Lees-Milne, James ___ 1908-1997 ___ British ___ historian, writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Lees-Milne grew up at Wickhamford Manor, a mediaeval property in Worcestershire, and was educated at Lockers Park, Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. Encouraged by John Betjeman, he dreamed of a literary career; this was further encouraged when he went to live in Harold Nicolson's London flat. Another friend, Lord Lloyd helped him get a job as an assistant to the head of Reuters. During this time, Lees-Milne was highly promiscuous and bisexual; having made a cousin pregnant, he then became engaged to Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy, who had four homosexual brothers, but broke off the engagement because of financial worries. Hating his job at Reuters, he left. Through Nicolson's connections, he was then employed as secretary to the newly-formed country houses committee of the National Trust. He worked hard in this role for many years, with a short break during the war when he was an ambulance driver and served with the Irish Guards, and was instrumental in the National Trust's acquisition of many important buildings. However, he also developed his literary ambitions with novels, some of them autobiographical, and books on architecture. In 1951, he married Alvilde, a lesbian, who had been married before, at a registry office with Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West as their witnesses. They lived an unconventional life, only partly together, in France, and then at Alderley Grange where Alvilde created a garden, in Bath, and finally at a property on the Badminton estate. Lees-Milne is probably best remembered for his diaries - full of wit, sharp observation and anecdotes - which were published in many volumes.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Lees-Milne's centenary

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1942-1997 ___ literary social society architecture culture self love/sex people

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and quotes
about
about and quotes
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Yale University Libraries: Beinecke Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Ancestral Voices
Prophesying Peace
Caves of Ice

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.