- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (24 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0719565804
- ISBN-13: 978-0719565809
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
312,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #90 in Books > Biography > Essays, Journals & Letters > 20th Century
- #95 in Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > M > Milne, AA
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Product Description
Review
"- 'As sharp and amusing, as generous and jaundiced, as over' - TLS - 'Just as querulous, misanthropic, greedy, vain and fascinating as ever. One reads, one deplores - and reads on with vindictive delight' - Sunday Telegraph 'The greatest diarist of our times - funny, feline and disconcertingly honest, wielding a rapier to Alan Clark's cudgel' - Jeremy Lowis, The Oldie 'The elegiac tone, the wintriness, gots to be very moving...A major work of literature' - Roger Lewis, Spectator - 'His wonderful diaries demonstrates to anyone with eyes to see that he was a superb chronicler of the human condition' - Hugh Massingberd, Spectator"
Product Description
The twelfth and final volume of James Lees-Milne's magnificent diary covers the last five years of his life, until a few weeks before his death at the age of eighty-nine. Old age and infirmity have not diminished his interest in life, and he expresses sharp and original views on everything from modern architecture to New Labour. After the loss of his bossy but beloved wife Alvilde, he devotes himself to visiting friends, observing their habits and relishing their gossip and anecdotes. Whether describing an afternoon with the Prince of Wales, a week-end at Chatsworth, a nostalgic return to the scenes of his youth or a day at the latest London exhibitions, he displays the same mixture of candour, waspish wit, eloquent exasperation and human understanding which has delighted his readers since the first of these volumes appeared in 1975.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The last. The Best,
By Chris (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Milk of Paradise: Diaries 1993-1997 (Paperback)
It's said among horse breeders that a stallion's last get is his best. This is certainly true of James Lees-Milne. His last two diaries, "Ceaseless Turmoil" and "The Milk of Paradise" are equally as wonderful as the first two volumes of the 12 volume series, "Ancestral Voices" and "Prophesying Peace".
In the case of the latter two mentioned, J L-M is a young man, full of the hurry to experience the newness of life on offer, making his way socially in the great world of war-torn and postwar London. At the far end of his life, we are given an insight into the life of a man who has experienced all that he wanted to do and who now enjoys the life that his laurels have earned him. This diary is astonishing. Even on the literal brink of death he was prodigiously disciplined and creative, continuing his writing and socializing up to the very end, together with setting himself little goals like visiting every church within 20 miles of Badminton. Full of social detail, elagiac description of J L-M's beloved English countryside, and much thoughtful musing on the nature of life and death, The Milk of Paradise is a perfect setting into which to put the jewel of James Lees-Milne's life. And, of course, the gossip, as always, is delightful. Perhaps I'll leave Michael Bloch the copies I've annotated with background information, though he'd hardly require them. Some of the really juicy bits must have been left out delibrately, since they're so amusing. Interestingly, the author himself sometimes leaves out little details (which he surely knew) which would have been particularly touching, like the fact (unmentioned in the Diary) that Caroline Beaufort was buried with her favourite childhood doll. There is someting about J L-M that puzzle me. How could it be that throughout his diaries he should consistently -indeed, almost invariably- not know what Church vestments he is describing? Throughout them all he describes surplices as chasubles, chasubles and surplices, and a rochet as a surplice. Most puzzling from a great aesthete. [...] And why, I wondered, did I not review this volume a long time ago? While I have read it three times, all I can answer to the question is this: I'm unworthy to do it. It would require a greater mind than mine to do The Milk of Paradise justice. Buy it. Buy them all.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A careful eye,
By T. Bently "tbently" (Berkshire, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Milk of Paradise: Diaries 1993 - 1997 (Hardcover)
James Lees-Milne is - quite rightly - hailed as one of the greatest diarists of the Twentieth Century and for me rates in terms of Kilvert, if not Pepys, in his lustre. This volume is a little different in tone from its predecessors as he (and his vanity) confronts old age and mourns the loss of his wife Alvilde.
Since this period covers the early 1990s, there is a particular (and unconventional) insight into the lives of Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Camilla Parker-Bowles. Lees-Milne is, for me, one of the few people to hit the nail on the head when it comes to describing the personalities of the British Royal Family and upper classes, and here he paints a not very flattering portrait of Prince Charles and his first bride, both earning the scorn of the author. Lees-Milne has the lightest of touches as a writer. It would be easy for him to come across as boastful or fawning when it comes to depicting the great people (the rich, the talented) of the recent past. But he is never less than entertaining: insightful yet self-deceiving, clever but as flawed and as un-self-knowing as any human.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The last, the best,
By Chris - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Milk of Paradise: Diaries 1993-1997 (Paperback)
It's said among horse breeders that a stallion's last get is his best. This is certainly true of James Lees-Milne. His last two diaries, Ceaseless Turmoil and The Milk of Paradise are equally as wonderful as the first two volumes of the 12 volume series, Ancestral Voices and Prophesying Peace.
In the case of the latter two mentioned, J L-M is a young man, full of the hurry to experience the newness of life on offer, making his way socially in the great world of war-torn and postwar London. At the far end of his life, we are given an insight into the life of a man who has experienced all that he wanted to do and who now enjoys the life that his laurels have earned him. This diary is astonishing. Even on the literal brink of death he was prodigiously disciplined and creative, continuing his writing and socializing up to the very end, together with setting himself little goals like visiting every church within 20 miles of Badminton. Full of social detail, elagiac description of J L-M's beloved English countryside, and much thoughtful musing on the nature of life and death, The Milk of Paradise is a perfect setting into which to put the jewel of James Lees-Milne's life. Interestingly, the author sometimes leaves out little details, which he surely knew, which would have been particularly touching, like the fact (unmentioned in the Diary) that Caroline Beaufort was buried with her favourite childhood doll. There are some curiosities as regards J L-M that puzzle me. How could it be that throughout his diaries he should consistently -indeed, almost invariably- not know what Church vestments he is describing? Throughout them all he describes surplices as chasubles, chasubles and surplices, and a rochet as a surplice. Most puzzling from a great aesthete. Most amazingly, astonishing, really, in the present volume J L-M confesses that his oculist discovers that he is, of all things, colour-blind. How could it be that the very oracle and arbiter of taste could have such a disability. It only proves his true greatness in his chosen field, obviously. Why, I wondered, did I not review this volume a long time ago? While I have read it three times, all I can say to the question is this: I'm unworthy to do it. It would require a greater mind than mine to do it justice. Buy it. Buy them all. |
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