‘Can you wonder that foreigners are prone to talk about “these mad Englishwomen”?’: Britain's Bright Young People in Europe

The Bright Young People, a loose association of upper-class individuals active during the 1920s and 1930s, are most commonly associated – by historians and contemporaries alike – with Mayfair in London's West End. However, their social world reached far beyond a single neighborhood in the capital. Indeed, it would extend to greater London, the British countryside, and, as demonstrated in this article, the European continent. This travel across the Channel would also reaffirm the importance of European culture linkages with Britain during a period of the ‘Americanization’ of British culture. While this Continental travel was evocative of earlier forms of aristocratic and upper-class travel, the Bright Young People would refashion these journeys abroad to reflect metropolitan modes of socializing. In transposing their Mayfair behavior to foreign locales, the Bright Young People, as the example of Diana Cooper in Venice demonstrates, would open themselves up to critiques from the British press and members of their own class. Cooper would lead a misguided treasure hunt across Venice in September 1926, drawing a degree of ire from Venetians, but more forceful condemnations from the British press. These reports would call into question perceived upper-class misbehavior, particularly that perpetrated by aristocratic women. While such behavior was tolerated at home, doing so abroad ran the risk of damaging British prestige and the status of women within British society.