The Unexpurgated Beaton - Tapa blanda

Although in his lifetime Cecil Beaton - royal photographer and theatrical designer - published six short volumes of his diaries, he was shy of hurting the feelings of those he wrote about. Hugo Vickers has gone back to the originals to produce the Beaton diaries as they were written. Beaton records a vigorous social life among hostesses such as Emerald Cunard and Sybil Colefax, performers including Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich, as well as artists from Cocteau and Picasso to Bacon and the young Hockney. Running through the diaries are his friendships with the Queen Mother, with Diana Cooper and Greta Garbo. In the unexpurgated edition Vickers shows what Beaton really had to say about those with whom he worked. He could be waspish, even brutal. His diaries are frank and uninhibited.

Hugo Vickers is a biographer, lecturer and broadcaster, specialising in the twentieth century.His book, The Kiss, won the Stern Silver Pen for Non-Fiction in 1996. Since 1987, he has served as Beaton's literary executor. He is retained by ITN as its royalty consultant. Hugo Vickers is married and lives in Hampshire with his wife and three children.