Conversations in Bloomsbury occupies a distinct place in Mulk Raj Anand's writings. Outside of his fiction it is the most significance of his works and, along with Apology for Heroism, is the key to understanding Anand's literary, social and political beliefs. Living in London from 1925 to 1945, Anand came to know the prominent writes and intellectuals of the metropolis, many of whom belonged to what came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. In twenty engrossing chapters, he recalls his wide-ranging conversations with E.M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, C.E.M. Joad, T.S. Eliot and several others. The four chapters on the enigmatic T.S. Eliot are the highlight of the book. They offer a penetrating and sympathetic understanding of Eliot's mind and reveal Anand's capacity not to allow his own personal view of the man to cloud his admiration for the poet's literary achievements. In the imaginative rendering of his actual conversations, Anand has faithfully, often evocatively, captured the literary, cultural and political climate of the England of the 1920s and 1930s. The book reveals both Anand's ambivalence towards the Bloomsbury Group as well as ambivalent attitude of the British literati towards India's freedom. Together, the chapters metamorphose into a long autobiographical essay about the writer discovering his convictions and his nationalistic roots in a foreign land. Saros Cowasjee is Professor Emeritus of the University of Regina in Canada. His writings include the novels Goodbye to Elsa (1974) and My Dear Maura (2005), critical studies on Sean O'Casey and Mulk Raj Anand, and several anthologies of fiction. The latter include The Oxford Anthology of Rai Stories (2004) and The Mulk Raj Anand Omnibus (2004). His latest is a collection of his own short fiction entitled Strange Meeting and Other Stories (2006).About the AuthorMulk Raj Anand (1905 ? 2004) was born in and educated at the universities of Punjab and . After earning his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1929, Anand began writing notes for T.S. Eliot's magazine Criterion as well as books on diverse subjects such as cooking and the arts. Recognition came with the publication of his first two novels, Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936). These were followed, among others, by his well-known trilogy The Village (1939), Across the Back Waters (1940) and The Sword and the Sickle (1942). By the time he returned to in 1946, he was the best-known Indian writer abroad. Making his home and centre of activity, Anand plunged with gusto into .Table of ContentsIntroduction by Saros Cowasjee Preface to the Second Edition A Drink with Bonamy Dobrée in the Museum Tavern Lions and Shadows at the Sherry Party in Harold Monro’s Poetry Bookshop In Café Italiano with Aldous Huxley Crumpets with Nancy Cunard and Catherine Carswell at Whytelady’s ‘How Unpleasant to Meet Mr Eliot’: A Talk in the Etoile with T.S. Eliot and Bonamy Dobrée God, Joad and Logical Positivism in the Lower Refectory China Tea in Mr Binyon’s Study in the  British Museum Under the Chestnut Tree in Tavistock Square with E.M. Forster and Leonard Woolf In a Public Bar with Harry Tomkins and Bill Bland A Talk with Arthur Waley about the Asian Novel in Probsthain’s Bookshop Feeding Pigeons with Auntie Emily Richardson in the British Museum Courtyard Tea and Empathy from Virginia Woolf A Wordy Quarrel with Clive Bell at the Hogarth Press Art Nonsense Talk with Eric Gill, Herbert Read and Stanley Morrison in Gordon Square White Gods and Dark Gods ? A Talk with T.S. Eliot in the Criterion Office A Talk with Lytton Strachey in Virginia Woolf’s Drawing Room Paradox or Order ? A Talk with T.S. Eliot in the Criterion Office Talk Over Coffee and Brandy with Valentine and Bonamy Dobrée, Nikhil Sen and Irene Rhys in Francis Meynell’s Flat Reason and Romanticism ? A Talk with T.S. Eliot in Schmidt’s Restaurant in Charlotte Street Ecstasy in Uday Shankar’s Dance in the Salon of Arthur Waley and Beryl De Zoete