by Cecil Beaton
A wild look came into her pale blue eyes. For a terrible moment she remembered the rose trees she had planted, resurrecting the garden of Temple Court, the happiest days of her life when all was going well with Daddy and the children were blithely growing up. Pitted against those lost days came the inevitable events of later years — the breakup of the home, Reggie’s fatal accident, Daddy’s death two years ago, and now the war.
She became like an animal. She snatched the roses from my hands, crying in anguish, ‘They’re mine! They’re mine!’ Then she hurried into her bedroom, placing the wilting remnants of a lifetime in her favourite vase — a little blue china vase with a painted design of mixed flowers on it.
***
Continue the journey through CECIL BEATON’S DIARIES with The Years Between: 1939-44.
GET IT NOW!
Join our mailing list for the latest releases, eBook deals, author news, and much, much more!
SIGN UP HERE
THE YEARS BETWEEN: 1939-44
Order it now!
This second volume spans most of the Second World War from 1939-44. An official photographer for the Ministry of Information, Beaton was flown all over the globe to report back to London, as well as being commissioned to photograph Winston Churchill, the Queen, bomb-damaged London and the RAF at work.
With unique access to politicians, admirals, air marshals, socialites and those working on the homefront, Beaton’s memoir tells us more about the English at war than many volumes of officers’ memoirs have been able to.
‘there is some fascinating stuff in this volume … his accounts of India and China are superb’ - The Observer
‘no page of his book is without its flash of beauty, fun or understanding’ – Sunday Times
‘Wise, witty and perceptive’ - New York Herald Tribune
‘Fascinating and well-written, and deserves to be read as an insight into a period and of someone who was very much part of it’ – Western Mail
‘One of the unassailables of our time’ – Daily Mail
AVAILABLE HERE!
ALSO IN CECIL BEATON’S MEMOIRS SERIES
THE YEARS BETWEEN: 1939-44
Order it now!
THE HAPPY YEARS: 1944-48
Order it now!
THE STRENUOUS YEARS: 1948-55
Order it now!
THE RESTLESS YEARS: 1955-63
Order it now!
THE PARTING YEARS: 1963-74
Order it now!
Published by Sapere Books.
11 Bank Chambers, Hornsey, London, N8 7NN,
United Kingdom
http://saperebooks.com
Copyright © The Estate of Cecil Beaton, 2018
The Estate of Cecil Beaton has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-912546-22-0
* * *
[1] The late Kyrle Leng, a friend of aesthetic interests and great charm, at this time up at Oxford.
[2] The late Gordon Fell-Clark, a contemporary at Heath Mount, Hampstead, and at Harrow School.
[3] Edward le Bas RA, also a contemporary at Harrow.
[4] A child prodigy whose recent exhibition of drawings had created a great stir at the Leicester Galleries.
[5] My mother’s sister, Madame Suarez, Aunt Jessie, who married Colonel Pedro Suarez, Bolivian Minister in London. She was now a widow living in reduced circumstances.
[6] C. T. Bennett, a former Captain of cricket at Harrow School.
[7] A painter whose canvasses I had admired at the Academy. Inevitably they consisted of a small strip of ploughed field beneath an enormous square of empty sky.
[8] Since I was possibly wearing fur gauntlet gloves, a cloth of gold tie, scarlet jersey and flowing ‘Oxford Bags’, perhaps it is reasonable to suppose that I was noticeable.
[9] My sisters.
[10] Mrs Chattock.
[11] My cousin Claude Chattock killed near Arras in 1916, aged twenty-three.
[12] Temple Court, Templewood Avenue, Hampstead, the neo-Georgian house in which my childhood was spent.
[13] The local Harrod’s.
[14] My landlord’s partner.
[15] Wife of F. L. Lucas, Fellow of King’s College and Literary Critic.
[16] My younger brother.
[17] The wife of the headmaster.
[18] Aubrey C. Ensor, a former schoolmaster at Heath Mount.
[19] Mrs Fagan.
[20] South American dried and powdered fruits, pronounced A-hee.
[21] My sisters’ nurse, Alice Collard, sometimes known as ‘Ninnie’.
[22] Aunt Cada’s daughter, Letecia Chattock, now Mrs Fearnley-Whittingstall.
[23] Tecia’s younger sister.
[24] Mr and Mrs William Willes, an aged, bewigged couple who somehow or other had become fast friends and always appeared at family festivities. This year, however, they had become too infirm to make the expedition from Willesden where, suitably, they now lived.
