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THE LIFE OF JAMES LEES-MILNE
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1936-1939: The early weeks of 1936 marked a low point of
JLM's life. He was unemployed, penniless and socially in disgrace after jilting
his fiancée. But that spring he landed the job of his dreams as
secretary to the newly-formed Country Houses Committee of the
National
Trust - a job he owed to Harold Nicolson, whose wife Vita's current lover
was the sister of the N.T's Secretary Matheson. Formerly devoted to preserving
beauty spots, the N.T. had only recently adopted the conservation of country
houses as one of its purposes. JLM's task was to help compile a list of the
houses most worthy of preservation, approach the owners, and visit such of them
as were potentially interested in arrangements with the N.T. He threw himself
into these activities with almost religious fervour; and although few
properties came to the N.T. at this period, he acquired knowledge and skills
which would later prove invaluable. He was unconcerned about his minuscule
salary, or the fact that his restricted budget sometimes obliged him to visit
such great houses as
Longleat by
bicycle. His conservation work led to friendships with
Robert Byron and Michael, Earl of Rosse (brother of JLM's
school love Desmond Parsons who had recently died), with whom he was involved
in founding the Georgian Group in 1937.
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His work
boosted his self-confidence and he began to lead the astonishingly varied
social life later depicted in his diaries, which included Eton friends, the
Harold Nicolson circle, aesthetes, bohemians, country house owners, the world
of the great London hostesses, and old Catholic families such as the Herberts
and FitzAlans. He continued writing and produced a novel, a book of short
stories and much poetry, none of it considered publishable. There were at least
two women to whom he considered proposing at this period (one the sister of
Laura Herbert who married Evelyn Waugh); but his
greatest romantic interest was Rick Stewart-Jones, a fellow conservationist
working for the Society for
the Protection of Ancient Buildings with whom he fell in love at first
sight on 1 March 1938. Though Stewart-Jones was basically heterosexual, they
embarked on a passionate |
affair - which had come to an end by the summer
of 1939, when JLM began another, less intense affair with
Stuart
Preston, a young American protégé of Harold Nicolson.
1939-1945: The outbreak of war in 1939 led to a return of JLM's
depression. His job at the N.T. ended, and he took a grim view of the future.
During the Phoney War he trained as an ambulance driver, and organised an
exhibition in support of the Finns. In the spring of 1940, when he was about to
be called up, Michael Rosse arranged for him to be commissioned in the
Irish Guards.
An uproarious account of his six months as a reluctant warrior is given in
Another Self. Soon after being caught in a bomb blast in London in
October 1940, JLM fell ill. For almost a year he was confined to military
hospitals, his condition eventually being diagnosed as
Jacksonian epilepsy.
As JLM returned to health in
the autumn of 1941, the N.T. was returning to life, as desperate country house
owners began to look to it for the future salvation of their currently
requisitioned properties. Through the influence of his old boss, the remarkable
Oliver, Viscount Esher, JLM was discharged from the army and allowed to resume
his old job, now based at
West Wycombe Park where he went to live. There he endured
the haughty behaviour of the châtelaine, Helen Dashwood, but was
comforted by the presence of two old friends, the novelist
Nancy Mitford and music critic
Eddy Sackville-West. He also established a lifelong close
friendship with the artist Eardley Knollys, a wartime recruit to the N.T. staff
who would be his constant companion on N.T. expeditions for the next fifteen
years.
From 1942 to 1945, JLM's life is documented in detail in his
famous wartime diaries. These describe his visits round the country to
beleaguered houseowners (many of them eccentric); his involvement in the
wartime politics of the N.T.; the pursuit of intimate friendships with men such
as James Pope-Hennessy and Stuart Preston, and women such as the mysterious
'Q'; the progress of the war, which closely touched him through the bombing of
London and the deaths in action of such friends as Tom Mitford and Basil Ava;
and the frantic social life of London during the Blitz - both at the tables of
great hostesses and more intimate gatherings. |
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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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