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James Lees-Milne Complete Diaries
Prophesying Peace: Diaries, 1944-1945
Very Good Soft cover MICHAEL RUSSELL PUBL. Very Good. Soft cover. 2003.
- GenresBiographyNonfictionDiary
264 pages, Paperback
First published September 22, 1977
34 people want to read
About the author
James Lees-Milne
80 books20 followersJames Lees-Milne (1908-1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses.
Biography
He was a noted biographer and historian, and is also considered one of the twentieth century's great diarists. He came from a family of landed gentry and grew up in Worcestershire. He attended Lockers Park Prep School, Eton and Oxford University. In 1936 he was appointed secretary of the Country House Committee of the National Trust, and he held that position until 1950 apart from a period of military service from 1939-1941. He was instrumental in the first large scale transfer of country houses from private ownership to the Trust. After resigning his full-time position in 1950 he continued his connection with the National Trust as a part time architectural consultant.
He resided on the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire for most of his later years while working in William Thomas Beckford's library at Lansdown Crescent at Bath. He was a friend of many of the most prominent British intellectual and social figures of his day, including Nancy Mitford, Harold Nicolson (about whom he wrote a two-volume biography), and Cyril Connolly. He married Alvilde Chaplin, formerly Bridges, a prominent gardening and landscape expert, in 1951.
From 1947 Lees-Milne published a series of architectural works aimed primarily at the general reader. He was also a diarist, and his diaries were published in many volumes and were well received, in later years attracting a cult following. His other works included several biographies and an autobiographical novel.
Biography
He was a noted biographer and historian, and is also considered one of the twentieth century's great diarists. He came from a family of landed gentry and grew up in Worcestershire. He attended Lockers Park Prep School, Eton and Oxford University. In 1936 he was appointed secretary of the Country House Committee of the National Trust, and he held that position until 1950 apart from a period of military service from 1939-1941. He was instrumental in the first large scale transfer of country houses from private ownership to the Trust. After resigning his full-time position in 1950 he continued his connection with the National Trust as a part time architectural consultant.
He resided on the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire for most of his later years while working in William Thomas Beckford's library at Lansdown Crescent at Bath. He was a friend of many of the most prominent British intellectual and social figures of his day, including Nancy Mitford, Harold Nicolson (about whom he wrote a two-volume biography), and Cyril Connolly. He married Alvilde Chaplin, formerly Bridges, a prominent gardening and landscape expert, in 1951.
From 1947 Lees-Milne published a series of architectural works aimed primarily at the general reader. He was also a diarist, and his diaries were published in many volumes and were well received, in later years attracting a cult following. His other works included several biographies and an autobiographical novel.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 13, 2022
It took me well over a month to finish this. I would read about 10 pages every other day before I ran in the morning. I’m reading the diary of a man who worked for the National Trust in England — “formerly devoted to preserving beauty spots, the National Trust had only recently adopted the conservation of country houses as one of its purposes. JLM's task was to help compile a list of the houses most worthy of preservation, approach the owners, and visit such of them as were potentially interested in arrangements with the National Trust.” [taken from https://www.jamesleesmilne.com/life2.... ] I read the first volume about 9 months ago and was sufficiently interested to order 3 more collections of his diaries. This one I’d say was pretty much as good as the first.
He just doesn’t describe the homes and castles and chapels (sometimes part of the property of a rich landowner) because if that were the case, I would not be all that interested after reading several of the descriptions which would probably do nicely for me thank you very much...
• It’s the descriptions of the various people that he meets (and he meets heaps of people) ...they, and his descriptions of them, truly amused me.
• It’s a description of life during wartime England when bombs were falling all round...rockets were exploding into buildings...and yet life went on...people just got on with life during the day...the bombing and such tended to occur at night.
• It’s getting into his head and him telling us the events of the day.... which can be interesting and/or amusing.
• It’s all of that and more. I just finished 241 pages of the 1944/45 diaries and will move on to the next one (Caves of Ice) with enthusiasm.
