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Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952
Hardcover with unclipped dust jacket. First edition, first impression. Minor shelfwear to jacket only, no other faults. Very good condition. AD
528 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 2013
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December 20, 2013
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Amusing and revealing letters from Lady Diana Cooper to her only son John Julius Norwich.
Amusing and revealing letters from Lady Diana Cooper to her only son John Julius Norwich.
January 3, 2015
I have to say I’ve been spent many happy hours reading the letters of Diana Cooper. There are several volumes of them: A Durable Fire (letters to her husband, Duff Cooper), The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper and Evelyn Waugh and now Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son, John Julius Norwich 1939-1952.
Cooper was the great beauty of her generation. It must have been a bittersweet coming out. She told her son that except for his father all the men she had danced with had been killed in WWI.
Norwich divides the letters into several sections. Each begins with a letter from John Julius to his parents, an brief explanation of the context and time in which the letters were written and then the letters themselves. Mother and son were frequently separated. He lived in Canada during the days of the London Blitz though this caused great controversy as his father was in Churchill’s War Cabinet as The Minister of Information. Later he was at school and they were at various diplomatic postings all over the world.
Cooper’s letters, in which she describes the blitz are fabulous. It seems that no matter where she went she couldn’t get away from the bombs. Quoting bits out of context doesn’t really do justice to the letters, but here is a description of a part of London that she toured after a night of bombing:” All afternoon I went round the demolished pieces of Pimlico and to schools and other buildings where homeless people can be put until they can be billeted in other houses, or sent to the country. Mr. Coombs, Papa’s political agent, was my guide and spared me nothing. I was quite happy to talk to the people and hear their stories and wonder at their serenity and stand aghast at their sincere desire to stay in London and not be evacuated but I didn’t see why I should have to look at the craters and the ruins.Mr Coombs appeared to think it was a treat and probably you would have thought the same. The truth is I don’t like realities. I like dreams and snows and plans for the future and storybooks and music and jokes Best of all I love you and Papa and you are both realities, so my argument collapses.”
For a woman who didn’t like realities, she managed to face quite a few with panache.
When her husband was stationed a ambassador at the Paris embassy she presided over the first meeting of Churchill (The Duckling) and de Gaulle (The Giraffe) and she certainly helped smooth the way (Churchill was wary of de Gaulle). She also accompanied her husband to Algiers and Singapore. She also weathered her husband’s numerous infidelities.
John Julius Norwich does a very good job of placing the letters in context.He notes that at one time the family saw a lot of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He says that when he sees them, he can’t help being grateful to the Duchess. If not for her, Britain might have been ruled by Edward VIII and he, who admired Hitler, might have become one Hitler’s puppets.
If you enjoy these letters, you might also like Diana Cooper’s hard to come by memoirs, Duff Cooper’s Diaries and his memoir, Old Men Forget. John Julius Norwich is also the author of an most delightful and entertaining memoir, Trying to Please
Cooper was the great beauty of her generation. It must have been a bittersweet coming out. She told her son that except for his father all the men she had danced with had been killed in WWI.
Norwich divides the letters into several sections. Each begins with a letter from John Julius to his parents, an brief explanation of the context and time in which the letters were written and then the letters themselves. Mother and son were frequently separated. He lived in Canada during the days of the London Blitz though this caused great controversy as his father was in Churchill’s War Cabinet as The Minister of Information. Later he was at school and they were at various diplomatic postings all over the world.
Cooper’s letters, in which she describes the blitz are fabulous. It seems that no matter where she went she couldn’t get away from the bombs. Quoting bits out of context doesn’t really do justice to the letters, but here is a description of a part of London that she toured after a night of bombing:” All afternoon I went round the demolished pieces of Pimlico and to schools and other buildings where homeless people can be put until they can be billeted in other houses, or sent to the country. Mr. Coombs, Papa’s political agent, was my guide and spared me nothing. I was quite happy to talk to the people and hear their stories and wonder at their serenity and stand aghast at their sincere desire to stay in London and not be evacuated but I didn’t see why I should have to look at the craters and the ruins.Mr Coombs appeared to think it was a treat and probably you would have thought the same. The truth is I don’t like realities. I like dreams and snows and plans for the future and storybooks and music and jokes Best of all I love you and Papa and you are both realities, so my argument collapses.”
