Dresden

In "Dresden," as in his earlier memoirs, "First Childhood," "A Distant Prospect," and "The Chateau de Resenlieu"--all published by Turtle Point Press with Helen Mark Books--Lord Gerald Hugh Tyrwitt-Wilson Berners shows the neat precision of style and wit that typifies his musical compositions. Here is a subtle work of art and a small masterpiece of understatement.The quintessential English eccentric, Lord Berners (1883-1950) was a composer, novelist, painter, and conspicuous aesthete. Known as the English Satie, Berners as a composer collaborated with Gertrude Stein, Balanchine, Ashton, and Diaghilev.