The author writes in his introduction that evening is the magical moment to wander about Rome: "That is the moment to see the city of conflicting moods as it always has been and still is, hateful and holy, wicked and wise, pagan and papal, sometimes so beautiful that it is scarcely to be endured, and always quite inscrutable. That is the supreme moment to rhapsodize and pay homage, to make the final assault upon the hidden secret of Rome's eternal decay, and to be deliciously deceived… The early morning on the other hand is more to our purpose, for it is not at all romantic." The early morning serves to light for Lees-Milne the eight Roman buildings–from the somber Pantheon first built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 B.C. to the Trevi fountain, whose waters were brought to Rome via aqueduct by the same Agrippa, but whose completion had to await the eighteenth century–that are in the author's opinion the chef architectural monuments of the city. All of them, he says, are powerful archetypes, and two among them, the Pantheon and the Tempietto, have individual features that are reflected in practically every town in Europe, the British Commonwealth, and America.

Roman mornings

LEES-MILNE, James

Arts & Photography

Collins

Venetian evenings

Volume 1 covers 1886-1920. Harold Nicolson, great diplomat, diarist and raconteur, moved in numerous worlds and knew an extraordinary number of distinguished people. This first volume of James Lees-Milne's biography describes his nomadic childhood in Budapest, Tehran, Constantinople and Bulgaria; his English schooling in Folkestone and Wellington; his undergraduate years at Balliol, and his early independent travels in Europe. The author then traces Nicolson's diplomatic service in Spain, his stormy courtship of and marriage to Vita Sackville-West, and his involvement with the Foreign Office during the First World War. Nicolson's papers from this period bequeath to us not only an astute political judgement of the aftermath of the war, but also fascinating personal insights into both Balfour and Lloyd George. Mr. Lees-Milne has endeavoured to let Nicolson tell his own story, often in his own inimitable words, with the minimum of intervention. After the war Nicolson was in the Diplomatic Service in Paris, and he also embarked on a literary career. His friendship with Cocteau began at this period and he met leading literary figures such as Gide and Proust. Then his introduction to the Bloomsbury Group, who had a decisive influence on him, came about at the same time as he was writing books on Tennyson, Byron and Swinburne. This volume covers his life until 1929 when he resigned from the Diplomatic Service to join the staff of the Evening Standard.

Harold Nicolson: A Biography (1)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Shoe String Pr Inc

Harold Nicolson: A Biography, 1930-1968 (2)

Another Self

Another Self: With a Wood Engraving by Reynolds Stone

Another self;: With a wood engraving

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Hamilton

Harold Nicolson (v. 1)

United States

Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

Paperback in very good condition. Covers lightly scored and lightly edgeworn. Page block mildly foxed and creases at upper edges of a few pages. No other notable flaws, pages are crisp and clean. AD

The enigmatic Edwardian: The life of Reginald, 2nd Viscount Esher

SIDGWICK JACKSON

A biography of Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher who for nearly 30 years exerted an incredible influence on British royalty and politics. The intimate of every Prime Minister from Rosebery to Stanley Baldwin, of Kitchener, Haig and Lord Curzon, he declined high office, preferring to manipulate events from backstage. The author relates how in the late 1890s he gave Queen Victoria details about the Boer War which her government was keeping from her. He founded the Committee of Imperial Defence and in World War I he liaised between French and British forces, while Queen Mary consulted him about the upbringing and education of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII. Alongside his public role, the author tells of Lord Esher's private life where he indulged in a series of relationships with youths and was seen to develop an unhealthy passion for Maurice, considered to be the dullest and least attractive of his children.

Enigmatic Edwardian Reginald Esher

Business & Money

Job Hunting & Careers

Sidgwich Jackson Ltd

, 248 pages, with a SIGNED letter from the author and author's bookplate at the front endpapers, plus photocopy of a letter is stuck down to the rear pastedown

Midway on the Waves

Olympic Marketing Corp

Faber&Faber

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Books by LEES-MILNE, James