For a woman who didn’t like realities, she managed to face quite a few with panache.
When her husband was stationed a ambassador at the Paris embassy she presided over the first meeting of Churchill (The Duckling) and de Gaulle (The Giraffe) and she certainly helped smooth the way (Churchill was wary of de Gaulle). She also accompanied her husband to Algiers and Singapore. She also weathered her husband’s numerous infidelities.
John Julius Norwich does a very good job of placing the letters in context.He notes that at one time the family saw a lot of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He says that when he sees them, he can’t help being grateful to the Duchess. If not for her, Britain might have been ruled by Edward VIII and he, who admired Hitler, might have become one Hitler’s puppets.
If you enjoy these letters, you might also like Diana Cooper’s hard to come by memoirs, Duff Cooper’s Diaries and his memoir, Old Men Forget. John Julius Norwich is also the author of an most delightful and entertaining memoir, Trying to Please
August 4, 2015
Wouldn't Diana Cooper have made the most wonderful guest at your dinner table ! Her letters written to her son between 1939-52 provide a fund of wonderfully vivid and witty anecdotes and are told with disarming self deprecating humour. Her writing is light and airy but her self knowledge is frighteningly deep and profound and so her appreciation of fact and fantasy, and the reality of things makes her a very reliable narrator and observer of life.
Her letters are set against a fascinating historical epoch and make a vivid cameo of political life in the 30's (her husband Duff Cooper was at the Admiralty) and provide a snapshot of Wartime Britain, (the Coopers had connections with the Royal Family and were friends of Winston Churchill, whom she affectionately called "Duckling") and then her letters sent while husband was in the diplomatic service in the post War world reveal the waning influence of titled aristocracy, and their loss of entitlement to political influence and social primacy.
I heard her son, John Julius Norwich deliver a wonderfully witty and engaging talk at the Hay Festival where he shared many of his Mother's intimate and scurrilous insights whilst researching the book. Her honesty is never self absorption but has such a wonderful lightness of touch that the letters read with the immediacy of an intimate friend.
Her letters are set against a fascinating historical epoch and make a vivid cameo of political life in the 30's (her husband Duff Cooper was at the Admiralty) and provide a snapshot of Wartime Britain, (the Coopers had connections with the Royal Family and were friends of Winston Churchill, whom she affectionately called "Duckling") and then her letters sent while husband was in the diplomatic service in the post War world reveal the waning influence of titled aristocracy, and their loss of entitlement to political influence and social primacy.
I heard her son, John Julius Norwich deliver a wonderfully witty and engaging talk at the Hay Festival where he shared many of his Mother's intimate and scurrilous insights whilst researching the book. Her honesty is never self absorption but has such a wonderful lightness of touch that the letters read with the immediacy of an intimate friend.
August 1, 2017
This is really surprisingly good. I'm too lazy to go fetch my copy & give some quotes, but she's witty in an unaffected way, and her letters during the Blitz are a fascinating first-hand 'as it was lived' (by the well-connected & well-to-do) perspective on that period. A great read even if the history of that period doesn't particularly interest you.
December 7, 2013
Beautiful, fascinating and aristocratic, Lady Diana Cooper shocked her family when she married a penniless doctor whose descendants came from 'the wrong side of the bed'. However, the marriage was extremely happy and her husband, Duff Cooper, had a splendid career in politics, diplomacy and writing.
Lady Diana had many talents and writing was certainly one of them. She even makes milking cows interesting! I usually find reading books of letters boring, but Lady Diana's descriptions of being encircled by fires and watching plane flights during the Blitz and life at the British Embassy in France would keep anyone riveted. She even managed to dazzle her young son with them.
I also enjoyed Lady Diana's accounts of her travels to exotic places, and how her husband warned about the immanent fall of Singapore. Disappointingly, she didn't think much of Australia or New Zealand! She wondered 'if one could bear to live in Australia'. One hopes that she would prefer it now.
There's also lots of 'name-dropping', of course. The book is full of dinners and events with famous people, such as Churchill and De Gaulle (who she nicknames 'Wormwood').
