Product Description

Those who know him already will be prepared for the unexpected, and they will not be disappointed. Those new to him may be surprised to find - along with his honesty and delicious perceptiveness - the almost surreal oddness of some of his anecdotes. The thoughts, pleasures and regrets of those who appear in these pages are similarly fascinating. The Prince of Wales feels that the mantle of John Betjeman has fallen on his own shoulders, Diana Mosley explains why Macmillan rather than Ribbentrop should have been hanged after the war, Mick Jagger displays an extensive knowledge of Shakespeare, and Alan Clark admits he is bored stiff by his life in politics. JLM unites a sensibility uniquely his own with inconsistencies and prejudices of a kind we all share. He combines wit, acerbity and compassion, and is as delightful a companion in print as in life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #440918 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review
'Bloch has done a magnificent job editing the diaries, providing excellent footnotes to guide us through this grand social ! They are a wonderful window into a dying realm of stately living, which also grants just a few glimpses of the modern world' -- Geordie Grieg, LITERARY REVIEW 20031001 'By turns hilarious, outrageous, acute and touching' -- James Ferguson, The Independent 20031001 'My favourite diarist of this century' -- Alan Clark 20031001 'Unquestionably one of the greatest English diarists, a rival of Pepys' -- David Watkin, Country Life 20031001 '[Lees-Milne is] as sharp-tongued, melancholy, jaundiced and reactionary a commentator as ever lived. ... he has the keenest of interests in life ... he is scathingly honest with and about himself' -- The Guardian 20040110 'Treasure chest of diary gossip ... brutally honest as ever' -- The Countryman 20040101 'The Diaries remain packed with delicious malice and snobbery' -- The Field 20040301 'A good diarist constructs a series of information time-bombs, set to detonate long after the events he describes have taken place. And, in a gentle sort of way, that is just what James Lees-Milne has done. There will definitely be a few intakes of breath in certain grandees' drawing rooms ! What distinguishes this diary is the cast. There is a good cross-section of people who had a particular social significance. James Lees-Milne was an inveterate socialiser. Never a day passes when he is not at Brooks's or some stately home or whizzing off to see somebody. The diaries are a wonderful window into a dying realm of stately living, which also grants just a few glimpses of the modern world' -- Geordie Grieg, Literary Review 20031001

Alan Clark
'My favourite diarist of this century'

David Watkin, Country Life
'Unquestionably one of the greatest English diarists, a rival of Pepys'

Customer Reviews

Buy this book, buy all the diaries
No doubt some better reviewer will one day contribute to Amazon's reviews of Beneath A Waning Moon, but in the present instance it is a pleasure to recommend this installment of the greatest writier of the twentieth century's body of diaries. In this volume, JL-M seems to come out of the funk which seemed to afflict him through much of Deep Romantic Chasm and Holy Dread. Michael Bloch appears to have hit his stride as editor of these later diaries, as well. Unlike Fanny Partridge, whose own well-known contribution to the genre is much appreciated, JL-M is mercifully (mostly!) unshockable, and free of self-conscious aspirations to literary grandeur. Yet, his entries, which are by turns elagiac, comic, somber, tender, cold, brutally insightful, and surprisingly affectionate are not only stunningly written, but also provide the reader with a mirror into which one can look and see one's own face. The best diarists, and of these there are very few (Alan Clark being another), not only allow the reader to enter another world, but through their own self-revelation make it possible for one to see more acutely and deeply into one's own life, as well. To read James Lees-Milne's complete diaries (by which I mean to include Another Self) is to be taken on a tour of the unexpected transitions of turbulent twentieth century England, and simultaneously to be given the rare privilege of growing up -and old- with an unforgettably instructive and amusing friend. JL-M has taught me much since his first volume of diaries, Ancestral Voices, and I look forward to the publication of the final two volumes, though with some sadness, since the series will then end. A critical note- how I wish that Michael Bloch could find a way to publish the "Unexpurgated Diaries of JL-M". The footnotes to this present volume are good, but a little chaste in description, since in the notes "friend" and "close friend" often really mean "lover" or "mistress", and sometimes it seems that MB had, for various reasons, to leave out really funny and interesting bits of background material. No doubt MB finds it necessary to remain welcome at certain dinner tables, though JL-M never seemed to worry much about that sort of thing. Since I've had the privilege of knowing some of the denizens of the JL-M diaries, I have made it a kind of diaristic field sport to add juicy tidbits as extra footnotes. Everyone ought to do the same with their own copies.

A waning life
James Lees-Milne was incapable of being a bad diarist. The latest instalment of his diaries, therefore, has plenty to recommend it. And yet, and yet... Maybe it is advancing age, maybe it is ill-health, maybe it is the lack of his own judgement in editing them, but somehow these diaries are hugely sad. JL-M seems to find little to please or delight him; he is ever-more waspish about people whose failings he magnifies; and, saddest of all, he seems aware of this, while neither wanting nor being able to prevent himself from allowing this self-indulgence.
The diaries could not be anything but interesting, but the joy of discovery and curious interest which filled the earlier diaries is fading.
I am not convinced by the editorial skill. The footnotes range from the bland and pointless (does a reader of these diaries really need to be told that John Gielgud was an actor?) to the distinctly prurient. Indeed, throughout the diaries, the veil of discretion has been drawn aside, and one wonders, sometimes, to what purpose other than the purely sensational.
I could not fail to recommend the diaries, and they are, for all their failings, a fascinating read, but I do wonder whether JL-M's literary heritage is being well served, and look forward to the next instalment with a mixture of anticipation and foreboding.