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JAMES LEES-MILNE'S BOOKS
Although James Lees-Milne
aspired to be a writer from his earliest years, he was almost middle-aged
before he got a book into print. His first title, The Age of
Adam, was published by Batsford in 1947, when he was thirty-eight. There
followed two further works of architectural history, Tudor Renaissance
(1951) and The Age of Inigo Jones (1953). Now dated, these books created
some excitement at the time. Most previous writing on the subject had been
rather technical; and JLM was one of a small number of writers (another being
his friend Sacheverell Sitwell) who succeeded in making it accessible to the
general reader.
Roman Mornings (1956), a tour of JLM's
favourite monuments in that city, won the Heinemann Award, and was followed by
a series of books on Baroque architecture. Earls of Creation (1962;
reprinted 2001 by Penguin) portrays the architect-noblemen of the eighteenth
century. 1964 saw the appearance of JLM's Shell Guide to his native
Worcestershire; in this, as in his architectural journalism, he railed against
the vandalism of the modern world. St
Peter's (1967), despite its coffee table format, was a serous work of
scholarship which received the papal imprimatur (ironically just as JLM was
drifting away from the Roman Catholic Church).
Jacket design for Faber edition
of Another Self
(1985). |
JLM's
first book not to have architecture as its main theme was Another Self
(1970), superficially a volume of memoirs, in reality an autobiographical novel
depicting his life in terms of his reactions to a series of hilarious
incidents, some of them imaginary. (Its inspiration was a similar work by his
friend Harold Nicolson - Some People [1927].) Another Self became
(and remains) hugely popular and established JLM's literary reputation; it has
rarely been out of print.
It is paradoxical that JLM longed for
recognition as a novelist; but his one novel to achieve success was
unrecognised as a work of fiction, while three other novels - all set in
country houses and 'gothick' in character - failed to receive much attention.
Heretics in Love (1973), set in a house modelled on JLM's grandmother's,
takes incest as |
its theme. Round the Clock (1978) is based
on the idea that the object of affection recoils from it. The Fool
of Love (1990) deals with the entanglements which ensue when a German PoW
during the First World War seduces first an English schoolboy and then the
boy's mother.
1976 saw the publication of JLM's much-praised life of
William Beckford, in whose Bath library he had installed himself. For
the next fifteen years, he was preoccupied with three major biographies.
Harold Nicolson (two vols., 1980-81) deals with the varied career of his
friend and hero. The Enigmatic Edwardian (1986) is a biography of
Reginald, 2nd Viscount Esher, the éminence grise who ran England
with one hand while pursuing adolescent boys with the other. The Bachelor
Duke (1991) portrays the 6th Duke of Devonshire, art collector and patron
of Sir Joseph Paxton. These works, testifying to JLM's ability to extract the
essence from huge collections of papers, combine affection for their subjects
with an impish fascination with their foibles. They were all well-received by
the critics.
JLM was prolific in his seventies, producing several
lesser works between these large projects. The Last Stuarts (1983), a
legacy of his Catholic period, is an original work of scholarship which puts
forward a Jacobite view of history. Images of Bath (1982), Some
Cotswold Country Houses (1987) and Venetian Evenings (1988)
testified to a continuing interest in architecture. In his last years he
produced two volumes of reminiscences - People & Places (1992), a
nostalgic account of his role in the acquisition of various National Trust
properties, and Fourteen Friends (1996), a tribute to departed
soul-mates.
By the time of his death in 1997, however, JLM had become
best known for his diaries, which he had published with hesitation and whose
success caused him some surprise. Two volumes dealing with the wartime years -
Ancestral Voices (1975) and Prophesying Peace (1977) - received
immediate acclaim for their literary qualities and vivid portrayal of London
under the blitz. A further brace of volumes covered the postwar period,
Caves of Ice (1983) and Midway on the Waves (1985). After an
interval, a new series of diaries covering the 1970s appeared in the 1990s -
A Mingled Measure (1994), Ancient as the Hills (1997) and
Through Wood & Dale (edited by JLM in his last months and appearing
posthumously in 1998).
