Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as They Were Written

by Cecil Beaton

Slight shelf wear. Plastic protective cover on dustcover. Slight creasing to edge of interior pages at bottom. Pages are clean and binding is tight.

Genres: Biography, Art, Fashion, Nonfiction, Memoir, Diary

434 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B...

Reviews

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting set of diaries which I have not read page by page but dipped into, going back and forth as the mood took me. Beaton was essentially a butterfly around the aristocratic and smart sets in London and the USA. He was waspish (which makes these diaries worth reading), vain and normally acute in his observation and understanding but also silly at times. It is noteworthy that many of the names he floated around are now no longer known.

[Greg]

Reading 1969 diary first, and 1965. Wonderful stuff, interesting wide variety of people, the times, and places. Working my way through it. I added this to the read section while not yet finished reading so as able to add to a review. This has to be five stars.

Friday, 14 March 1969
Diana told of how shocked she was by Evelyn Waugh when asked by a pedestrian in an unknown town the way to the station would make up false instructions and sent the man off to miss his train. 'But you can't do that, Evelyn.'
'I always do,' he replied.
(Lady Diana Cooper (1892 - 1986), legendary beauty, actress, ambassadress and author.)
LDC looks an interesting character worth investigating who appears throughout these diaries.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful book full of name dropping and travel and a window on an astonishing life. Reread and underlined, last chapter on Coco and K.H. a grind.

[Joana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some points of interest. It's great to read about this observant man's point of view on society and his great many acquaintances. This was a diary written from 1965-69 and you have a background of societal change: the hippy movements, the Moon landing, the Vietnam war.
Besides, Beaton was acquainted with everyone that was anyone back then, so you get his views on everyone from the Royal family, to the Rolling Stones, to film stars and a lot of people with pompous names and titles.
Beaton striked me as a bit of a drama queen, a little hypocondriac and forever wanting to be secluded and quiet but invariably drawn to society life, gossip and dinner-parties and not only for work reasons. But we should be aware that this is a diary so one is allowed a certain amount of self-absortion and hysteria in a personal diary.

A word of advice on the last section of the book: don't read it! It's the most boring, repetitive, uninsteresting piece of writing I have EVER come across. Beaton is working in New York on a play about Coco Chanel and he rambles on and on and on about the difficulties he faces with the loathed Katharine Hepburn and the rest of the crew 'til you're about to tear your hair out in despair. I really disagree with his biography on the interest of this last section: it should have been edited to save the readers some grief.

[Anna]

Fun, clever and well-written. Beaton's descriptions of his celebrity friends (Liz Taylor, the Stones, Audrey Hepburn) are elaborate and sharp.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely relished this book.