{"title":"James Lees-Milne","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the elegant world of James Lees-Milne, chronicler of country houses and English society. Perfect for lovers of history, biography and architectural writing. Explore his captivating works.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mingled-measure-book-james-lees-milne-9780859552981","title":"A Mingled Measure","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49504651411729,"sku":"GOR002582713","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49505732362513,"sku":"GOR013737628","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859552985.jpg?v=1751297749"},{"product_id":"ancestral-voices-book-james-lees-milne-9780571133253","title":"Ancestral Voices","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49507994992913,"sku":"GOR003253673","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49640354414865,"sku":"GOR002267307","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50255083241745,"sku":"GOR001593364","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50302184849681,"sku":"CIN0571133258A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50617168724241,"sku":"CIN0571133258G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50860174737681,"sku":"CIN0571133258VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571133258.jpg?v=1751008674"},{"product_id":"people-and-places-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562020","title":"People and Places","description":"In 1936, James Lees-Milne became Country Houses secretary of the infant National Trust. Already fired with compassion for ancient architecture, 'so vulnerable and transient', he could now pursue what amounted to a vocation. His arrival increased the Trust's permanent staff to four, a close-knit community, somewhat cramped in a stuffy office facing a shunting yard in Victoria. The Trust at that time owned only two country houses, one ruined and the other empty, but changing conditions, accelerated by the War, now brought a stream of offers. James Lees-Milne's chief task was to visit, as ambassador and aesthetic assessor, would-be donors in their domains. So young a man arriving often on a bicycle must have astonished those patrician figures, who themselves might be survivors from the Victorian age. Nor was his task easy: it involved legal thickets, intricate family squabbles, dilemmas of artistic judgement, and owners who, in their fastnesses, might have grown very eccentric indeed. In this book James Lees-Milne describes fourteen houses, including Knole, Blickling, Stourhead and Cotehele.  He brings the buildings, their owners and pasts brilliantly to life and tells the sometimes cliffhanging tales of their transfer to the Trust. Readers of the celebrated diaries will not be surprised by the wit and charm in these pages. But everyone, whether the author's devoted following or visitors to the Trust's great houses, will be enchanted by the extraordinary, amusing and touching picture they will find here of an England now lost.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49510015893777,"sku":"GOR003313577","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49565516562705,"sku":"GOR011218159","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49637247287569,"sku":"GOR008963784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50670135050513,"sku":"GOR004441470","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562023.jpg?v=1751438069"},{"product_id":"william-beckford-book-james-lees-milne-9780712637671","title":"William Beckford","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49510581698833,"sku":"GOR003932584","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643758911761,"sku":"GOR002783526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49648837689617,"sku":"GOR003507085","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0712637672.jpg?v=1750816832"},{"product_id":"some-country-houses-and-their-owners-book-james-lees-milne-9780141190907","title":"Some Country Houses and their Owners","description":"The delightful, gossipy diaries of James Lees-Milne describe his encounters with the owners of country houses - from eccentric lords and oil millionaires to raffish socialists - as he travelled over England saving properties for the National Trust. Here are sharply observed accounts of dinner with Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst; Winston Churchill's bedroom at Chartwell; T. E. Lawrence's dilapidated Dorset cottage; and war damage to a great house in Derby. All are infused with his love of beauty and his sympathy for those giving up their ancestral homes forever.  Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too.It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49512040694033,"sku":"GOR001205250","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50062389543185,"sku":"CIN0141190906G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345464332561,"sku":"CIN0141190906A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50960954917137,"sku":"GOR001891728","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51247821685009,"sku":"GOR004008472","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51248251863313,"sku":"GOR008644994","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0141190906.jpg?v=1751422866"},{"product_id":"earls-of-creation-book-james-lees-milne-9780712694643","title":"Earls of Creation","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49512684618001,"sku":"GOR003687296","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49909883142417,"sku":"CIN0712694641VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51361519042833,"sku":"GOR001892652","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51742096261393,"sku":"GOR012871172","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0712694641.jpg?v=1750784707"},{"product_id":"through-wood-and-dale-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562013","title":"Through Wood and Dale","description":"This volume of JL-M's incomparable diaries sees him cope with publication of the earliest two, Ancestral Voices and Prophesying Peace. Most friends are amused and delighted, a few claim to be mortified. Even comparisons with Pepys, however, can scarcely calm the author's misgivings. Old age too appears among the characters. 'It is a little sad,' says Harold Acton, 'having to pay even for affection on top of everything else. But what can we expect at our age, my dear? 'Friends' deaths grow frequent, but perhaps death is to be preferred. 