I did get a little tired of the letters that Lady Diana wrote after the war. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend this book.
Clive James's description of Lady Diana's writing can't be bettered: 'As a writer she had energy, verbal invention, natural comic timing and a fastidious ear which would have ruled out the possibility of her ever using, as Mr Ziegler does, such a cloddish term as ‘life-style’ — something he must have learned at Oxford, or perhaps at Eton'. (The Wrong Lady Diana)
Lady Diana had many talents and writing was certainly one of them. She even makes milking cows interesting! I usually find reading books of letters boring, but Lady Diana's descriptions of being encircled by fires and watching plane flights during the Blitz and life at the British Embassy in France would keep anyone riveted. She even managed to dazzle her young son with them.
I also enjoyed Lady Diana's accounts of her travels to exotic places, and how her husband warned about the immanent fall of Singapore. Disappointingly, she didn't think much of Australia or New Zealand! She wondered 'if one could bear to live in Australia'. One hopes that she would prefer it now.
There's also lots of 'name-dropping', of course. The book is full of dinners and events with famous people, such as Churchill and De Gaulle (who she nicknames 'Wormwood').
I did get a little tired of the letters that Lady Diana wrote after the war. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend this book.
Clive James's description of Lady Diana's writing can't be bettered: 'As a writer she had energy, verbal invention, natural comic timing and a fastidious ear which would have ruled out the possibility of her ever using, as Mr Ziegler does, such a cloddish term as ‘life-style’ — something he must have learned at Oxford, or perhaps at Eton'. (The Wrong Lady Diana)
December 21, 2013
BBC book of the week
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
February 5, 2019
I am probably way out of line, and perhaps I am betraying my lack of sound historical understanding, but maybe it's not such a great idea to have a son edit his mother's letters that she wrote to him when he was an adolescent. Maybe I'm being churlish, but I can't help but think that someone outside the family romance would have made better choices of what to leave out - and probably there would be fewer repetitive letters (that go on for page after page) of Lady Diana complaining about her servants, or making allusions to society gossip that probably interested only 50 or 60 people at the time.
There are some witty bits, particularly about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Also, Lady Diana's letters about living in London during the Blitz are a tremendously valuable resource of history. But - IMHO - not really enough of the "good stuff" to justify 465 pages of text.
There are some witty bits, particularly about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Also, Lady Diana's letters about living in London during the Blitz are a tremendously valuable resource of history. But - IMHO - not really enough of the "good stuff" to justify 465 pages of text.
August 25, 2014
I had high expectations for this book, but it didn't deliver. Such a shame, as I know that Lady Diana Cooper had a fascinating life and connections with all the sorts of people I enjoy reading about. However, as these were letters to her son, which start from when he is quite young, they seemed to lack the grit I was hoping for. I gave up reading after 200 pages, because despite the odd interesting passage, I had to read too many boring pages inbetween. I'd be interested to read a biography of her life, but these letters to her child just didn't do it for me. On another note, this is the most expensive book I own, at a cost of £25, (received as a Christmas gift from my Mother) it just isn't worth that sort of money and made me all the more disappointed not to have enjoyed it.
December 17, 2014
This is actually a very solid read. The rhythm of Lady Diana Cooper's simple letters to her son is entrancing. Her casual accounts of life in a different time are mesmerizing. Why so interesting? At the outbreak of war between Britain and Nazi Germany, she sends her son (the author/editor) away to live in Canada, fearing an invasion. Her son, John Julius (a.k.a. "Darling Monster") is the reason for the almost two decades of an inside view of History. The people, places, and events all recounted in her chatty, familiar prose. True historians may not appreciate this collection of letters, as it offers no real morsel of previously unknown facts, but it is an account of the life and times in the not so distant past.
January 11, 2016
Interesting but only in parts, particularly during the war.
May 13, 2014
Lady Diana Cooper writes naturally and evocatively about the Blitz, life in Britain's Paris embassy after the war and her eclectic circle of friends. A bit long, but never dull. Quite a mother.
December 27, 2014
What a wonderful collection of letters! And what a truly remarkable and amazing women Diana Cooper was. It must have been a privilege to have known her.
