James Lees-Milne (1908-97) made his name as the country house expert of the National Trust and for being a versatile author. But he is now best known for the remarkable diary he kept for most of his adult life, which has been compared with that of Samuel Pepys and hailed as 'a treasure of contemporary English literature'.
The first of three, this volume covers its first dozen years, beginning with his return to work for the National Trust during the Second World War, and ending with his tempestuous marriage to the exotic Alvilde Chaplin.
The diary vividly portrays the hectic social life of London during the Blitz, when in the intervals between struggling to save a disintegrating architectural heritage he enjoys a dizzying variety of romantic experiences with both sexes. His descriptions of visits to harassed country-house owners are as perceptive as they are hilarious.
With the war's end, the mood changes as he portrays a world of gloom and austerity. He shares the prevailing pessimism, yet during these years arranges the transfer of some of England's loveliest houses to the safe keeping of the National Trust. Finally he escapes from England to live on the Continent with his beautiful paramour, yet remains restless and dissatisfied.
The diaries of James Lees-Milne were originally published in twelve volumes between 1975 and 2005. Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne's literary executor and editor of the last five volumes of the complete work, has produced this skilful compilation from the first five volumes - including interesting new material omitted from the original publications.
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'These diaries are one of the treasures of English literature. They make the most strangely addictive reading . . . Artless though they may seem, they will outlive the era's paltry novels and lame verses'
(David Sexton )'As part of the filigree scaffolding of social history, these diaries are unsurpassed'
(Brian Masters )'If you want to experience the merry-go-round of upper-middle-class life in the twentieth century, you can do no better than follow Lees-Milne, as sharp-tongued, melancholy, jaundiced and reactionary a commentator as ever lived' (Susan Hill )
'Funny and touching, honest and personal, prejudiced and tolerant, fully of strangely riveting anecdotes'
(John Betjeman )
'It is hard to imagine a better reporter from this particular world and generation'
(Candia McWilliam )
'A superb chronicler of the human condition'
(Hugh Massingberd )
'My favourite diarist of the twentieth century'
(Alan Clark )'Lees-Milne's humour and intelligence shine through, making this account of a tempestuous dozen years an illuminating and enjoyable read'
(Alexander Larman, New Statesman )'Lees-Milne is probably the diarist who comes closest to bring the Samuel Pepys of his age. Spontaneous, personal and intimate, but at the same time knowledgeable, gossipy and urbane, Lees-Milne's diaries effortlessly convey the flavor - or, rather, the many flavors - of the many places in which he lived'
(Merle Rubin, The Washington Times )
'Here is just the right Christmas gift for the ever so slightly sniffy-cum-snooty set who are tricky to please, but like an occasional burst of malicious gossip'
(Paul James, Torquay Herald Express )About the Author
Born in 1953, Michael Bloch read law at St John's College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. He worked for Maître Suzanne Blum, the Parisian lawyer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and wrote six books about the couple. His other subjects include Hitler's foreign minister Ribbentrop, F. M. Alexander (founder of the Alexander Technique) and the politician Jeremy Thorpe. He met James Lees-Milne in 1979, became his literary executor on his death in 1997, has edited the final five volumes of his diary and is currently writing his biography.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Ian Millard
I tired in the end of these nonetheless quite interesting diaries, comparable to the Woodrow Wyatt diaries. The author was probably the single most important saviour for the National Trust of the English country houses. He (not in this volume) regretted never having fought against "the forces of world destruction" for Franco, but was not a National Socialist nor even Fascist. "Reactionary" is a possible label, perhaps. He hates the war (WW2) but mainly for the destruction it entails rather than the loss of human life (it seems to me).
One has to be a bit careful in believing all one reads in any diary: I met only one person (once) who is in these diaries, Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh, who is said to have had a drawling and exagerrated voice, though I (admittedly, 30 years later than in these diaries, about 1975) found his voice normal and pleasant. And the book, while noting that he was an architect and artist (and that his family owned almost the whole town of Southport, Lancashire --another fact of which I was unaware--) failed to mention that he was dropped as a British agent into France around the time of the Normandy Landings. Sometimes facts are given which surprise. I was surprised to read that my one-time girlfriend's aunt had been elevated to the life peerage. You live and learn, even if you learn, at times, the irrelevant...that's another problem with diaries.
A good read but it did tire me in the end and I rushed the last fifth of the book.
One has to be a bit careful in believing all one reads in any diary: I met only one person (once) who is in these diaries, Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh, who is said to have had a drawling and exagerrated voice, though I (admittedly, 30 years later than in these diaries, about 1975) found his voice normal and pleasant. And the book, while noting that he was an architect and artist (and that his family owned almost the whole town of Southport, Lancashire --another fact of which I was unaware--) failed to mention that he was dropped as a British agent into France around the time of the Normandy Landings. Sometimes facts are given which surprise. I was surprised to read that my one-time girlfriend's aunt had been elevated to the life peerage. You live and learn, even if you learn, at times, the irrelevant...that's another problem with diaries.
A good read but it did tire me in the end and I rushed the last fifth of the book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Diary Addict's Delight
14 Jun 2007
By Patrick Odaniel
- Published on Amazon.com
James Lees-Milne, like that other revered diarist from the mid-twentieth-century, Harold Nicolson (who was his friend), has come to be viewed as, if not one of the greatest British diarists of all times, then, certainly, as one of the wittiest and most entertaining. Unlike, Nicolson, though, Lees-Milne lived into the 'nineties. This volume is the reprint of his first diaries and is full to bursting with colorful anecdotes. Here's a sample: "Lord Esher is restless during weekends. Likes to talk. Never reads. Nevertheless is bubbling with fun and jokes; counting the cakes on the tea-table and calculating how many he may eat, and then gorging. Never walks a yard, saying we should hold Sir Edgar Bonham Carter, who was a rugger blue and is now a cripple, as a warning not on any account to take exercise. Says he would rather remain in England and be atom-bombed into a jelly than emigrate to the colonies, blaze trails through the bushvelt and be eaten by scorpions."
Now some of you may wonder how you missed seeing the publication of this book. Simple. You live in the literary backwater of the United States and no publisher chose to pick it up. If you had bought it from amazon.uk you would have been in luck. I highly recommend checking out amazon's sister website across the pond. There's a number of great books featured there, like this one, which are simply not available in the United States.
Now some of you may wonder how you missed seeing the publication of this book. Simple. You live in the literary backwater of the United States and no publisher chose to pick it up. If you had bought it from amazon.uk you would have been in luck. I highly recommend checking out amazon's sister website across the pond. There's a number of great books featured there, like this one, which are simply not available in the United States.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Days Go By
24 Jun 2009
By Christian Schlect
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
A well written record of an intelligent and socially connected Englishman during and sometime after the last World War.
Anyone who has an interest in the great country houses of England and the society that attended them should read this fine book and its two companion volumes.
The illuminating sketches that capture fleeting moments with such people as G.B. Shaw, Bernard Berenson, and Winston Churchill are estimable.
Anyone who has an interest in the great country houses of England and the society that attended them should read this fine book and its two companion volumes.
The illuminating sketches that capture fleeting moments with such people as G.B. Shaw, Bernard Berenson, and Winston Churchill are estimable.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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