Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as They Were Written

This is a wonderful trip through the 'Sixties with someone who knew everyone. Beaton writes well; Vickers edits effectively. Beaton travelled a great deal and seemed to find himself in the company of many of the most fascinating people of the period. For example, he was visiting with Jackie Kennedy's sister in England when Bobby was assassinated and he pulls no punches in telling us exactly what Lee Radziwill had to say the next day about Jackie (libelous, at a minimum). These pages alone are worth the price of the book. Beaton writes, in great detail, about his nights with the very young Rolling Stones in Morocco. He describes how nasty Chanel could be as he visits her on the Rue Cambon. Sailing in Greece with Greta Garbo, his former lover (don't ask), on Cecile de Rothschild's yacht, as they decide to go skinny-dipping. Truman Capote up close and personal; David Bailey, David Hockney, Diana Cooper, Andy Warhol, Barbra Streisand, Diana Vreeland, and so on. If you are of an age that these names don't mean anything to you, this may not be your book. A perfect companion to Vickers' earlier volume of excerpts from Beaton's diaries, The Unexpurgated Beaton. (If that volume is unexpurgated, this one should be titled "The NC-17 Beaton".) This is a book to be savored. You read a few pages when you have an opportunity and then tear yourself away if you must, knowing that more fascinating reading awaits you in the 544 pages.

Cecil Beaton was a man of many talents - photographer, costume designer, set decorator - and you can now add to that list - a gifted writer. He apparently had a photographic memory and he recorded the details of his life in vivid detail, recalling not only physical descriptions but verbatim dialog as well. When he wasn't working, he was usually on extended vacations, traveling to exotic locales as the guest of the rich and famous. Although he is often suffering from poor health, he presses on and never fails to write in an entertaining fashion, branding everyone he comes in contact with his witty and bitchy style but nevertheless, offering an illuminating analysis of their character as well. Among the celebrities dissed here are Greta Garbo - he and several others spent a two week cruise with her - but the unhappy Garbo was apparently determined to make everyone as miserable as she was. Truman Capote, a good friend of Beatons', enjoying immense success after the publication of "In Cold Blood," which contributes to his downward spiral with drugs. Most surprising is his assessment of Katharine Hepburn. The last pages of the page detail his tormented experiences on the set of the musical "Coco," starring Hepburn, who, in his opinion, wasn't concerned with anyone or anything but herself. Other celebrities getting wide attention is Mick Jagger, Picasso, Princess Grace, David Warner, Laurence Olivier and many many more. If anything aside from the gossip, the diaries show how demanding and stressful the life of showbiz really is.