Another Self

James Lees-Milne

Editions

Review

I had half-expected not to like this book.  What I thought I knew of the author had given me to believe that this would simply be an insufferably snobbish foray into the world of pre-war house parties, perhaps peopled by some of the spectacularly self-important Bloomsbury bores.  But there is much more to this slim autobiography than a cosy portrait of Britain before She lost the Empire.  Of course, there are a number of generalisations which you might find a bit hard to stomach - for example, the assertion that ‘the uneducated’ make better typists, as they ‘allow their fingers to react without the obstruction of thought’…  Or is the author’s aim just to “épater les bourgeois”?  (And in this instance, I must admit that this particular bourgeois was well and truly épaté.)

But for all that, this is an elegant memoir, full of self-deprecating humour, and also of generosity towards others.  Some spectacular set pieces are artfully strung together, and Lees-Milne takes the reader apparently effortlessly from his mother’s escapades with a balloonist to his anti-climactic meeting with a Corsican bandit via careers advice on a walk with Stanley Baldwin.  Rather like reading Gore Vidal’s Palimpsest pbk £9.99hbk £20, you might not find yourself agreeing with the author, or even wanting a closer acquaintance, but you will enjoy his company here - review by Dan Fenton