All I Could Never Be by Beverley Nichols – #1949Club

When we planned our timings for the 1949 Club, I hadn’t realised there would be a two-day work retreat… which was wonderful, but has put me very behind in amalgamating reviews, let alone reading them or writing my own. I have several more books to write about this week, though they may come in a scramble towards the end of the week… And today’s is a book by a reliable, much-loved author: dear Beverley Nichols. I’ve been accumulating them rather faster than I’ve been reading them, but turning to All I Could Never Be has reminded me afresh why I love him so much. As in several of Nichol’s books, the tone of this collection of essays is nostalgia for the 1920s. There are often links between the end of one essay and the start of the next, but other than that they are pretty disparate – covering his various friendships (usually with the great and the good), the genesis of some of his books, and perhaps most surprisingly a few sections on his Christian faith and its evolution. Along the…