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Cecil Beaton
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The Happy Years: 1944-48 (Cecil Beaton's Diaries Book 3) Kindle Edition

by Cecil Beaton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 out of 5 stars 49 ratings
A classic six-volume memoir of the twentieth century, spanning through the Second World War, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Perfect for fans of THE CROWN, LOVE, CECIL, fashion photography, artist’s memoirs, and twentieth-century history.

Sir Cecil Beaton (1904 –1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, painter, diarist and Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer.

Beaton’s third volume covers 1944-48. In 1944 Beaton, as official photographer for the Ministry of Information, was sent to Paris to arrange an exhibition of war photographs. While there he renewed his acquaintance with Picasso and encountered many other famous faces, including Gide, Cocteau and Gertrude Stein.

The war over, Beaton the photographer became Beaton the designer and he began to work for Korda in films. Then in 1946, on a visit to New York, he sought out the woman he had met just once ten years before, and everything was suddenly different. For the woman was Greta Garbo. And Beaton was in love…

THE HAPPY YEARS is the third volume of Cecil Beaton’s Diaries, a personal memoir of the twentieth century, covering famous artists and photographers, political figures, socialites, the rich & famous and movie stars.

'A fascinating and moving book' – The Sunday Mirror

'His is a superb diarist, comparable to the best in our language' – Books and Bookmen

'Wise, witty and perceptive' – New York Herald Tribune

‘Fascinating and well-written, and deserves to be read as an insight into a period and of someone who was very much part of it’ – Western Mail

‘One of the unassailables of our time’ – Daily Mail

***PLEASE NOTE THIS NEW EDITION DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOGRAPHS PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL HARDBACK EDITION***

CECIL BEATON’S DIARIES SERIES
BOOK 1: THE WANDERING YEARS: 1922-39
BOOK 2: THE YEARS BETWEEN: 1939-44
BOOK 3: THE HAPPY YEARS: 1944-8
BOOK 4: THE STRENUOUS YEARS: 1948-55
BOOK 5: THE RESTLESS YEARS: 1955-63
BOOK 6: THE PARTING YEARS: 1963-74
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  1. Book 3 of 6
    Cecil Beaton's Diaries
  2. Print length
    319 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    April 26, 2018
  5. File size
    2.1 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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There are 6 books in this series.

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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07BFJFPGD
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sapere Books (April 26, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 26, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.1 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 319 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 49 ratings

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Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton

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4 out of 5 stars
49 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Phil Perry
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This is a wonderful book although I did find an error in it! I guess Cecil Beaton was not perfect!
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  • Holly
    4.0 out of 5 stars He will tell tales...even now.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    If you are one for society and yesteryear celeb gossip, he's your boy. As part of the Beautiful Young Thing crowd, he did run in a rather rarified circle. Warning! He would be beyond canceled in today's scene. In fact, he seems rather backward on the point. He uses racial and antisemitic slurs with ease and lack of self-awareness. With that written, he certainly is a source of people in royal, theatre and wealthy circles. And, of course, there's Garbo.
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  • Wendy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Its like you are there, friend of his friends
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2021
    I'm on the 3rd volume now of 6. From the 1920's up if you want to know what people were doing, thinking, saying, wearing, buying, eating, what their homes and gardens looked like, what they thought of literature, theater, art, and so much more than these memoirs are for you. A very honest telling of life. Many names are well known even today, some are reintroduced to modern readers, everyone is interesting. During travels abroad or at home landscapes, people, shops, homes are described in wonderful detail leaving you feeling you have been there yourself. I am so glad to have stumbled upon this set
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  • peggy
    3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of information for me.
    Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Good writer.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Greta Demille
    5.0 out of 5 stars historically interesting
    Reviewed in Canada on February 21, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    I haven't read any of other "chapters" in this cycle. But if you are looking to see what Europe was like after the war this helps a lot. Cecil seems to know anybody that is anyone in Paris and New York! The account of his relationship with Greta Garbo is quite touching, perhaps a bit too kind, or is it? Tantalizing at how Garbo might have actually been.
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating a real page turner!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Absolutely fascinating,this volume covers his long and difficult affair with Great Garbo,plus many other luminaries of the entertainment world, he writes very well and must have an amazing memory.I am looking forward to the next volume.
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  • Mr F Blurton
    4.0 out of 5 stars Garbo OCD
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Beware: the last half of this volume is dominated by Cecil's interminable love affair, if that is the right term, with the fey, fickle, feckless and manipulative Greta Garbo. The opening half of this volume does contain telling portraits of a large array of characters in the Paris and New York beau monde, although by this time many of them, like Garbo, have certainly passed their sell-by date. The post-war years was a sorry time all round, but Cecil spares us most of it, the details only surfacing in his fluent natter on the social and artistic matters in hand. There are quite a few transcription errors, through bad handwriting no doubt, where the reader has to work out what the real word or words are. If you are starting out on Cecil's diaries and don't particularly want to begin on the first volume I recommend Vol 2, The Years Between, 1939-44, which shows what a tough cookie this guy really was
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  • Jolanta
    5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure to read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I love Ceil Beaton not only as a photographer and designer but also as a chronicler of social life of British upper class. Ha had fantastic sense of humo.. Reading his diares is a great pleasure.
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  • Nick
    1.0 out of 5 stars A cheap print by Amazon
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    A cheap version by Amazon badly printed like a lot of the books I have ordered - when did Amazon start doing this? It should be made clear and I will stop buying books from Amazon
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