England populated by about 30 people, each with weird names

Hilarious - reading Anthony Powell's volume 6 of Dance to the Music of Time, The Kindly Ones, and you know this will happen if you've read enough Powell: narrator Jenkins is at a remote seaside B&B run by the now old Arthur who was the family cook back when he was a child at Stonehurst - because as it happens that's where his scheming and philandering Uncle Giles used to stay when he was trying to avoid London and its consequences - and Giles, a major character in the first 5 volumes, dies there suddenly and J. goes to handle the effects (except for some left at his club in London). He's in the hotel dining room and at the table next to him someone has stepped away for a minute and left a half-empty bottle. Now, it's Powell, so we know: the person who comes to the table will turn out to be one of J's old friends! Of course - in this instance, it's Duport (?), who was involved in the eventful car accident back in the school days - they hadn't seen each other for 20 years and at first J. pretends ignorance but D. recognizes him first, and soon they're reminiscing - especially interest bcz D., a serious drunk (witness the half-empty bottle, at breakfast) had been married to Jean, the narrator's first huge crush (we already know from what Templer told J. that they are long divorced and Jean is on a 2nd marriage somewhere in Latin America). Oh, these strange and funny strands that tie the characters together - and the weird sense that this whole country is populated by about 30 people, each with weird names, and maybe to some social classes it does seem that way, or did - London much more cosmopolitan now, and maybe the last volumes of the series will get hold of that, too.