Editing Enoch Powell (section)

== Personal life ==
Powell spoke German, French, Italian, Modern Greek, and Hindi/Urdu,<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=140}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Cosgrave|first=Patrick|author-link=Patrick Cosgrave|date=9 February 1998|title=Obituary: Enoch Powell|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html|website=[[The Independent]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615150933/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html|archive-date=15 June 2009|url-status=live|quote=He learnt Hindi and Urdu – achieving the status of interpreter in both languages.}}</ref> and had a reading knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Welsh.<ref name="auto">{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|pp=581–582}}</ref> Among classical languages, he knew Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Enoch Powell: John Enoch Powell, political maverick, died on February 8th, aged 85|url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/1998/02/12/enoch-powell|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=12 February 1998|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230111032301/https://www.economist.com/obituary/1998/02/12/enoch-powell|archive-date=11 January 2023|url-status=live|quote=He added systematically to his store of languages, among them Hebrew, which he learnt at 70 to help his studies of the Bible.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Cosgrave|first=Patrick|author-link=Patrick Cosgrave|date=9 February 1998|title=Obituary: Enoch Powell|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html|website=[[The Independent]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615150933/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-enoch-powell-1143867.html|archive-date=15 June 2009|url-status=live|quote=His Aramaic, his Greek and his Hebrew all came into play here.}}</ref>

[[Canon (title)|Canon]] Eric James, a former Trinity College chaplain, revealed in a letter to ''[[The Times]]'' on 10 February 1998 that in his old age Powell confessed to him that he had been in love with a fellow male undergraduate at Cambridge (whom [[Michael Bloch]] believes to have been "probably Edward Curtis of [[Clare College]]") and that this infatuation had inspired love verses published in his ''First Poems''.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Bloch | first = Michael | title = Closet Queens | page=210 | publisher = Little, Brown | year = 2015 | isbn = 9781408704127}}</ref> Following his appointment as Professor of Greek at the University of Sydney in 1937, he wrote to his parents that he was repelled by his female students, while feeling "an instant and instinctive affection" for young Australian males. This, he added, might be "deplored, but it cannot be altered", and it therefore had to be "endured – and (alas!) camouflaged." The letters are now in the [[Churchill College]] Archives.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Bloch | first = Michael | title = Closet Queens | page=211 | publisher = Little, Brown | year = 2015 | isbn = 9781408704127}}</ref>

Despite his earlier [[atheism]], Powell became a devout member of the [[Church of England]].{{sfn|Heffer|1998|p=130}} He subsequently became a church warden of [[St. Margaret's, Westminster]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Enoch Powell in garden Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|left|Powell in his garden in [[Belgravia]], London, in 1986]]
On 2 January 1952, the 39-year-old Powell married 26-year-old Margaret Pamela Wilson, a former colleague from the [[Conservative Central Office]]. Their first daughter, Susan, was born in January 1954, and their second daughter, Jennifer, was born in October 1956.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} In Robert Shepherd's biography of Powell, it is noted that General [[Walter Cawthorn]] "became almost a second father" to him.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j49nAAAAMAAJ&q=%22general+walter+cawthorn%22|title=Enoch Powell|first=Robert|last=Shepherd|year=1966|page=55|publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=978-0-09-179208-4 }}</ref>

Powell was an [[anti-Stratfordian]] who firmly believed that [[William Shakespeare]] of [[Stratford on Avon]] was not the writer of the plays and poems of Shakespeare. He appeared on an episode of [[Frontline (American TV program)|''Frontline'']], "The Shakespeare Mystery," 19 April 1989,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sim |first1=Kevin |title=The Shakespeare Mystery |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0891029/ |publisher=Frontline, Season 7, Episode 10, 19 April 1989 |access-date=17 November 2020}}</ref> in which he said, "My astonishment was to discover that these were the works of someone who'd 'been in the kitchen.' They are written by someone who has lived the life, who has been part of a life of politics and power, who knows what people feel when they are near to the centre of power. Near to the heat of the kitchen." He called the traditional biography a "Stratfordian fantasy."{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In his younger years, Powell published four collections of poems: ''First Poems''; ''Casting Off''; ''Dancer's End''; and ''The Wedding Gift''. His ''Collected Poems'' appeared in 1990. As a young scholar he translated [[Herodotus]]' ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' and published many other works of classical scholarship. He also wrote a biography of [[Joseph Chamberlain]] in 1977. His political publications were often as critical of the conservatives as they were of Labour, making fun of what he saw as [[logical fallacies]] in reasoning or action. His book ''Freedom & Reality'' contained many quotes from Labour party manifestos or by [[Harold Wilson]] that he regarded as nonsensical.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In March 2015, ''The Independent'' reported that Powell was one of the MPs whose activities had been investigated as part of [[Operation Fernbridge]]. His name had been passed to police by [[Paul Butler (bishop)|Paul Butler]], the [[Bishop of Durham]], after allegations of Powell's involvement in historic child abuse had been made by one individual in the 1980s to the then [[Bishop of Monmouth]], [[Dominic Walker (bishop)|Dominic Walker]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Milmo |first=Cahal |title=Tory MP Enoch Powell investigated as alleged member of Westminster paedophile network |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tory-mp-enoch-powell-investigated-as-alleged-member-of-westminster-paedophile-network-10142235.html|work=The Independent |date=30 March 2015}}</ref><ref group="nb">[[Simon Heffer]], who has published a biography of Powell, has described the allegation as a "monstrous lie" and criticised the [[Church of England]]'s actions in "putting this smear into the public domain", while the church stated that it had simply responded to an inquiry from the press and confirmed that allegations about Powell, which related to an alleged [[satanic cult]] rather than any criminal activity, had been passed to the police.</ref><ref>Gledhill, Ruth (30 March 2015). [http://www.christiantoday.com/article/enoch.powell.satanic.cult.claims.cofe.defends.decision.to.pass.name.to.police/51083.htm "Enoch Powell 'satanic cult' claims: CofE defends decision to pass name to police"]. ''Christian Today''. Retrieved 31 March 2015.</ref><ref group="nb">[[David Aaronovitch]] of ''[[The Times]]'' wrote in April 2015 that the 1980s claims about Powell originated from fabricated claims invented by a conman, [[Derry Mainwaring Knight]], whose false assertions had become known to the clergy, but had been unwittingly conveyed to the police in good faith.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Aaronovitch|first=David|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/lets-expose-the-satanic-abuse-con-artists-6rfggnp8x5z|title=Let's expose the satanic abuse con artists|work=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=2 April 2015|access-date=8 October 2015}} {{subscription required}}</ref>