The Duff Cooper Diaries: 1915-1951 - Hardcover

a portrait of an equable, intelligent man, by profession a diplomat and politician, in private, a dedicated hedonist, a reckless gambler and bon viveur, with a profound love of literature and an insatiable appetite for beautiful women... good diaries, candid and courageous... as his son, John Julius Norwich, writes in an excellent Introduction. (SELINA HASTINGS SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

John Julius Norwich provides a short though admirably well-judged introduction and footnotes identifying all the characters... evident are [Duff Cooper's] courage, his exuberance, his sense of humour, his lack of pomposity, his warmth, his loyalty. This is a dazzling self-portrait of a man who lived life to the full, relished it enormously and gave much joy to others in so doing. (PHILIP ZIEGLER SPECTATOR)

enthralling volume, scrupulously edited, is a welcome act of filial homage that brings to life a world that now seems as remoteas Restoration England... a vivid, fascinating... portrait of an age. Frank, amusing and generally well-written... Duff Cooper was a good scholar , had ambitions to be a poet and wrote a fine biography of Talleyrand. Posthumously, with this absorbing portrait of a lost world, has has perhaps completed the book he was born to write. (Robert McCrum OBSERVER)

His proximity to power, such as his involvement in the abdication crisis as a close friend of Edward VIII's and his resignation as a cabinet minister in protest at Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy, gives his diaries a certain energy, as does the busy whirl of upper class socialising and philandering that seemed to take up so much of his time. (FINANCIAL TIMES)

Cooper was a phenomenon. For nearly half a century after 1914, he was close to the centre of events in Britain, and since he was in turn a diplomat, solider, backbench politican, cabinet minister, envoy to Charles de Gaulle's Free French and then Britain's post-war ambassador in Paris, he was often a participant in these events. He was clever and gifted... brave (THE ECONOMIST)

We must salute the industry and courage of John Julius Norwich and his wife in preparing this highly readable book from what mut have been mountainous material. The notes and link passages are exemplary. The pages on the Abdication are riveting. (AN WILSON COUNTRY LIFE)

Duff Cooper, an exceptionally fluent writer... could have made a fortune from publishing his own [diaries]... Who but he could offer an insider's view, not only of the Munich crisis, the general strike and life among the Free French in Algeria, but of Edward VIII in the feverish days before his abdication?... the diaries confirm him to have been a politician of exceptional ability. (MIRANDA SEYMOUR SUNDAY TIMES)

I thought the Duff Cooper Diaries were interesting and terrific, and also made me envious as hell. Oh, to have lived back then. People sure had fun... Read the Diaries and see how we used to live, and weep. (TAKI SPECTATOR)

reveals Viscount Norwich's life as politician, diplomat and socialite. Publication of these highly revealing diaries has long been resisted by Norwich's family - part of the diaries were nearly burnt as they were considered so shocking. (GOOD BOOK GUIDE)

his diaries are a scream... Gorge yourself on his son's finely tuned edition (TATLER)