Sunday book pick: ‘In Youth is Pleasure’ is a whimsical bildungsroman about youthful curiosity

“Why are you so timid?”
“I’m not timid, I’m frightened,” said Orvil.
“What of?”
“Everything; I’ve got to go back to school.”

British painter and writer Denton Welch’s In Youth is Pleasure was first published in 1945. Penguin Classics republished it in 2021, giving a new lease of life to this whimsical bildungsroman written by an almost-forgotten young artist.

Welch died in 1948 at the tragically young age of 33. His paintings, the self-portraits especially, are vivid and striking. His writings too bear a similarity to his bright, precise strokes on the canvas.

Born in Shanghai to a wealthy British rubber merchant father and an American mother of the Christian Science faith, Welch was the youngest of four sons. He was sent to a boarding school at 11, following his mother’s death after a prolonged illness. He went on to study at Repton School, where writer Roald Dahl was also a student. Welch was a poor fit there and he ran away before the end of the final term. He later pursued art at Goldsmiths in London and began writing (poetry, at first) following an accident at 20, which fractured his spine and confined him to bed.

The author’s biographical details are helpful in understanding how much the novel might have been inspired by his own...

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