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Beaton in the Sixties Cecil Beaton

Beaton in the Sixties By Cecil Beaton

Beaton in the Sixties by Cecil Beaton


£3.50
New RRP £25.00
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

This work gives a portrait of the swinging sixties uncensored - as viewed by celebrated photographer and diarist Cecil Beaton.

Beaton in the Sixties Summary

Beaton in the Sixties: More Unexpurgated Diaries by Cecil Beaton

The 1960s contains some of the very best set pieces, including Churchill's funeral. He has just completed making the film, My Fair Lady, which included rows with the director George Cukor, Rex Harrison's fondness for watching live sex, Cukor on Audrey Hepburn's figure etc. (Cecil was also the master at slicing up Hollywood social life at that period. He loathed it). His partner Kin, who has spent a year with him in England, returns to the USA, leaving Cecil to loneliness - but not for long. He is soon travelling aboard Cecile de Rothschild's yacht with Garbo - his former lover - as a fellow traveller. He visits Picasso at his home, the Rolling Stones in Marrakech; Andy Warhol in New York. Here is the young David Hockney, Peter Sellers being beastly, Paul Getty being mean. Cecil is fascinated by this new generation testing the boundaries as he and his friends had done in the 1920s. Friendships remain important - the Avons, Lady Juliet Duff, Lady Diana Cooper, Mrs Heinz. He also sees off all younger competition as photographer royal and as in the previous volume there are some very funny and often very pointed entries about the Queen, the Queen Mother, Princess Marina, Princess Margaret etc. Roy Strong, the extrovert young director, puts on a massive retrospective of Beaton's work at the National Portrait Gallery. Then, in 1969, Cecil endures a miserable phase (described in detail) working on Coco with Katharine Hepburn, bringing us to the point where The Unexpurgated Beaton took the story into the new decade. The diaries are as lively, if not livelier, than the ones for the 1970s.

Beaton in the Sixties Reviews

'Hugo Vickers has already rehabilitated the diaries that cover the last decade of Beaton's life; now he moves back to the five previous years, 1965-69. He has done an excellent job. His linking passages are informative and often enjoyably gossipy; his footnotes identifying the dramatis personae are admirably thorough...Beaton...gave much pleasure to others and, through these diaries, will give still more.' -- Philip Ziegler THE SPECTATOR (25.10.03) 'the account of Rip Van with It - the nickname coined for him by Cyril Connolly - exploring Morocco with the Rolling Stones is alone worth the price of the book. Beaton's identification of the young Mick Jagger as a 'Tarzan Piero di Cosimo' was inspired and revealing. This was, in its way, a kind of love affair, and Beaton's ability to see his new hero both as a Renaissance jungle boy and as a shy young lady up from the suburbs is well matched by Vickers sensitive choice of photographs.' -- Miranda Seymour THE SUNDAY TIMES (12.10.03) 'Beaton's diaries are perhaps unique in offering such a double vision of the 1960s - of the rich and famous, young and old, viewed through a technician's lens.' -- Patrick O'Connor LITERARY REVIEW (November) 'Hugo Vickers has edited the diaries quite brilliantly, alloting most space to those characters - Chanel, Garbo, Picasso, Streisand, Jagger - who still ring a bell, and providing absorbing and often very comical footnotes for those who do not.' **** -- Craig Brown MAIL ON SUNDAY (30.11.03) 'The original diaries...are dynamite. The snobbishness is salted with disgust and peppered with discontent...Hugo Vixckers as editor has done the gossipy old poseur a genuine literary service, rubbing away the blue pencil and giving us the uncensored, wincing reality of Beaton's sharp observation, cutting contempt and the personal insecurity behind his driving personal and professional ambition. Like all wonderful diarists, Beaton is a good hater who spares himself least of all.' -- Iain Finlayson SAGA magazine (December 2003) 'MUST READ...More writings from that silken social pen.' -- Camilla Long TATLER (November '03) 'More sharp and savage snippets from the diaries of gay photographer, Cecil Beaton.' GAY TIMES (November '03) 'this delightful volume, anticipating the centenary of Cecil Beaton's birth in January 2004, fizzes with gossip and a hilarious commentary on the boredom of celebrity.' FINANCIAL TIMES (Net News - 19.12.03) 'The frantic energy Beaton invests in his photo shoots makes for compulsive reading.' -- Scott Anthony INK (1.1.04) 'The editing of the entries is excellent...Contributing his own often witty word-portraits of the dramatis personae, Vickers allows Beaton to come alive in his own era.' -- Philip Hoare TLS (6.2.04)

About Cecil Beaton

As well as writing books, Hugo Vickers is a lecturer on all things royal. He is vice-chairman of the Jubilee Walkway Trust. He is married, lives in Hampshire and has three children.

Additional information

GOR001314482
9780297645566
0297645560
Beaton in the Sixties: More Unexpurgated Diaries by Cecil Beaton
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Orion Publishing Co
20031009
416
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Beaton in the Sixties