Powell, Anthony Dymoke (1905–2000)

English novelist and critic. He wrote the series of 12 volumes A Dance to the Music of Time (1951–75) that begins shortly after World War I and chronicles a period of 50 years in the lives of Nicholas Jenkins and his circle of upper- and middle-class friends and acquaintances. It is written in an elegant style which sets off the blend of the comic, the melancholic, and the tragic in the situations he describes.

Powell was born in London and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he served in the Intelligence Corps. His first novel, Afternoon Men (1931), was followed by Venusberg (1932), From a View to a Death (1933), Agents and Patients (1936), and What's Become of Waring? (1939). He has written five volumes of memoirs, To Keep the Ball Rolling (1976–82).