James Lees-MilneReviews

A treasure of observations of England and France in the 50's and 60's by an old-fashioned charming student of people and architecture. This site says it better than I can: James Lees-Milne was surely one of the greatest diarists of the century. As a key member of the fledgling National Trust, he spent years inspecting historic buildings offered by eccentric or impecunious owners to the NT and he recorded his observations in several volumes which bristle with wit, malice, gossip and (often scandalous) anecdote. Lees-Milne loved fine objects and weird people in equal measure and he wrote about both with unfailing grace and acuity.
http://www.johnsandoe.com/profile_Lees-Milne,.htm

A fun miscellany of quotations drawn from letters, histories, biographies, travel narratives, novels, and verse.

Lovely.

Enjoyed.

He knew everyone and was well liked.

Another pleasing diary by Lees-Milne.

Enjoyed.

Every one a joy.

Continuing to read his biographies, so interesting.

A well connected life by an articulate man.

Another good James.

Well done.

Excellent read.

Biography I could not put down and when finished I wanted to know more.

Interesting man, interesting life, great diarist.

Oh, I laughed out loud at this one. It was a scream from start to finish. James Lees Milne is one of the best diarists of the last one hundred years. He's the Samuel Pepys of the 20th Century. However, Another Self is his "memoir" (put in quotation marks because several writers dispute the truthfulness of his accounts). But I don't care if everything he wrote was bologna. It was delicious bologna and hilarious bologna. He was raised by lunatic parents and his stories about them had me in tears. Also, he wrote about his adventures at school and his military service afterwards. It's a short book and a breeze to read. You will not be disappointed.

(Btw, Milne may be the one of the greatest preservers of English architecture in the 20th Century. He joined Britain's National Trust in its early days and thereafter went about saving a host of country estates which had fallen into disrepair, most of which were slated for destruction. Because of him and his cohorts, there are many real-life Downtown Abbeys in existence today.)

Read during Summer 2004

Sometimes humourous, high readable, memoir of the early life of James Lees-Milne. The early chapters are full wonderfully dotty eccentricity that pales a bit later but is replaced by some great rant and ravings, as well as thoughtful commentary on the early part of the twentieth century. Definetely made me want to read more of his diaries.

James Lees-Milne, who described his background as "Lower Upper Class" was a second Generation rich person. He became moderately famous, by writing up his experiences, as he travelled Through Britain persuading the owners of "Stately Homes" to donate their properties to the National Trust for exhibition to the public, and to ensure the survival of the country's architectural wonders. This volume of interviews with some rather odd Edwardians was a pleasant by-product of his job.½

This is the last in the series of diaries of James Lees -Milne, covering the final five years of his long life. He died in 1997 aged 89. He was best known for his work for the National Trust, saving magnificent country homes "in trust for the nation" so preserving architectural masterpieces and enabling heirs to meet their inheritance tax obligations but still also live rent free in their old homes (you must br open to the unwashed public for at least some of the time). . He shaped the National trust and lived to deliver on a vision of preserving at least remnants of a fast disappearing older lifestyle . A win -win situation where everyone gains and Britain acquires star attractions for tourists . Lees-Milne's was an a man representative of his era and his class . His was a full and fascinating 20th century life . His reputation also rested on his writing ... Some wonderful arhitectural histories , two volumes of very readable autobiographies ( this was how I first discovered him ) and finally as a modern day Pepys in keeping his diaries . His diaries ran to twelve volumes and all were published (except for the last) in this lifetime and he did his own editions. . It ended up as too much of a good thing ... As the impression gained is that the diarist then writes not for himself or his family as a private testimony , but for the effect on unknown readers with an income flowing in from the publisher and we the reader connives by being a voyeur into someone else's life . There is a quality of contrived artlessness. This final diary is sad as it reveals the horrors of old age and the onset physical decrepitude and the sharing your life with an ageing and then dying wife . But Lees- Milne had that stiff upper lip British approach to fate and kept engaged , occupied and interested in his kind of people, hearing thr first cuckoo and his priveleged social world . His life was in the provinces , a country village in the South West , but trips to London, many luncheons, visits and house visits , hob nibbling with old friends. I would have preferred more on his actual work. They say that in old age one's life shrinks to ultimately your house, your garden, four walls and finally the four corners of your own bed . All worth fighting against and resisting which James L -M certainly did . His diaries reveal the measure of the man, someone assured in his knowledge of his subject (architectural history) , an excessive snob, self deprecating, very vain, sexually ambivalent , with a waspish twist in the rapier type of humor . He gives very sharp pen portraits of the many characters he encounters or remembers from his youth He was very well connected and thought it important to drop names in just about every entry . He does not come across as a likeable person.... How did he keep his friends ? Nothing here on the books he was reading or world politics and affairs . Your reading logic is constantly interrupted by needing to also read the numerous footnotes to discover who all these titled people were or are , ( carefully recorded with dates of birth and death, titles, marriages , divorces and lineage) , but an end biographical glossary woukd have worked better. His sharp nettled sentences puts barbs into friend and foe alike and give the diaries their appeal... It's their quirkiness that is original but perhaps a little contrrived . The diaries avoid being boring as you pick up inside tit bits and the scandals of the day about the royal family , bishops, duchesses , ladies , business people of note , socialites etc. Lees-Milne is well served by his editor and biographer Michael Bloch who edited this final volume of diaries . There are no photographs . You are either a fan and an admirer of Lees Milne or you rile at the snobbery and affectations . To promote his writing and his books despite his passing more than 10 years ago there is a James Lees-Milne website ... An irony as he was not computer literate.

Throughout the 1940s Milne traveled all over Great Britain on behalf of the newly-formed National Trust. His job was to visit stately homes, castles or homes of historical significance, look them over and determine if the trust should ask for them to be donated for public use. The owners were often eager to donate their ancestral homes to get out from under the crushing death taxes levied, along with the enormous expense of keeping up a home that was often two or three hundred years old.

Milne kept a journal of the many homes he visited, and this book is divided between the homes the trust acquired and the ones Milne worked to acquire but didn't, for many reasons. He has the quick eye and keen observation needed for his job and describes the homes in great detail as to what he likes and often what he hates. He can tell when the furniture is fake and when a building has been modernized badly. His descriptions of the various occupants is so clearly written that the reader can see them as Milne does. He often likes these aristocrats who have fallen on hard times, at one point, in 1947, he writes in fear of what will happen to a particular house once the average people are allowed near it:

A whole social system has broken down. What will replace it beyond government by the masses, uncultivated, rancorous, savage, philistine, the enemies of all things beautiful? How I detest democracy.

To be fair, he was seeing many grand houses that were being vandalized by the military personnel living in them at the time, as much of the journal was during WWII. And Milne is funny, with a snarky sense of humor. His descriptions are wonderful.

Lord Beauchamp is fat, with a great paunch, looking like God knows what, wearing an old blue shirt, open at the frayed neck, and a tight pair of brown Army shorts, baby socks and sandshoes.

or an arrogant Lord who clearly didn't trust Milne or the idea of the trust:

At 5.45 Lord Leconfield, tired out, led me to the street door where he dismissed me. Pointing to a tea house with an enormous CLOSED hanging in the window, he said, "You will get a very good tea in there. Put it down to me. Goodbye."

This is a quick read but the extended version of Lees-Milne's journals is available too.

I can't see the point to this book and ended up skipping through it to find places I'd been or knew about. Mind you, the book does exactly what it says on the cover - it lists a house and then tells you a bit about the owners. I'm pleased this came as part of a collection for me as it just seemed a bit pointless.

An inconsequential book, with rather annoying footnotes. Yet the odd bit of scabrous self awareness bites through the litany of large houses and small owners

Taken from the diaries of James Lees-Milne,these extracts give a good idea of those houses that he visited on behalf of the National Trust. He worked for the Trust for many years and was sent to inspect and evaluate a great many properties with an eye to acquire them for the National trust.
In the first part of this slim volume are those Houses which are now owned by the Trust and in the second those which 'Escaped'.In addition to describing the houses and gardens visited , Lees-Milne's describes the often eccentric owners,and it is in this that he excels.
A good introduction to the work and writings of this wonderful,if snobbish man who writes so well and has done much to save so many of England's great Country Houses.

This is James Lees-Milne's only attempt at writing a Ghost story. It is the story of the haunting of Cuthbert Ruthenshaw who is tormented by ......... Ah,well that would be telling wouldn't it.
This is a booklet of 31 pages which is nicely produced by Robinson Publishing. Four well-drawn illustrations by an unknown artist complete the book.
I am rather in two minds here - on the one hand anything by Lees-Milne is well worth reading and indeed this short tale has several points of interest. On the other hand,well it is rather similar to many others and not particularly outstanding. Good to own for Lees-Milne enthusiasts.

James Lees-Milne is well known for his wonderful diaries and for his great work for the National Trust. In 'Another Self' he has written one of the most readable and funny autobiographies I have ever read. he tells us about his childhood living with his long-suffering father and dotty mother. He writes of his hilarious entry into his prep school,which nearly made this reader fall off his chair with laughter. there is also the episode of mistaken identity,in which he visits Portugal and is mistaken for an high official of the British Government and taken (in shorts and sandals) to inspect lines of troops on parade.
There are just so many anecdotes during the course of the book,that it is difficult to pick out particular ones,however the episode of the dead and stinking fish and the consternation of vicar and his congregation would be hard to beat.