Diaries, 1942-1954

by James Lees-Milne, Michael Bloch

Overview

The diaries of the National Trust's country house expert James Lees-Milne (1908-97) have been hailed as 'one of the treasures of contemporary English literature'. The first of three, this volume, which includes interesting material omitted when the diaries were originally published during the author's lifetime, covers the years 1942 to 1954, beginning with his wartime visits to hard-pressed country house owners, and ending with his marriage to the exotic Alvilde Chaplin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848547094
Publisher:	John Murray Press
Publication date:	12/08/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	857,583
File size:	593 KB

About the Author

Born in 1953, Michael Bloch read law at St John's College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. He worked for Maître Suzanne Blum, the Parisian lawyer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and wrote six books about the couple. His other subjects include Hitler's foreign minister Ribbentrop, F. M. Alexander (founder of the Alexander Technique) and the politician Jeremy Thorpe. He met James Lees-Milne in 1979, became his literary executor on his death in 1997, edited the final five volumes of his diary and is the author of the much acclaimed biography, James Lees-Milne: The Life.

James Lees-Milne died in 1997. Once Country Houses Secretary of the National Trust, he is now best known for his memoirs and diaries, described by Jeremy Lewis as second to none in their comicality, rueful self-knowledge and feline observations.
Michael Bloch read law at St John's College, Cambridge and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. Appointed James Lees-Milne's literary executor in 1997, he edited the final five volumes of the complete diary as well as abridging it into three volumes, DIARIES, 1942-1954, DIARIES, 1971-1983 and DIARIES, 1984-1997. He also wrote the acclaimed biography, JAMES LEES-MILNE: THE LIFE. Find out more at www.jamesleesmilne.com