouse
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1926; d. 1936)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1943; d. 1974)​

Elizabeth Dilys Powell, CBE (20 July 1901 – 3 June 1995) was a British film critic and travel writer who contributed to The Sunday Times for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the Independent Television Authority (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK, and also served as the second female president of the Classical Association. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.

Early life and education

Born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, to Thomas Powell, a bank manager, and Mary Jane Lloyd, Dilys Powell attended Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth before winning a scholarship to read modern languages at Somerville College, Oxford.[1] Powell was in the significant minority of women studying at Oxford at that time.[1]

Powell considered studying classics (or greats) at Oxford University, but she was advised against it by her brother: '"Don't" he said; "the classics are a terrible grind for a girl, and you will be prematurely wrinkled."'[2] Powell took his advice, but later regretted it, feeling that she had been robbed of "deep and solid pleasures", having "small Latin...and, goodness knows, less Greek".[2]

At Oxford, Powell met an archaeologist, Humfry Payne (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936), whom she married in 1926. Whilst studying at Oxford, she made news headlines in the Daily Mail after being "taken out for tea" and climbing over the wall to go out with her boyfriend, whom she would later marry. She was rusticated for two terms, and the principal accused her of 'dragging the name of Somerville in the dust'.[1] She graduated with a first-class honours degree.[1]

Career

After graduation, Powell spent a period as personal assistant to Lady Ottoline Morrell before joining the literary department of The Sunday Times in 1928.[3]

In 1929, her husband Humfry Payne was appointed director of the British School at Athens. From 1931 to 1936, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, frequently attending excavations where her husband was working, including the excavation of the Heraion of Perachora, as well as attending an excavation at Abydos in Egypt.[2][4] Payne died in Athens in 1936 from a staphylococcus infection. They had no children.

Powell continued her periodic visits to Greece after 1936, until the Second World War intervened. In 1939 Powell was appointed film critic at The Sunday Times, and in 1941 she found war work with a Greek connection in the Political Warfare Executive, which oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe, where she worked until 1945:[5] she was involved with making sure that the BBC's broadcasts to Greece accurately represented British policies.[6] In June 1943, she married Leonard Russell (1906–1974), the literary editor at The Sunday Times.[7]

Powell was one of the founder members of the Independent Television Authority (ITA) from 1954, despite initial concerns about her possible conflicts of interest (she wrote for a newspaper that was backing one of the ITV franchises, but its bid was eventually withdrawn).[8] She resigned her post at the ITA in 1956 in protest at the government's refusal to come up with funding which it had promised to the authority in the Television Act 1954.[9] She was a long-serving panel member of the BBC radio word game, My Word!.

Powell's journalism led a change in the writing of cinema criticism. To quote from the British Film Institute: "she was open to new directions in cinema and was not constrained by the middle class shibboleths of 'good taste', unlike her rival C. A. Lejeune, film critic for The Observer from 1928 to 1960." She remained film critic at The Sunday Times until 1979 – a compilation of her reviews was published in 1989 as The Golden Screen – but from 1976 she also began writing about films on television, which she continued to do until the end of her life. Her last piece, a review of Barry Lyndon, appeared in The Times on the day of her death. She also served as film critic for Punch until its first closure in 1992.[10][11]

Powell, a Philhellene, made frequent visits to Greece, including attending the British School at Athens' excavations at Emporio on Chios in 1954 in order to report on the excavations for The Sunday Times.[6] She was the author of several books about the country, including Remember Greece (1941); An Affair of the Heart (1958), describing her repeated visits to the village of Perachora, site of Payne's excavations of the Heraion; and The Villa Ariadne (1973), a memoir of the archaeologists associated with the house built by Sir Arthur Evans near the palace of Knossos, including several, such as John Pendlebury, who were active in the Cretan Resistance during World War II. Other works include a biography of Payne, The Traveller's Journey is Done (1943). Powell served as President of the Classical Association from 1966–7, giving her presidential address at the University of Reading on 5 April 1967.[12] She was only the second female President of the Classical Association, following Professor Dorothy Tarrant (President 1958-9). Powell was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1974,[13][14] awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship in 1983,[15] and made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford University, in 1991.[16] Powell was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[14]

In 1991, the Dilys Powell Award was established in her honour, and awarded to Dirk Bogarde; the award is given annually, and recipients have included Helena Bonham Carter, Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, and Kate Winslet.[17]

Publications

  • Descent from Parnassus (1934), London: Cresset Press (essays on modern poets)
  • Remember Greece (1941), London: Hodder & Stoughton
  • The Traveller’s Journey is Done (1943), London: Hodder & Stoughton (Humfry Payne at the British School of Archaeology at Athens)
  • Films since 1939 (1947), London: Longmans, Green & Co (for the British Council)
  • Coco (1952), London: Hodder & Stoughton (biography of a dog)
  • An Affair of the Heart (1958), London: Hodder & Stoughton
  • The Mirror of the Present (1967), London: John Murray (presidential address to the Classical Association at the University of Reading)
  • The Villa Ariadne (1973), London: Hodder and Stoughton. New edition by Eland in 2016: ISBN 978-1-78060-035-2
  • The Golden Screen: Fifty Years at the Films (1989), London: Pavilion, ISBN 1-85145-342-3 (ed. George Perry)
  • The Dilys Powell film reader (1991), Manchester: Carcanet, ISBN 0-85635-912-2

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Dilys Powell, Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Powell, Dilys (2003). "The Mirror of the Present". Greece & Rome. 50: 237–249. doi:10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237. JSTOR 3567848.
  3. ^ "Powell, (Elizabeth) Dilys (1901–1995), film critic | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ Powell, Dilys (1943). The Traveller's Journey Is Done. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 53–88.
  5. ^ Powell, Dilys (1 September 2011). An Affair of the Heart. Souvenir Press. ISBN 9780285640733.
  6. ^ a b Hood, Rachel (1998). Faces of Archaeology in Greece: Caricatures by Piet de Jong. Oxford: Leopard's Head Press. pp. 140–141. ISBN 978-0904920383.
  7. ^ Haag, M (5 June 1995). Obituary: Dilys Powell. The Independent archive Archived 16 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 21 March 2013
  8. ^ Sendall, Bernard (14 October 1982). Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62. Springer. ISBN 9781349058969.
  9. ^ Sendall, Bernard (14 October 1982). Independent Television in Britain: Origin and Foundation 1946–62. Springer. ISBN 9781349058969.
  10. ^ Haag, Michael (5 June 1995). "OBITUARY: Dilys Powell". The Independent. U.K.
  11. ^ "Dilys Powell, Film Critic, 93". The New York Times. 6 June 1995.
  12. ^ Powell, Dilys (2003). "The Mirror of the Present". Greece & Rome. 50: 237–249. doi:10.1093/gr/50.suppl_1.237. JSTOR 3567848.
  13. ^ "Dilys Powell | British critic". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  14. ^ a b Hartley, Cathy (15 April 2013). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Routledge. ISBN 9781135355333.
  15. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Powell, Dilys (1901-1995) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  16. ^ "OBITUARY:Dilys Powell". The Independent. 5 June 1995. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  17. ^ "Kate Winslet to receive top accolade at Film Awards | The Critics' Circle". The Critics' Circle. 11 December 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
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