- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd; illustrated edition edition (13 July 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0719565812
- ISBN-13: 978-0719565816
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,159,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Thoroughly irresistable...sparkles with delicious indiscretion and startling observations' -- Country Life 20051201 'The Milk of Paradise "is the provocative last testament of a never dull diarist' -- Catholic Herald 20051209 'As sharp and amusing, as generous and jaundiced, as ever' -- TLS 'Just as querulous, misanthropic, greedy, vain and fascinating as ever. One reads, one deplores -- and reads on with vindictive delight' -- Patrick Skene-Caitling, Sunday Telegraph 'The greatest diarist of our times -- funny, feline and disconcertingly honest, wielding a rapier to Alan Clark's cudgel' -- Jeremy Lewis, The Oldie 'The elegiac tone, the wintriness, gets 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 'Funny, shrewd, waspish and wise ... Lees-Milne was the greatest diarist of this century, and one of its finest writers' -- Jeremy Lewis, Literary Review 20051001 'Nothing short of phenomenal ! surely the finest diary of the 20th Century, truly a great masterpiece of English literature' -- Hugh Massingberd, Country Life 20051013 'Unique ! a 300-page gossip column, studded with apercus worthy of a great novel' -- Harry Mount, Daily Telegraph 20051029 'Alert and idiosyncratic ! James Lees-Milne is without question one of the finest diarists of the 20th century' -- Selina Hastings, Spectator 20051029 'Crammed with bizarre and funny anecdotes ... this volume splendidly rounds off an exceptional enterprise.' -- The Sunday Times 20051106 'It is his appealingly genuine tone of self-deprecationthat makes so many of his entries endearing.' -- Simon Blow, Independent on Sunday 20051106 'Amusingly irritating, he gives you a fascinating glimpse of what remains of society life today' -- Alan Titchmarsh, Sunday Express 20051204 'Deserves to be celebrated for [its] candour and compulsive readability' -- The Times, Michael Grove 20051203 'The anecdotes are priceless.' -- Observer 20060701 'Altogether an excellent mystery story, which grips the reader all the way through. Contains many ideas which would interest book groups.' -- New Books Mag 20060701 '[Lees-Milne's] final volume sparkles as brightly as its 11 predecessors, still full of gossip, sharp of eye and ear and only occasionally malicious. A bit of a snob? Maybe, but who cares? His delight in both people and places is positively touching' -- Sunday Telegraph / Seven 20060701 '[Lees-Milne's] journals are famous for their bitchiness but, in the long run, they are more impressive for their honesty and the way he communicates the small sensations of being alive' -- The Sunday Times 20060701 'Some diarists decline in interest as they age. Not Lees-Milne !wonderful, addictive' -- Evening Standard 20060710 'At times extremely funny, at other times a royal pain in the arse' -- Sunday Tribune 20060730
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The last, the best
14 Sep 2006
Format: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.
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.
James Lees-Milne
10 Feb 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am grateful to Mr. Dirda for recommending the books of James Lees-Milne. I learned something about language every time I pick one up.
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