Cecil Beaton

by Hugo Vickers

Vickers had unrestricted access to all of Beaton's voluminous unpublished materials. The result was an instant bestseller, indispensable to anyone interested in 20th century art and culture.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Photography, History

688 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Hugo Vickers is a writer and broadcaster, who has written biographies of many twentieth century figures, including the Queen Mother, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, a study of Greta Garbo, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, and his book, The Private World of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor was illustrated with pictures from their own collection. Mr Vickers’s book, The Kiss: The Story of an Obsession won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction.

Reviews

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read most of Cecil Beaton's diaries and recently purchased the two huge unexpurgated sets. However, before I launched into those I thought I would read this biography. At my age, I am familiar with all the names and boy was this book full of name dropping. Cecil sure crammed a lot into his life. He seems to have met every name person in three generations and photographed all of them. It is a condensation of his diaries for those who cannot or will not read either the original diaries pruned for publication by Cecil or the unexpurgated diaries tampered with by the Vickers himself. Cecil was a fascinating man and since I have read autobiographies, biographies, and books of letters by so many of the people mentioned in this book - Diana Cooper, Stephen Tennant, Cyril Connolly, Nancy Mitford, Peter Watson, Peter Quennell, James Lees-Milne and so very many others - in which Cecil has been mentioned..reading him directly is a pleasure and to have an outsider pull it all together was interesting. However, it took me a long time to read, which is not normal for me, even for a book close to 900 pages. I usually give a book the benefit of the doubt and in this case it had me worried that at my advanced age my grip on reading was loosening...I hope it was the book.
Cecil Beaton was one of Britain's greatest cultural icons - not just as a photographer capturing some of the most celebrated portraits of the 20th century but also as designer of the iconic sets and costumes for the films My Fair Lady and Gigi.

In 1980, Beaton personally chose Hugo Vickers to be his biographer, entrusting him with his diaries and the entire body of letters he had written - both personally and professionally - over the course of his life. Drawing on five years of intensive research and interviews with the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, Princess Grace of Monaco and Sir John Gielgud, Vickers' biography was an instant bestseller upon its publication in 1985. Exploring Beaton's metamorphosis from being the child of a staid middle-class family to an international figure mingling with the glittering stars of his age, the biography also details his great love for Greta Garbo and reveals his private sense of failure that the success he always wanted - as a playwright - eluded him.

Republished in a new paperback edition in time for Bright Young Things, a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2020, Cecil Beaton is the definitive and authorised biography of one of the world's most fascinating, famous and admired photographers.Cecil Beaton

[Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've really been absorbed in a bio of Cecil Beaton for the last couple of weeks. I just finished reading it this am. Really long, but very enjoyable. I came to the book through my time spent reading about the Cyril Connolly group. Cecil was part of that. Cecil and Cyril went to the same elementary school. A really important connection the two had though was that Peter Watson, the man who backed, and helped edit Horizon, Cyril's famous magazine, was the love of Cyril's life. That story is quite interesting. Watson was an early collector of modern art. Between the three of them, Cyril, Cecil and Peter, they knew all the movers and shakers throughout Europe.

The author, Hugo Vickers, spares us the sex scenes, which is O.K. by me, particularly since Cyril, at least in Vicker's telling, seems to count love as more important than sex. Cyril, by the way, seems to have been bi-sexual. In fact, more of the references to Cecil having sex are with women than with men. Was that spin? I'll get one of Cecil's unexpurgated diaries and see if I can tell. I suppose it's prejudice but I find the idea that he was women-positive sort of increases his value in my un-deconstructed psyche. Maybe you'll understand this better when you get to the Garbo part. I haven't said anything here about Cecil's photographs, or his set design, drawings, and paintings. That should have it's own chapter. But just for the record I think that is partly because he makes it look so easy.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a strange way Cecil Beaton is totally underrated as a photographer, considering he's known as a photographer and of course as a 'personality.' But his portraits are incredible, and the fashion shoots are really out of this world.

This is a very good biography on the man and his world - and what a world it was. Beaton would never survive the 21st Century. Or maybe he would have? Being sort of an outsider who knew all the inside people - he strikes me as someone who is observing from outside the window. Maybe that is why I am so attracted to him and his work. He's a good diarist as well.

[Stephen King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reissued in early 2020 to coincide with a (now cancelled due to COVID-19) exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This 1985 biography by the excellent biographer Hugo Vickers, is a fast moving account of the photographer, set designer and observer of British high society from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. Vickers diligently captures the waspish, frenetic and self-obsessed world of Beaton the social climber. He also gives an insight into the sadness in his life, his unrequited love for Peter Watson, his obsessive relationship with Greta Garbo and ultimately his loneliness and physical decline. Sometimes, as with many biographies there is a surfeit of information - e.g on how much he was paid for various photographic assignments, but this is a long and luxurious read.

