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James Lees-Milne Complete Diaries
Midway on the Waves: Diaries, 1948-1949
, 248 pages, with a SIGNED letter from the author and author's bookplate at the front endpapers, plus photocopy of a letter is stuck down to the rear pastedown
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
James Lees-Milne
80 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
December 4, 2022
I finished another volume of James Lees-Milne’s diaries several days ago. This was my third one...the first two being “Ancestral Voices: Diaries 1942-1943” and “Prophesying Peace: Diaries 1944-1945”. I have about seven more to go, thank goodness. For the collections I have finished, I tend to read a few pages every 2 days or so, early in the morning. It takes about a month to finish each of his volumes. I enjoy reading his diaries so much! 🙂 🙃 If you are curious and want to read a volume, I would recommend reading the first one (Ancestral Voices).
He can be disparaging to people he knows or people he meets in his everyday doings, but he also can be hard on himself.
His job is with the National Trust in England, and he helps to determine what country homes get support by the N.T. He describes (to us) the various country houses and churches and other sundry buildings that he visits...
But why do I read these diaries? Because they are interesting at times, and at times funny, even at times when he isn’t meaning to me humorous. Just some examples of what I wrote down (I wrote down eight pages of notes):
• He laments the fact that there are too many writers in this world...’...you can’t of course prevent people writing any more than copulating, but there ought to be some sort of contraception to prevent publication.’
• ‘Willy King has no manners...and a face blue all over like a parakeet.’
• I never re-read my own writings, a thing I likened to a dog returning to it vomit.’
• ‘She says happiness is finding the right rut and never leaving it.’
• ‘...she watched her mother come out of a coma and asked her if she had nightmares. Her mother answered that they were not nightmares, but worrying dreams about little things she had neglected to do and others she ought not to have done. This is more frightening than sheer oblivion in the circumstances. Perhaps afterlife will be like this — worrying — for all eternity.’
• ‘The daughter is a sort of monster with black, greasy face, and rather bald; fat elbows like rolling pins.’
• ‘Newman, the hall porter at Brooks’s told me I would be surprised if I knew which members, to his knowledge, stole newspapers out of the Club. I said, “You must not tell me,’ so he promptly did.
• He’s in a boring unproductive meeting. ‘...little achieved owing to huffing, puffing, um-ing and er-ing.’
• ‘The portrait of Queen Elizabeth is too big to get into my car even without the frame. Drat the lady.’
• He is annoyed by his mother. ‘...what a stinking beast I am.’
• ‘Mr. and Mrs. Wolryche-Whitmore are my parents’ age and delightful. Both very deaf, with hearing aids. She is a little slower than he, and like all couples who live together and see few outsiders, they think the same thoughts at the same time. Consequence is she repeats word for word what he has just said and she has not heard.’
He sure knew a lot of people who were in the Who’s Who list of famous people in the Arts and Literature. He knew T.S Eliot, John Gielgud, Graham Greene, Robert Graves’ daughter, Rose Macaulay, and Ivy Compton-Burnett. He and some of his friends had a private audience with the Pope!
Note (from Wikipedia)
• From 1947 Lees-Milne published several architectural works aimed mainly at general readers. His witty, waspish and extensive diaries appeared in twelve volumes and were well received. Larry McMurtry commented that Lees-Milne, like Pepys and Boswell, was disarmingly open about his failings – indeed, would not have known how to go about hiding them. Nicholas Birns notes that Lees-Milne spoke "so candidly about himself, his life, and his love of art and architecture that his authorial relationship with the reader becomes a privileged one, not to be readily or casually communicated, not to be flaunted or brandished."
Reviews:
• I can’t find any on the Internet.
He can be disparaging to people he knows or people he meets in his everyday doings, but he also can be hard on himself.
His job is with the National Trust in England, and he helps to determine what country homes get support by the N.T. He describes (to us) the various country houses and churches and other sundry buildings that he visits...
But why do I read these diaries? Because they are interesting at times, and at times funny, even at times when he isn’t meaning to me humorous. Just some examples of what I wrote down (I wrote down eight pages of notes):
• He laments the fact that there are too many writers in this world...’...you can’t of course prevent people writing any more than copulating, but there ought to be some sort of contraception to prevent publication.’
• ‘Willy King has no manners...and a face blue all over like a parakeet.’
• I never re-read my own writings, a thing I likened to a dog returning to it vomit.’
• ‘She says happiness is finding the right rut and never leaving it.’
• ‘...she watched her mother come out of a coma and asked her if she had nightmares. Her mother answered that they were not nightmares, but worrying dreams about little things she had neglected to do and others she ought not to have done. This is more frightening than sheer oblivion in the circumstances. Perhaps afterlife will be like this — worrying — for all eternity.’
• ‘The daughter is a sort of monster with black, greasy face, and rather bald; fat elbows like rolling pins.’
• ‘Newman, the hall porter at Brooks’s told me I would be surprised if I knew which members, to his knowledge, stole newspapers out of the Club. I said, “You must not tell me,’ so he promptly did.
• He’s in a boring unproductive meeting. ‘...little achieved owing to huffing, puffing, um-ing and er-ing.’
• ‘The portrait of Queen Elizabeth is too big to get into my car even without the frame. Drat the lady.’
• He is annoyed by his mother. ‘...what a stinking beast I am.’
• ‘Mr. and Mrs. Wolryche-Whitmore are my parents’ age and delightful. Both very deaf, with hearing aids. She is a little slower than he, and like all couples who live together and see few outsiders, they think the same thoughts at the same time. Consequence is she repeats word for word what he has just said and she has not heard.’
He sure knew a lot of people who were in the Who’s Who list of famous people in the Arts and Literature. He knew T.S Eliot, John Gielgud, Graham Greene, Robert Graves’ daughter, Rose Macaulay, and Ivy Compton-Burnett. He and some of his friends had a private audience with the Pope!
Note (from Wikipedia)
• From 1947 Lees-Milne published several architectural works aimed mainly at general readers. His witty, waspish and extensive diaries appeared in twelve volumes and were well received. Larry McMurtry commented that Lees-Milne, like Pepys and Boswell, was disarmingly open about his failings – indeed, would not have known how to go about hiding them. Nicholas Birns notes that Lees-Milne spoke "so candidly about himself, his life, and his love of art and architecture that his authorial relationship with the reader becomes a privileged one, not to be readily or casually communicated, not to be flaunted or brandished."
Reviews:
• I can’t find any on the Internet.
March 4, 2017
Biography I could not put down and when finished I wanted to know more.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews