The Tantamounts
Isn’t there a literary character, or family, called Tantamount? Did I imagine that?
I’m thinking it’s from someone like Aldous Huxley or Evelyn Waugh. Anthony Powell? Mervyn Peake?
It started when Paula Kirby said on Facebook yesterday that some BBC presenter had said something was of “tantamount importance.” Groans all around. But then I started getting this itch inside the head…Margot Tantamount? Charles Tantamount? Tantamount Hall?
Google has been no help, so maybe I did imagine it. Anyone?
Huxley
Point, Counterpoint
Lucy Tantamount
Lucy Tantamount is a character in Huxley’s novel Point Counter Point.
Thank you. A Facebook friend also told me that. I even thought it might be – which is not all that surprising, because I re-read bits of Point Counter Point not long ago. I even dug out my old copy to leaf through it last night, but my leafing was too desultory.
Following on the original gaffe, in the TV show Arrested Development one of the characters worked for Tantamount Film Studios.
Having moved on from 20th Century Vole.
:- )
Might you be thinking of “The Royal Tenenbaums”?
There is an Egyptian city called Tanta. There must be some high ground nearby that could be labelled a mount. It’s a literary necessity.
There was also a Round The Horne character called Lord Tantamount Horseposture