[25] Mr and Mrs Gordon Crosdale, another inexplicable addition to the extremely limited family circle.
[26] Beatrice Alberdi, a Bolivian friend of Aunt Jessie.
[27] Actor-manager of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
[28] Reggie had gone straight into our father’s office from Eastbourne College.
[29] The mother of my friend Magda, a Hungarian lady of wealth and flamboyance, whom I had photographed professionally.
[30] A Danish business man and friend of my father.
[31] The butler.
[32] Now known as the writer and critic Robert Herring.
[33] Lady Wyndham (Mary Moore, the actress), widow of Sir Charles Wyndham.
[34] Allanah Harper, a wealthy young lady with newly acquired artistic tastes.
[35] Miss Zita Jungman.
[36] Miss Theresa Jungman.
[37] Miss Tallulah Bankhead.
[38] Sir Richard Sykes.
[39] Peggy Broadbent, a cousin of Jack Gold, now Lady Hudson.
[40] Mrs Arthur Dillon (now Hilda, Viscountess Dillon), with whom I stayed in her sulphur- coloured stone house near Banbury. In spite of not being an enlightened race-goer, accomplished horseman or expert bridge-player, I enjoyed my forays into the Hunt Ball world. Moreover, Peggy, her daughter, was an enthusiast of Mr Cyril W. Beaumont’s ballet bookshop in the Charing Cross Road, and an ardent admirer of the novels of Rose Macaulay and E. M. Forster.
[41] Serge Lifar, the dancer.
[42] Our butler, Loins’s successor.
[43] Miss Dorothy Wilde, niece of Oscar Wilde.
[44] The Hon. Eleanor Brougham.
[45] Raymond Crump, a school friend and cricket enthusiast.
[46] The family dog, named after the character in my father’s favourite book.
[47] Miss Margaret Case, who became a staunch, steadfast friend.
[48] The giant-sized architect who had peppered Florida with his grandiose Spanish taste.
[49] Marjorie Oelrichs had shocked the more conventional members of New York’s well-bred families by showing an unconventional taste in friends, and a rebellious spirit that manifested itself when she was among the first to give her illustrious name to a testimonial for Lucky Strike cigarettes.
[50] Brother of Palm Beach’s Addison.
[51] Lilian Gish is still giving distinctive performances to plays and films.
[52] Irving Berlin settled all damages with the proprietor the next day.
[53] Who left the office to become the well-known satiric-novelist.
[54] Olga Lynn, a diminutive concert singer, whose company was so sought after by those in search of amusement that social success impaired her career as a serious artist.
[55] The se
cond George being George Sebastian, a Rumanian neighbour who had built himself a beautiful Moorish house with colonnaded swimming pool.
[56] His wife who worked as cook in the kitchen.
[57] Later Alice von Hofmannsthal.
[58] Tilly Losch.
[59] Jack and Yorck Ruppert von Bismarck, German born artists currently successful in New York. She is the Berlin Marie-Laurencin, he with his murals comprising mirror and concrete.
[60] Sir Hugh Smiley.
[61] The family butler-factotum.
[62] The Chicago-born wife of Royal Academy painter Sir John Lavery.
[63] Boris Kochno, Producer of Ballets for Diaghilev.
[64] Marie Blanche de Polignac’s mother, living in the same house.
[65] Marcel Khill.
[66] Nicholas Nabokoff, the composer.
[67] The Hon. David Herbert.
[68] Mrs Kerr Smiley, the aunt of my brother-in-law, Sir Hugh Smiley: quite a distant relationship!
[69] The Hon. Mrs Reginald Fellowes.
[70] A delightful Irishman-about-town, son of Judge Morgan J. O’Brien of the Supreme Court and brother of Judge Kenneth O’Brien.
[71] Tanis and Meraud, Mrs Guinness’ daughters.
[72] Sir George Alexander.
[73] Lady Juliet Duff.
[74] William Odom, an American, a gentleman jockey until a horse rolled on him after which he inherited a fortune and became interested in the Arts.
[75] Madame Edouard Bourdet, wife of the playwright.
[76] Madame Munster, a Russian lady, and one of Bébé’s closest and most intimate friends.
[77] Felix Rollo, a rich young Egyptian.
[78] Christopher Wood, the English painter who died tragically at the age of twenty-nine.
