The diaries of the National Trust’s country house expert James Lees-Milne (1908-97) have been hailed as ‘one of the treasures of contemporary English literature’. The first of three, this volume, which includes interesting material omitted when the diaries were originally published during the author’s lifetime, covers the years 1942 to 1954, beginning with his wartime visits to hard-pressed country house owners, and ending with his marriage to the exotic Alvilde Chaplin.
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Reviews
Just as querulous, misanthropic, greedy, vain and fascinating as ever. One reads, one deplores - and reads on with vindictive delight
The greatest diarist of our times - funny, feline and disconcertingly honest, wielding a rapier to Alan Clark's cudgel
His wonderful diaries demonstrates to anyone with eyes to see that he was a superb chronicler of the human condition
'Funny, shrewd, waspish and wise ... Lees-Milne was the greatest diarist of this century, and one of its finest writers'
'Nothing short of phenomenal ... surely the finest diary of the 20th Century, truly a great masterpiece of English literature'
'Without question one of the finest diarists of the 20th century'