June 26, 2015
Feel quite bereft at finishing this book of letters, a window onto another time and place.
November 26, 2016
An interesting snippet from a particular period in recent history from someone of the class who seems to have known everyone of interest, historical and social.
January 1, 2019
Enjoyable read, but so many people a bit hard to keep up. Because it is an Intimate correspondence there was a lot not explained. Interesting and amusing but.
April 4, 2021
Fascinating reading, a remarkable woman.
he glittering letters of British socialite Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich, from pre-World War Two London to post-Liberation Paris
‘Please, darling monster, write as often as you can. It’s so sad waiting for letters that don’t come and are not even written. I love my darling boy. Don’t treat me so badly again or I’ll have your lights and liver when I get home.’ 19 November 1939
‘I wish, I wish it was all over – Hitler defeated, the lights up again and the guns still.’ 2 October 1940
Lady Diana Cooper was the Edwardian It Girl who inspired novelists from Evelyn Waugh to Nancy Mitford. Born Lady Diana Manners, she was an aristocrat, society darling and an actress. Married to political star Duff Cooper, they were the golden couple at the heart of 20th century British upper-class life. This extraordinary collection of letters written by Diana to her only son, John Julius Norwich, takes us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz to rural Sussex to post-Liberation Paris.
Beyond all the glitz, Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny and fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance and was often shy, who was happiest in the countryside and whose greatest love were her husband and son John, who would later become a leading historian and broadcaster. These illuminating letters document some of history’s most dramatic events, but they provide a vivid and touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, separated by war, oceans – and the constraints of the time they lived in.
‘Diana Cooper is as vivid in literature and social legend as she was in life. Her letters are frank, witty and humorous’ The Times
he glittering letters of British socialite Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich, from pre-World War Two London to post-Liberation Paris
‘Please, darling monster, write as often as you can. It’s so sad waiting for letters that don’t come and are not even written. I love my darling boy. Don’t treat me so badly again or I’ll have your lights and liver when I get home.’ 19 November 1939
‘I wish, I wish it was all over – Hitler defeated, the lights up again and the guns still.’ 2 October 1940
Lady Diana Cooper was the Edwardian It Girl who inspired novelists from Evelyn Waugh to Nancy Mitford. Born Lady Diana Manners, she was an aristocrat, society darling and an actress. Married to political star Duff Cooper, they were the golden couple at the heart of 20th century British upper-class life. This extraordinary collection of letters written by Diana to her only son, John Julius Norwich, takes us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz to rural Sussex to post-Liberation Paris.
Beyond all the glitz, Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny and fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance and was often shy, who was happiest in the countryside and whose greatest love were her husband and son John, who would later become a leading historian and broadcaster. These illuminating letters document some of history’s most dramatic events, but they provide a vivid and touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, separated by war, oceans – and the constraints of the time they lived in.
‘Diana Cooper is as vivid in literature and social legend as she was in life. Her letters are frank, witty and humorous’ The Times
August 15, 2023
the author is so smart, so well educated, could not be bettered in her writing, observant (a fan of trollope, also observant), undaunted (her melancholia related to her husband's unrelenting bedding of others?), having the same adherence to duty and good manners (tho admitted by herself, rude) as the royals - extremely stiff upper lip.
just a strong woman with many admirable qualities and completely involved with living. also, with the perceptions, prejudiced, of her time.
having many smart, talented people in one's life, in beautiful settings - enviable.
just a strong woman with many admirable qualities and completely involved with living. also, with the perceptions, prejudiced, of her time.
having many smart, talented people in one's life, in beautiful settings - enviable.
October 6, 2022
What a fascinating woman and life. Her descriptions of living in England during WWll are evocative. She had a sharp sense of humor and a dinner table full of notable people.
It is a little long and many of the once famous people she mention have obscured over time. I enjoyed it more when I stopped wondering who everyone was and just went along.
It is a little long and many of the once famous people she mention have obscured over time. I enjoyed it more when I stopped wondering who everyone was and just went along.
December 31, 2018
The writing itself is a bit on the dull side, but it was interesting to read a first hand account of the war years spent in London and various other parts of the world. Lady Cooper apparently knew everybody who was anybody of note in the arts and politics.
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