Michael BlochReseñas

A good book about a remarkable man. I have read all his diaries.
James Lees-Milne (1908–1997) — known to friends as Jim — is remembered for his work for the National Trust, rescuing some of England’s greatest architectural treasures, and for the vivid and entertaining diaries which have earned him a reputation as "the 20th-century Pepys." In this long-awaited biography, Michael Bloch portrays a life rich in contradictions, in which an unassuming youth overtook more dazzling contemporaries to emerge as a leading figure in the fields of conservation and letters. It describes Jim’s bisexual love life, his tempestuous marriage to the exotic Alvilde, and his friendship with other fascinating literary figures including John Betjeman, Robert Byron, Rosamond Lehmann, and the Mitford sisters (whose brother Tom had been Jim’s great love at Eton). It depicts a man who was romantically attached to the England of his childhood and felt out of tune with his own times, but who left an enduring legacy through the preservation of country houses and his eloquent chronicling of a dying world.

Strange couple.

Exemplary biography of a man who played a pivotal role in saving dozens of Britain's aristocratic "Country Houses" for posterity, and who also became a noted diarist and biographer. Lees-Milne led an interesting, complex life and was astute at describing interesting, complex lives in his journals and biographies.

This biography is essential for those interested in 20th century British social, cultural, and literary history. Incidentally or not, Lees-Milne and his wife, Alvilde Bridges Chaplin, were both bisexual in orientation, and each had intense relationships with individuals of their own gender. In the 1930s, JLM was involved with fellow biographer, memoirist, and diplomat Harold Nicolson; later, in the 1950s his wife Alvilde had a passionate affair with Nicolson's wife the gardening maven Vita Sackville-West (Virginia Woolf's great love, inspiration for "Orlando.") Adding to the book's interest: the author of this biography, Michael Bloch, 44 years younger than Lees-Milne, was JLM's last great passion, a passion no less intense for being entirely platonic.½

An intimate and inspiring biography of James Lees-Milne, author, biographer, diarist and conservationist, by one of his handsome young protégés. I was most interested in reading about Lees-Milne's formative endeavours with the National Trust, touring the country to select country houses for future preservation, but came to fall a little in love with the man himself.

Lees-Milne was of the Mitford generation - he fell in love with Diana and became good friends with Debo - of the 1920s and 30s, born of a privileged and educated background. He enjoyed the personal associations with many of the families he later visited on behalf of the National Trust, worked as a private secretary to George Lloyd and Harold Nicolson, and wrote biographies, novels and works on historical figures and architectural sites. He married Alvilde Chaplin, who later had a lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, the wife of Harold Nicolson. (Lees-Milne was also bisexual, and had an affair with Nicolson, among others.) If I read half of this in a work of fiction, I would be hard pressed to suspend my disbelief, but 'Jim' Lees-Milne lived about four lives, all of them entertaining, productive and well-connected, in his near-ninety years on this earth.

A wonderful and endearing account, based on his diaries and letters, but edited honestly by a close friend and student.

These are the letters of perhaps one of the most famous couples of the twentieth century: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The letters in the first half of the book are mainly from Wallis to her Aunt Bessie. It's very interesting to watch the progression of events, from Wallis's first meeting with her future husband to the urgency of the Abdication. It's fascinating stuff and well worth anyone's time and effort to read it.

As the author says at the end (perhaps he should have said it at the beginning), this book was written to show events from the point of view of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. If the reader wants balance The Windsor Story by J. Bryan and Charles Murphy takes a much more astringent view. Otherwise, this is a decent brief read, keeping in mind the author's bias, and and lavishly illustrated: anyone truly interested in the Windsors will want the book for the photographs alone.

This is an excellent and very readable biography of the Hitler-era German Foreign Minister, written by a biographer who knows a good deal of the period through his work on the Windsors and their connections to the Nazi regime. The book does not pretend to be a full birth to grave scholarly biography but is fully researched from primary sources and gives a very full account of Ribbentrop's ascent to his post through various diplomatic postings (and disasters), suitably laced with humour. It helps in reading the book to already have a fairly good grasp of the main characters of Hitler's court and the progess of the Second World War and the period leading up to it. The story of Ribbentrop's appearance at Nuremburg and his execution makes a sombre coda to this rather woeful tale of a life of a very ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary position. Bloch writes with sympathy and humanity but with no disguising the horrors at the heart of the regime.

James Lees-Milne is perhaps best known for his work over many years for the National Trust. During this time he was involved is acquiring many properties and saving them for the nation. He was also the author of a series of marvelous diaries which have been rightly acclaimed as as some of the best of the twentieth century. He is equally well-known for his many homosexual affairs,his extreme snobbishness and his waspish and amusing remarks.Lees-Milne was a notorious name-dropper and he seems to have known a vast variety of people. Among them were Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West ; The Mitford family; Haywood Hill;Bruce Chatwin and well the list just goes on and on. There are perhaps a few too many quotations from both the diaries and the autobiographical 'Another Self',but this is no doubt inevitable.
This biography,written by his friend Michael Bloch,tells of an often unhappy man who nevertheless had a very full life and at one time seemed to know just about everyone who was anyone.
A fascinating biography.½

For fans of JLM, difficult to separate one's feelings about the biography as a literary work, and its subject. Bloch is a good writer, with flowing text, and had the advantage (or disadvantage) of being very well acquainted at a personal level with his subject. Despite this, it is not a hagiography, and after all, JLM himself was always ready to admit to his own failings. The biography is at it strongest and most interesting for the years up to the 1940s, where there is more original material; beyond that it is harder to avoid simply retreading the diaries, and Bloch is not totally successful in this. There might, perhaps, have been more assessment and views of others on JLM's work on conservation and its impact. I hope that the National Trust will be broad-minded enough to stock this book about its greatest servant, despite its earlier negativity.

a good book about the duchess of windsor and her life before and after her marriage to the duke of windsor

There have been many biographies of the Duchess of Windsor, this in many ways, is just one more on the pile if somewhat on the sympathetic side. Granted, her story makes fascinating reading - she aspired to the powerful position of being a king's mistress only to lose that position when he married her and lost his kingdom in the process. This biography is highly readable and liberally sprinkled with many beautiful pictures of the jewelry particulary from Cartier, the Duke showered upon her before and after their marriage.

I rate it 4 for historical interest, though the quality of the letters is often puerile. Like many other non-experts, I tended to be sympathetic to
Wallis and Edward as a romantic couple, but reading their letters I learned what a ghastly pair they really were, especially in their Nazi links.