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8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

A dear diary, but... could do better?, 2 Aug 2006

By	Petrolhead (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

Ancestral Voices is the gentle and sharply-observed diary of the young (34-ish) James Lees-Milne, a member of the effetely quaint British upper class at the turning-point of the Second World War. Invalided out of the army, he describes his work on the tiny staff of the National Trust, a job that consists of roaming Britain to visit stately homes to assess whether they are architecturally significant and well-enough endowed to be added to the Trust. He moves in an exalted swirl of artists, writers, snobs and the occasional spy, and the diary is rich with insights into the mores and morals of (rich) people at the time, although many of the names meant nothing to me. It's readable, but the lack of plot gives it an undemanding pace.
Some of the characters are classic eccentrics, finely drawn. Lees-Milne comes across as good company, occasionally honestly bitchy, and gradually includes more and more about hints about his and others' sexuality. Lees-Milne has sprinkles of wit and opinion that make one grateful that he was willing to publish, but the book's strength is also its weakness: what was interestng to him at the time may be lost on us now, and incidental details now glorious nuggets of a forgotten way of life. I could have done with a tenth of the catalogue of country houses but was intrigued to learn what was uppermost in upper-class minds of the day. Surprisingly, many of his acquaintances seemed hardly interested in the war (one might say the same today) while others were vehement haters of Churchill.
However, there could have been so much more. The book was published many years after it was written, and in the introduction the author expresses his regret at expunging much of the gossip he orginally included. I regret it too, for although Ancestral Voices throws an unusual light on the war years, much of it is a roster of meetings with Lords and literati at their stately homes, and many of the names no longer conjure an image. I only hope that the later diaries, which I have not read, redress the balance in favour of gossip. This volume, except as a compendium of grand old homes and snobs of yesteryear, is perhaps best read as a prelude to the many later volumes of diaries.

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