I read most of Cecil Beaton's diaries and recently purchased the two huge unexpurgated sets. However, before I launched into those I thought I would read this biography. At my age, I am familiar with all the names and boy was this book full of name dropping. Cecil sure crammed a lot into his life. He seems to have met every name person in three generations and photographed all of them. It is a condensation of his diaries for those who cannot or will not read either the original diaries pruned for publication by Cecil or the unexpurgated diaries tampered with by the Vickers himself. Cecil was a fascinating man and since I have read autobiographies, biographies, and books of letters by so many of the people mentioned in this book - Diana Cooper, Stephen Tennant, Cyril Connolly, Nancy Mitford, Peter Watson, Peter Quennell, James Lees-Milne and so very many others - in which Cecil has been mentioned..reading him directly is a pleasure and to have an outsider pull it all together was interesting. However, it took me a long time to read, which is not normal for me, even for a book close to 900 pages. I usually give a book the benefit of the doubt and in this case it had me worried that at my advanced age my grip on reading was loosening...I hope it was the book. ( )

Bought 13 May 2008 - Cinema Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

I think this is my last Hay book!

A wonderful biography, full of detail but never descending into a list of names and events. Full of personal information, but never prurient. Full of Beaton's diary entries but with its own style. With excellent pictures (as it should have) - both photos and sketches, and marvellous footnotes which explain who various people are as you come across them, but not in too much detail. Beaton is put into his context and allowed to shine, and, in high praise indeed, this biographer comes up to the standard of my great favourite, Michael Holroyd. ( )