A classic six-volume memoir of the twentieth century, spanning through the Second World War, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Cecil Beaton (1904 –1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, painter, diarist and Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer.
“Thirty-five years ago I could think of nothing more wonderful than going to Hollywood to work on designing a great film. But Hollywood has changed and so have I.”
Beaton’s fifth volume covers 1955-63. He travels the world, visiting exotic locales and also Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. Friends like Diana Vreeland, Truman Cooper, and Greta Garbo make repeat appearances. He also recounts a grand ball given by Barbara Hutton in Tangier and an argument with Alfred Hitchcock at a movie screening hosted by Edie Goetz. There are descriptions of visits with Coco Chanel and Prince Felix Youssoupoff in which not one fascinating detail goes unnoticed by him.
THE RESTLESS YEARS is the fifth volume of Cecil Beaton’s Diaries , a personal memoir of the twentieth century, covering famous artists and photographers, political figures, socialites, the rich & famous and movie stars.
Perfect for fans of THE CROWN, LOVE, CECIL, fashion photography, artist’s memoirs, and twentieth-century history.
‘it is an exceptionally sensitive and perceptive record by a man who is an artist to his fingertips – an artist who is master not only of the highlights but of the shadows’ – The Spectator
‘One could go on reading him forever’ – The Observer
'His is a superb diarist , comparable to the best in our language' - Books and Bookmen
'Wise, witty and perceptive' - New York Herald Tribune
‘Fascinating and well-written , and deserves to be read as an insight into a period and of someone who was very much part of it’ – Western Mail
‘One of the unassailables of our time’ – Daily Mail
***PLEASE NOTE THIS NEW EDITION DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOGRAPHS PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL HARDBACK EDITION***
CECIL BEATON’S DIARIES SERIES BOOK 1: THE WANDERING 1922-39 BOOK 2: THE YEARS 1939-44 BOOK 3: THE HAPPY 1944-8 BOOK 4: THE STRENUOUS 1948-55 BOOK 5: THE RESTLESS 1955-63 BOOK 6: THE PARTING 1963-74
People noted sets and costumes of British photographer, diarist, and theatrical designer Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton for My Fair Lady on stage in 1956 and on film in 1964.
Cecil Beaton first styled his sisters decadently. His unique flair for elegance and fantasy led him to the most successful and influential portrait and fashion of the 20th century. From Adolf de Meyer, baron, and Edward Jean Steichen as sources of inspiration, he nevertheless developed all his own style. He worked for Vogue for more than a quarter-century and also as court official to the royal family in 1937. A constant innovator, Beaton worked for five decades to captivate some figures of his time from Edith Sitwell to the Rolling Stones, Greta Garbo, Jean Cocteau, and Marilyn Monroe.