The Wandering Years: 1922-39

Cecil Beaton's Diaries #1

by Cecil Beaton

The Wandering Diaries, 1922-1939 (Cecil Beaton's Diaries)

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

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

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

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cecil Beaton was at the center of Anglo-American culture from the 1920s on, but nevertheless remained the quintessential Englishman in his family loyalty, love of the countryside, and reverence for the monarchy. Fascinating to read about his adolescence and family life. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge ( although he didn’t achieve a degree), he recorded the shock of growing up in a profoundly changed England that resulted from the catastrophic WWI. His father never apparently came to terms with the new environment and there were some financial reverses.

Cecil Beaton knew absolutely everyone and went everywhere. His descriptions of people past their prime are sometimes painful to read as he compares them to how they appeared to him when he was young. We all age, a fact that he acknowledges. His characterizations of once famous and beautiful but now decrepit individuals are always affectionate without lapsing into pity.

His early fame rested on his innovative and artistic photography. It is amazing, but he fell into that career almost by accident. His ability became gradually known thanks to his social circle and his personal ambition that led him to send snaps to magazines. Make no mistake, he was no proto-paparazzi. He worked on posed portraits that brought out the subject’s personality.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard not to compare Cecil Beaton’s diaries to those of Chips Channon and James Lees-Milne. For one thing, Channon’s and Lees-Milne’s have footnotes and identify all the names (I did a lot of googling for Beaton)and both were much more name droppers than Cecil Beaton too (or seemed to be)(in Lees-Milne’s case charmingly, and in Channon’s case very bitchily and snobbishly). If I understood correctly, Beaton edited his own diaries, which makes me want to read The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries As He Wrote Them, 1970-1980 which is what he really thought of people rather than this anodyne version. It was still interesting though; his experiences with Wallis Simpson (and her wedding to the Duke of Windsor) and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother were fascinating to say the least. Lees-Milne and Channon, if not uncloseted about their homosexuality, were still much more open than Beaton; I imagine in the edits much of that went into the waste basket. There was a intriguing entry in August 1931: “I have even had an interesting lunch with someone else I believe I am rather in love with” which made me note: “Who was it?” I think a boy.

[Aarón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cecil Beaton, truly an amazing person, this book feels like traveling to the halcyon days pre WWII. You see him through his starting days that would later become the reason for his success. I normally never read biographies but this one has a mysticism that i like. Mainly because it was actually written by him (although, how accurate it is we wouldn't know) but at least you can get a glimpse at how Beaton saw the world. I highly suggest this to any artist or person interested in the art world of the early 90's.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

At age 14 I stumbled across Beaton’s The Glass of Fashion. It was the mid 70s, and although I loved Bowie and the nascent punk movement, I became inexplicably obsessed with this Edwardian dandy’s view of the obscure beauties of his time, and the over-the-top, ultrafeminine fashions. I read and re-read the book, but didn’t know much about the author or, for that matter, the context of his times.

Fast forward (gulp) almost 40 years, and thanks to the internet I own a first edition of the Glass of Fashion, plus a whole bunch of other Beaton books, mostly of his photographs. I’m finally getting around to reading his diaries and…ok, we need to take about gay male misogyny. I mean: contempt of women comes in all packages (even other women, alas), but Beaton was of the nasty, supercilious, superior school, like arch-jerk Karl Lagerfeld or, well, most male fashion designers, society journalists, authors, etc.

Beaton is undoubtedly clever and creative, but he just reminds me of a certain kind of gimlet-eyed guy we meet at “sophisticated” dinner parties…the kind who loves a creatively-dressed, fun woman until the moment comes when he and his buddies feel the need to look them up and down and proceed to run down their looks, their clothing, their speech, their age, their social standing, etc. We’ve all met them. They’re around.

Almost no woman escapes Beaton’s high standard for acceptability, even if that person is an aristocrat (although these folks get MUCH more latitude than the the working or middle classes, which he holds in the utmost contempt unless they’re pretty young boys…). It’s creepy and unfunny and, let’s finally face it…unacceptable. Beaton was talented (oh, the beautiful costumes for My Fair Lady!!) but his mean-spirited attacks on people—and by people I mostly mean women and the Untitled Mobs are a sign of utter stupidity and unappealing self-indulgence.

Why two stars and not one? Because snooty ole Cecil gives us a great glimpse into the fascinating social and intellectual (? sometimes not so much) scene of (in this volume) England in the 1920s and 30s.

Read if you like: Downton Abby without cool working-class people, Evelyn Waugh without the writing skills, and Merchant and Ivory movies without comeuppance for vile behavior.

[Wendy DeWachter · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know what the famous Bright Young Things were doing in the Jazz Age you must read this. Inside you will find honest descriptions of people and situations, details of parties and substance use, inside knowledge and descriptions of fashion, decor, theatre, early Hollywood, the peers of England, all the things you want to know and more you will be surprised to find out

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew about Cecil Beaton and really like his photographs. It was a real pleasure to read his diary and I highly recommend it.
Many thanks to Sapere Books and Netgalley for this ARC

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Dorothy. Meyer]

Loved all his diaries. An interesting era.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed learning something of the years between the wars from the point of view of the diarist. I knew almost nothing about that time.
Cecil Beaton had an interesting life.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume covers Beaton's years from going to Cambridge up until the start of WWII. He's quite charming. He was quite willing to show himself as an artsy, pretentious twit in his younger days. I love when he talks about how embarrassing he found his parents to be. I'm looking forward to reading more volumes of his memoirs.