Since JLM's death in 1997, the process of
editing and publishing his diaries has been continued by his literary executor,
Michael Bloch. Deep Romantic Chasm (1979-81) appeared in 2000,
Holy Dread (1982-84) in 2001, Beneath a Waning Moon
(1985-87) in 2003, Ceaseless Turmoil (1988-92) in 2004, The Milk
of Paradise (1993-97) in October 2005.
An abridgement of the
original twelve diary volumes into three volumes (also incorporating new
material) is now in preparation: the first of these, covering 1942 to 1954, is
due to be published by John Murray in 2006.
OBTAINING BOOKS BY
JAMES LEES-MILNE
Titles in print by JLM may be purchased online from
Amazon through the bookshop section of this
website.
They include the seven latest volumes of his diary, and
People & Places, published by
John Murray; and the
early architectural book Earls of Creation, available in Penguin's
Classic Biography Series.
Amazon are also still offering some
remaining copies of JLM's last novel The Fool of Love, and two of his
biographies - William Beckford and The Bachelor Duke.
The four volumes of the 1940s diaries, along with Another Self, have
been reissued in beautiful new paperback editions by Michael Russell.
The entire text of St Peter's (1967) has been published on the
internet at
http://www.stpetersbasilica.org/Docs/JLM/SaintPeters-1.htm.
Out-of-print titles by James Lees-Milne are sought-after collectors' items
and fetch high prices on the second hand market. They may be obtained on the
internet through www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.com and
www.abebooks.com.
FROM REVIEWS OF BENEATH A WANING MOON (October 2003):
‘A wonderful window into a dying realm of stately living, which
also grants just a few glimpses of the modern world.’ Georgie Greig,
Literary Review
‘What makes his diaries so attractive are
his candour, his sensibility, his generosity of spirit, his love of the arts
and of literature and his skill at bringing ideas and experiences to
life.’ Nigel Nicolson, Evening Standard
‘One of the
memorable diarists of the past century, self-aware yet unselfconscious,
portraying for posterity aspects of English life and attitudes. It would be
good to read him to the end.’ Sarah Curtis, TLS
FROM
REVIEWS OF CEASELESS TURMOIL (October 2004):
'One of the
treasures of contemporary English literature ... strangely addictive reading...
They are a marvel, and will be remembered when the era's lame novels and paltry
verses are forgotten.' David Sexton, Evening Standard '
One
reads, one deplores, one reads on with vindictive delight.' Patrick Skene
Catling, Daily Telegraph
FROM SUSAN HILL’S ARTICLE
ON DIARISTS IN THE GUARDIAN,
10 January 2004:
‘If
you want to experience the merry-go-round of upper-middle-class life in the
20th century you can do no better than follow Lees-Milne, as sharp-tongued,
melancholy, jaundiced and reactionary a commentator as ever lived. He does
nothing to ingratiate himself with us, has no desire to be liked any more than
he would like us. He hates modern life and times, laments the decline of almost
everything, is a ferocious snob. But like all the best diarists and almost in
spite of himself, he has the keenest of interests in life, a refusal to be only
an old fuddy-duddy; he will try almost anything, from a new film or fashionable
play to a young lover...’ |
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This site has been created by Michael
Bloch, James Lees-Milne's literary executor, who is currently editing his later
diaries and writing his biography (to be published by John Murray). He may be
contacted at MAB@jamesleesmilne.com.
Many
of James Lees-Milne's papers are in the Beinecke Library at Yale. Their
catalogue can be accessed
here
James Lees-Milne's copyrights are managed by
Bruce Hunter of David Higham Associates, London. Enquiries may be addressed to
him at brucehunter@davidhigham.co.uk. |
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