Supposedly the diaries were lightly edited...not by him I don’t think but by a chap, Mr. Ian Parsons, “who has been unsparing with his advice and his blue pencil”.
I took 6 pages of notes, jotting down things that interested me or that I want to include in this review. I’m not sure I can capture how funny and unique this diary is. I have ten more diaries to go...this just covered 1944-45. He is approximately 36 years old at this point in his life.
Some of his musings on people’s or building’s appearances:
• She was a charmless horsey lady, with down on her jowl.
• He has glassy fish-like eyes, rather protuberant, which dart around. They give him a sinister appearance.
• It is the brilliant production of a disappointed, uncreative critic, approaching 40, who is frightfully ugly.
• At teatime, a daughter came into the library from the farm, wearing trousers, her hair tousled and spattered with dung.
• The Castle proper is, inside and out, the most hideous building I have ever seen... There is a private chapel of unparalleled hideousness.
Miscellaneous short ramblings:
• I slept in a large feather bed. One sinks and sinks until one is drowned in prickly, stifling, asthma-inducing plumage.
• All Saints’ Day does not mean much to me as All Souls’ Day, for one day I shall be one of the latter, and never one of the former.
• Lunched with Derek Hill at the Reform. Filthy foods—smelts, well named, and rice pudding
• I set my alarm clock for 7 o’clock, and the inevitable consequence was that I slept very badly, waiting for the damned thing to go off.
• (The war is over). ‘The world is left a victim of chaos, great uncertainty and heinous turpitude.’
• Anecdotes fly from his lips like little birds from an open cage.
Slightly longer ramblings:
• In talking to me in the bar of the St. James’s club, Charles Fry spat all over me. Like an absolute gentleman I merely laughed. He said, ‘Good God!’. Took out his handkerchief and wiped my face. I passed it off but could have been sick. Coming home, for no reason I fell flat on my face on the Piccadilly pavement, bruised my hip and was shaken. A kind old man who was passing by, said, as he ran to help, ‘Dear me, I am sorry,’ tripped, and fell flat on his face likewise. I was unable to run towards him, but lay laughing, and crying with the pain, and laughing. He did not laugh.
• Oh yes, the climate of Ireland is far too relaxing. There is something dead about the country and its people. It is like living on a luxuriant moon. I dislike the way individuals remain for hours on end standing and staring into space. We passed this morning one woman sitting on a stile, with the face of a zany, staring, not at the view, but at her toes. When we returned this evening, she as still there in exactly the same idiotic position, and still staring at her toes. This gives me the creeps.
Longest rambling I will place below as a spoiler because this review is too long, and my apologies!:
He just doesn’t describe the homes and castles and chapels (sometimes part of the property of a rich landowner) because if that were the case, I would not be all that interested after reading several of the descriptions which would probably do nicely for me thank you very much...
• It’s the descriptions of the various people that he meets (and he meets heaps of people) ...they, and his descriptions of them, truly amused me.
• It’s a description of life during wartime England when bombs were falling all round...rockets were exploding into buildings...and yet life went on...people just got on with life during the day...the bombing and such tended to occur at night.
• It’s getting into his head and him telling us the events of the day.... which can be interesting and/or amusing.
• It’s all of that and more. I just finished 241 pages of the 1944/45 diaries and will move on to the next one (Caves of Ice) with enthusiasm.
Supposedly the diaries were lightly edited...not by him I don’t think but by a chap, Mr. Ian Parsons, “who has been unsparing with his advice and his blue pencil”.
I took 6 pages of notes, jotting down things that interested me or that I want to include in this review. I’m not sure I can capture how funny and unique this diary is. I have ten more diaries to go...this just covered 1944-45. He is approximately 36 years old at this point in his life.
Some of his musings on people’s or building’s appearances:
• She was a charmless horsey lady, with down on her jowl.
