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James Lees-Milne Complete Diaries
Deep Romantic Chasm: Diaries, 1979-1981
In this, the eighth volume of James Lees-Milne's diaries, he is engaging and readable as ever, mixing candour and an often malicious wit with generosity of spirit and sympathy for human frailty.
These diaries are unlike their predecessors in that they show Lees-Milne developing an overwhelming tendresse for a much younger man. As candid in writing about himself as about others, he records the doubt, happiness, guilt and other turbulence that accompany an emotion he did not expect to feel again. This is the first volume to be edited not by the diarist himself but his literary executor, the friend in question.
But it deals with much else besides love and its difficulties. He writes the biography of his friend Harold Nicolson, sometimes in the process worsting his publisher, the formidable Norah Smallwood of Chatto & Windus. With Derek Hill (but without an importunate Bruce Chatwin) he twice visits Mount Athos, recording the delights and discomforts of a spiritual journey to the Holy Mountain. Both the man and his period are irresistably present in these pages, as one minute he is exasperated by Labour's 'winter of discontent', or predicts incineration by Soviet attack, and in the next recreates the values and friendships of an earlier, gentler age.
These diaries are unlike their predecessors in that they show Lees-Milne developing an overwhelming tendresse for a much younger man. As candid in writing about himself as about others, he records the doubt, happiness, guilt and other turbulence that accompany an emotion he did not expect to feel again. This is the first volume to be edited not by the diarist himself but his literary executor, the friend in question.
But it deals with much else besides love and its difficulties. He writes the biography of his friend Harold Nicolson, sometimes in the process worsting his publisher, the formidable Norah Smallwood of Chatto & Windus. With Derek Hill (but without an importunate Bruce Chatwin) he twice visits Mount Athos, recording the delights and discomforts of a spiritual journey to the Holy Mountain. Both the man and his period are irresistably present in these pages, as one minute he is exasperated by Labour's 'winter of discontent', or predicts incineration by Soviet attack, and in the next recreates the values and friendships of an earlier, gentler age.
286 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2000
19 people want to read
About the author
James Lees-Milne
81 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2023
I do believe this is the 8th volume of diaries I have read by James-Lees Milne (see here for bio of him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L... ). The read was quite satisfying. Once I am done with his diaries (I think I have 3 more to go) I will start all over again with Volume 1 and will constantly recycle until the day I die. They are for the most part interesting and I just feel comforted by reading them. He writes about the weather that day....what he ate....who he dined with....what that person looks like.....what that person said. This person put it quite well, ‘What matters the clash of titans, while a clear and fastidious intellect shares its preoccupation with the minutiae of a civilized gentleman’s day?”.
Random notes (I took about 10 pages of notes...):
• ‘Lady S. a great goose but a good-natured, well-meaning soul. Told me that when first married she was taken to stay at Belvoir. That amidst the great luxury of the household it was amazing that there was no toilet paper, as she called it. Instead a basketful of old letters torn in half. She amused herself piecing them together for hours while sitting on the seat.
• ‘Sussuration’ means ‘whispering’...’rustling’ (I did not know that...I had to look it up!)
• ‘Phyllis confirmed what my father always told me, that John, her great-grandfather, brother to mine, Joseph, was very eccentric. Had to arrive in the drawing room, say, his right foot. If he arrived on his left, would go upstairs and start all over again. The process was repeated if he did not succeed the second or third time.’
• Describes a professor as ‘a nice little midget with the face like a baboon’.
• ‘...An old friend of hers is staying, a Mr. Currie, Scotch, who has lived most of his life in France. Rather senile and totally blind. Told me he was about to leave for America to marry third wife, with whom he was in love with fifty-five years ago. Foolishly I asked if he had seen her since then. ‘No,’ he said sadly.’
Do you know what ‘dégringolade’ means? No? Well I will tell you. 😉Sometimes Milne used big words that stumped me. It means ‘a rapid decline or deterioration (as in strength, position, or condition)’, and a synonym and no doubt what you or I would use, ‘downfall’.
Random notes (I took about 10 pages of notes...):
• ‘Lady S. a great goose but a good-natured, well-meaning soul. Told me that when first married she was taken to stay at Belvoir. That amidst the great luxury of the household it was amazing that there was no toilet paper, as she called it. Instead a basketful of old letters torn in half. She amused herself piecing them together for hours while sitting on the seat.
• ‘Sussuration’ means ‘whispering’...’rustling’ (I did not know that...I had to look it up!)
• ‘Phyllis confirmed what my father always told me, that John, her great-grandfather, brother to mine, Joseph, was very eccentric. Had to arrive in the drawing room, say, his right foot. If he arrived on his left, would go upstairs and start all over again. The process was repeated if he did not succeed the second or third time.’
• Describes a professor as ‘a nice little midget with the face like a baboon’.
• ‘...An old friend of hers is staying, a Mr. Currie, Scotch, who has lived most of his life in France. Rather senile and totally blind. Told me he was about to leave for America to marry third wife, with whom he was in love with fifty-five years ago. Foolishly I asked if he had seen her since then. ‘No,’ he said sadly.’
Do you know what ‘dégringolade’ means? No? Well I will tell you. 😉Sometimes Milne used big words that stumped me. It means ‘a rapid decline or deterioration (as in strength, position, or condition)’, and a synonym and no doubt what you or I would use, ‘downfall’.
November 16, 2019
He is now 70 and his diary entries make him seem like a mean, grumpy old man. He fell in love with a young man and was annoyed that his wife reacted with hurt and jealousy. Code word 'bedint' used to describe those people not his social equal. Also not liking the self pity about being no longer attractive.
He kept busy socially, wrote books and traveled abroad and in Britain. It is interesting to read his accounts of a culture very different than mine.
He kept busy socially, wrote books and traveled abroad and in Britain. It is interesting to read his accounts of a culture very different than mine.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews