The acclaimed biography of the English architectural historian James Lees-Milne (1908-97), renowned for his work rescuing country houses for the National Trust, his colourful bisexual love-life, and the remarkable diaries which have earned him a reputation as ‘the twentieth-century Pepys’.
Praise for James Lees-Milne: The Life
“It has been a remarkable year for diarists and biographies of diarists. Michael Bloch’s James Lees-Milne: The Life is one of the best” – Daily Express
“Admirably judged: warm, but not hagiographical; sufficiently candid about Lees-Milne’s many loves, and acutely revealing about the demons that drove him.” – Observer
“Absolute discretion combined with extensive knowledge make this a dignified achievement” – Anita Brookner, The Spectator
“This book is as perfect a biography as it is possible to imagine…it is not merely a re-hash of the diaries, but he brings to life the mercurial and delicate intelligence that brought them into being” – A N Wilson, Country Life
“Superbly written and enormously entertaining” – Oxford Times
“Bloch’s book exceeds the usual scope of an official biography: it is a tale of public affections and private intimacies, a sturdy contribution to English social history, an essay in English conservationism, as well as constituting an touching and occasionally profound character portrait” – Times Literary Supplement
“Funny, observant and revealing” – Evening Standard
Praise for James Lees-Milne: The Life
“It has been a remarkable year for diarists and biographies of diarists. Michael Bloch’s James Lees-Milne: The Life is one of the best” – Daily Express
“Admirably judged: warm, but not hagiographical; sufficiently candid about Lees-Milne’s many loves, and acutely revealing about the demons that drove him.” – Observer
“Absolute discretion combined with extensive knowledge make this a dignified achievement” – Anita Brookner, The Spectator
“This book is as perfect a biography as it is possible to imagine…it is not merely a re-hash of the diaries, but he brings to life the mercurial and delicate intelligence that brought them into being” – A N Wilson, Country Life
“Superbly written and enormously entertaining” – Oxford Times
“Bloch’s book exceeds the usual scope of an official biography: it is a tale of public affections and private intimacies, a sturdy contribution to English social history, an essay in English conservationism, as well as constituting an touching and occasionally profound character portrait” – Times Literary Supplement
“Funny, observant and revealing” – Evening Standard