• He has glassy fish-like eyes, rather protuberant, which dart around. They give him a sinister appearance.
• It is the brilliant production of a disappointed, uncreative critic, approaching 40, who is frightfully ugly.
• At teatime, a daughter came into the library from the farm, wearing trousers, her hair tousled and spattered with dung.
• The Castle proper is, inside and out, the most hideous building I have ever seen... There is a private chapel of unparalleled hideousness.
Miscellaneous short ramblings:
• I slept in a large feather bed. One sinks and sinks until one is drowned in prickly, stifling, asthma-inducing plumage.
• All Saints’ Day does not mean much to me as All Souls’ Day, for one day I shall be one of the latter, and never one of the former.
• Lunched with Derek Hill at the Reform. Filthy foods—smelts, well named, and rice pudding
• I set my alarm clock for 7 o’clock, and the inevitable consequence was that I slept very badly, waiting for the damned thing to go off.
• (The war is over). ‘The world is left a victim of chaos, great uncertainty and heinous turpitude.’
• Anecdotes fly from his lips like little birds from an open cage.
Slightly longer ramblings:
• In talking to me in the bar of the St. James’s club, Charles Fry spat all over me. Like an absolute gentleman I merely laughed. He said, ‘Good God!’. Took out his handkerchief and wiped my face. I passed it off but could have been sick. Coming home, for no reason I fell flat on my face on the Piccadilly pavement, bruised my hip and was shaken. A kind old man who was passing by, said, as he ran to help, ‘Dear me, I am sorry,’ tripped, and fell flat on his face likewise. I was unable to run towards him, but lay laughing, and crying with the pain, and laughing. He did not laugh.
• Oh yes, the climate of Ireland is far too relaxing. There is something dead about the country and its people. It is like living on a luxuriant moon. I dislike the way individuals remain for hours on end standing and staring into space. We passed this morning one woman sitting on a stile, with the face of a zany, staring, not at the view, but at her toes. When we returned this evening, she as still there in exactly the same idiotic position, and still staring at her toes. This gives me the creeps.
Longest rambling I will place below as a spoiler because this review is too long, and my apologies!:
May 20, 2021
James Lees-Milne was working for the National Trust at this point, so a lot of entries are about him visiting houses throughout the UK To see whether they would be suitable NT properties; the rest of the time is spent with the Literati and the London socialites. Familiar names frequently crop up in these pages such as Nancy and Tom Mitford, James Pope Hennessey, Evelyn Waugh, and many others.
To begin with I thought this was going to be much the same as the first volume, which in a way it is. Despite being written during the war it seems to have little effect on him, apart from making food difficult to get. Soon the V1 & V2 rockets start to fall in London and you get a real sense of what it was like to live through this and the read becomes much more interesting.
To begin with I thought this was going to be much the same as the first volume, which in a way it is. Despite being written during the war it seems to have little effect on him, apart from making food difficult to get. Soon the V1 & V2 rockets start to fall in London and you get a real sense of what it was like to live through this and the read becomes much more interesting.
July 8, 2017
I rated this volume a little bit lower than the preceding one, "Ancestral Voices," which covered the years 1942-43. I just got a little tired of all the country house visiting, which was done for Lees-Milne's job working for the National Trust. Also, JLM is exceptionally reticent about his "private life". In these years he's still seeing a lot of his "gay" friends like Eddy Sackville-West, "Jamsey" Pope-Hennessy, and Harold Nicolson - but he's extremely vague about what he himself was actually feeling, thinking, and experiencing at the time.
On the positive side, there are some very strong descriptions of his reactions to the V1 and V2 rockets attacks upon London in the late stages of World War II.
On the positive side, there are some very strong descriptions of his reactions to the V1 and V2 rockets attacks upon London in the late stages of World War II.
September 29, 2025
⭐️💫⭐️💫🌟✨🌟✨⭐️💫⭐️💫✨🌟✨
June 20, 2017
Another pleasing diary by Lees-Milne.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews