Holy Dread Diaries 1982-1984 - Hardcover

In this, the ninth volume of James Lees-Milne's addictive diaries, the flames of his love for their eventual editor, 'M.', have cooled to a more durable tenderness. There is no change, however, in the sharpness of his observation, and the anecdotes he records with such wit, affection and prejudice are as 'strangely riveting' as when John Betjeman first so described them.
While his bride's finger waits outstretched, Kenneth Clark discusses appreciatively with the priest the Coptic wedding ring he has chosen. An old and demanding Hilaire Belloc sets himself alight and has to be rolled on the bathroom floor. Diana Mosley tells how the Kaiser, visiting Eton, asks to have a boy 'swished' for his entertainment. Zita Jungman, a former Bright Young Thing of the twenties, is so far behind with her newspaper reading that she learns months late that she has become a widow.
As always, Death is a major character. 'Master', the Lees-Milnes' ducal landlord, is dug up by hunt protesters following his burial. After walking across fields in driving rain to the funeral of Betjeman - 'the best man who ever lived and the most loveable' - Lees-Milne sits in the almost pitch dark church, just able to read the prayers by the light of a single window. He himself hopes to die to the music of Orfeo.