[JamesK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vickers is a competent, trustworthy, and thorough writer, but having read Philip Hoare's masterfully atmospheric biography of Stephen Tennant, I couldn't help ruefully wishing that author had scored the job. It's ok, but never poetic or transporting, and with such a conjuring character as Beaton, that is sorely missed – one longs for a sense of the fantastical. You can't have lead shoes when writing about a person who, while an earthbound hard worker, devoted their life to spinning gossamer fantasy. Some drugs and b__y might have made for a better book.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always loved the photos he took in the 1920's and 30's, I just hadn't realised how extensive his career and talents were right up to his death. A really interesting, very detailed read, maybe too detailed and a bit too long for 5 stars.

[Diana Cheal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written and researched by Vickers, as always. A huge amount of info packed in there. I struggled with the content, potentially because I didn’t find the content as interesting as I had hoped. Still enjoyed it though.

[Ann Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illuminating in many ways

Read after "Malice in Wonderland" which gave it a fresh dimension and insight - however, there are some passages which read like written up notes, and needed expansion or deletion...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography!

[MargCal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished reading “Cecil Beaton: the authorised biography” by Hugo Vickers 01.03.2015
7th ed.
ISBN-10 184212613X
ISBN-13 9781842126134

At approximately 620 pages of text, this was a real slog. One star for the author, 4 stars for Beaton's diaries ... for this is essentially slabs of the diaries strung together with wooden narration. There is no light and shade. This is a chronological walk through a man's life with no overview and little interpretation or explanation. Episodes get dropped in without context. A classic example: On p.406 in my copy it says, “He went to Nikko in the snow and had perhaps his most successful Japanese day.” That's it. What made the day successful? Was it the company, the lack of company, the photos he took, or was he able to have a day without his camera, or something completely other? This book won't tell you.

It would have been good to get a picture of how Beaton worked. He seemed to use relatively simple cameras and claimed to have little technical ability (yet even a little in his case must be more than most of us possess). He had assistants, for photography and writing, possibly for designing but that's not clear – but how often they were used and how working sessions were structured .... you won't find out in this volume.

With very few exceptions, the degree of importance of various people in Cecil's life is nigh impossible to determine. A cavalcade of people pass through his life and, annoyingly, footnotes are few and far between, seemingly at random, to say who so many of these people are. Even when the book was written 30 years ago, the generation who would have recognised the characters would have largely passed. That only gets worse as the years roll on. Many people are mentioned in such small vignettes that you wonder why they rated a mention at all.

Regularly some passages have to be re-read and dissected carefully. A horrible over-use of pronouns instead of names often makes it hard to discern who is saying what to or about whom.


As for the man himself .... I'm sure you'd get a much better picture if you gave this book a miss and went straight to the diaries, the ones edited by Beaton and an assistant, most definitely NOT the volumes edited by Vickers.

From the diary entries that make it into this volume, Beaton comes across firstly as a snob and social climber, quite superficial. But as time passes you see that although a snob, he accepts people across the board, he needed to be in the sectors of society that he reached in order to do the work he did, and he worked very, very hard. He had his enmities but he was also kind and generous. Ultimately he comes across as a hugely talented but quite sad man.

[Tim Turnbull · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I enjoyed reading this biography overall as it provided a much deeper insight into a photographer whose work I greatly admired.

The author was able to draw on extensive diaries and letters and interviews to form a very comprehensive picture of this renowned photographer, artist, playwright, clothes designer, set designer and celebrity.

The work provides insights into key relationships as well as what was playing out in Beaton's mind regarding insecurities and disappointments.

My main criticism is that a more careful editing could have achieved a 'less is more' objective - reduced the size of the volume and taken out unnecessary detail. Having said this, the author is commended for their extensive research and identification of many sources.

I finished this work greatly admiring the Beaton's broad impact on the visual arts.

[Jay Keeping]

Cecil Beaton moved easily through the world of mid-20th-century celebrity, photographing, caricaturing and sleeping with the people he met along the way. What was his secret? I think he produced a kind of magic. Not only did he photograph most of the interesting, alluring and important people of the 20th century, but he made them look stunning. He examined his sitters with a cruel eye and disguised their faults by subtle posing and lighting. Nor did he hesitate to touch them up ruthlessly. There exists a wonderful spoof triptych of an unprepossessing lady.