Alan Bennett - The Habit of Art

Alan Bennett, The Habit of Art (Faber)

Alan Bennett doesn't only write about little old ladies in Harrogate nattering on about teashops or a biscuit under the settee. The two who excused themselves after the first five minutes of Derek Jarman's Edward II many years ago might not enjoy this much more.

The imaginary meeting between Auden and Britten discusses biography and the role of art and ageing but adds another layer by having their biographer with them, too. At first a bit disconcerting to read from the page, it becomes an elegiac piece, showing the subversive within the 'establishment' in the same way that An Englishman Abroad, A Question of Attribution, The Common Reader or The Laying On of Hands also do among other Bennett work.

Humphrey Carpenter's biographies have been extensively mined for details of the lives, Auden's slippers, repetitive observations and bossy nature; Britten's more reticent character but equally perilous sexual preferences. It is a short read and an example of how much longer it takes to a writer towrite something that the reader takes no time at all to read. I'll look forward to a production of it being near me soon.

In the end, as much as any other, its theme is loneliness and the edifice- the habit- of art that is erected in defence against it, its consolations and its inadequacy. It is, perhaps, Alan Bennett's Tempest, a summary somewhere near the end of his career that provides some final thoughts although it is to be hoped that Bennett doesn't break his staff and bury his books just yet.