'Extreme old age is an extremely melancholy business,' Bloggs Baldwin says before his wife's funeral, 'I have given a few broad hints to the Almighty. Whether he will heed them is another matter.' These diaries like the others are full of surprises. Over dinner, Winston Churchill re-enacts the battle of Jutland with wine glasses and decanters, puffing cigar smoke to represent the guns. Anthony Powell admits an attraction to girls who look as if they might have slept out for a week, perhaps under a hedge. The old Princess Royal's helpless laughter is quenched by her maid, who hurriedly reads random verses from the Bible. Nor is JL-M's eye less sharp as he observes Bob Boothby's pleasure in describing the drawbacks of fame, or Graham Sutherland's fear of being too gracious to the undeserving. Logan Pearsall Smith once wrote that we need a little malice to prevent our affection for those we love from becoming flat. These diaries perfectly illustrate that truth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49516591841553,"sku":"GOR002112444","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50616185356561,"sku":"GOR008934745","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51563710284049,"sku":"GOR002995230","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562015.jpg?v=1751231301"},{"product_id":"holy-dread-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562051","title":"Holy Dread","description":"In the ninth volume of James Lees-Milne's diaries, the ardour towards their eventual editor M, has cooled to a more durable tenderness. There is no change however, in the sharpness of his observation.;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 Hillaire Belloc sets himself alight and has to be rolled on the bathroom floor. Diana Mosley tells how the Kaiser, visiting Eton, asked to have a boy swished for his entertainment. Zita Jungman, a former Bright Young Thing of the 20s, is so far behind with her newspaper reading that she learns months later 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 John Betjeman - the best man who ever lived and the most lovable - 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49516659441937,"sku":"GOR002783312","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535414731025,"sku":"GOR004216808","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562058.jpg?v=1751262660"},{"product_id":"deep-romantic-chasm-book-james-lees-milne-9780719556081","title":"Deep Romantic Chasm","description":"The eighth volume of James Lees-Milne's diaries, this volume differs from previous collections in that they show Lees-Milne developing an overwhelming tendresse for a much younger man. He records the doubt, happiness, guilt and other turbulence that accompany an emotion he did not expect to feel again. This is also the first volume to be edited not by the diarist himself but by his literary executor - the younger man with whom Lees-Milne fell so deeply in love.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49517466059025,"sku":"GOR003837676","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51118847361297,"sku":"GOR001632019","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51529829318929,"sku":"GOR001633004","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53132065505553,"sku":"GOR010757568","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719556082.jpg?v=1751262654"},{"product_id":"mingled-measure-book-james-lees-milne-9780719553622","title":"A Mingled Measure","description":"This text continues the sequence that established James Lees-Milne as a well-known 20th-century diarist. The author has ceased to work full-time for the National Trust and we now see him in kaleidoscopically varied company, including Colette, Oswald Mosley and John Betjeman.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49519195193617,"sku":"GOR001257549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49639919812881,"sku":"GOR003989011","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50049460076817,"sku":"CIN0719553628G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51075061416209,"sku":"GOR001373876","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719553628.jpg?v=1751394253"},{"product_id":"ancient-as-the-hills-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562006","title":"Ancient as the Hills","description":"Part of a series of eight volumes of diaries kept by James Lees-Milne, this text covers the years from 1973-74 and offers a fastidious, penetrating and humourous view of a world now largely vanished.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49522063540497,"sku":"GOR003055816","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49662948573457,"sku":"GOR004581125","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562007.jpg?v=1750784826"},{"product_id":"beneath-a-waning-moon-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562198","title":"Beneath a Waning Moon","description":"Those who know him already will be prepared for the unexpected, and they will not be disappointed. Those new to him may be surprised to find - along with his honesty and delicious perceptiveness - the almost surreal oddness of some of his anecdotes. The thoughts, pleasures and regrets of those who appear in these pages are similarly fascinating. The Prince of Wales feels that the mantle of John Betjeman has fallen on his own shoulders, Diana Mosley explains why Macmillan rather than Ribbentrop should have been hanged after the war, Mick Jagger displays an extensive knowledge of Shakespeare, and Alan Clark admits he is bored stiff by his life in politics. JLM unites a sensibility uniquely his own with inconsistencies and prejudices of a kind we all share. He combines wit, acerbity and compassion, and is as delightful a companion in print as in life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49522414911761,"sku":"GOR008123328","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523010240785,"sku":"GOR003427270","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548952371473,"sku":"GOR003683291","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358626844945,"sku":"CIN0719562198LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50958338195729,"sku":"GOR003327224","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53018288226577,"sku":"CIN0719562198G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562198.jpg?v=1751041602"},{"product_id":"milk-of-paradise-book-james-lees-milne-9780719565816","title":"The Milk of Paradise","description":"The twelfth and final volume of James Lees-Milne's magnificent diary covers the last five years of his life, until a few weeks before his death at the age of eighty-nine.  Old age and infirmity have not diminished his interest in life, and he expresses sharp and original views on everything from modern architecture to New Labour.  After the loss of his bossy but beloved wife Alvilde, he devotes himself to visiting friends, observing their habits and relishing their gossip and anecdotes.  Whether describing an afternoon with the Prince of Wales, a week-end at Chatsworth, a nostalgic return to the scenes of his youth or a day at the latest London exhibitions, he displays the same mixture of candour, waspish wit, eloquent exasperation and human understanding which has delighted his readers since the first of these volumes appeared in 1975.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523671138577,"sku":"GOR005414026","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50234246103313,"sku":"GOR009351998","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50895820325137,"sku":"GOR006539493","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719565812.jpg?v=1751041612"},{"product_id":"enigmatic-edwardian-book-james-lees-milne-9780283993992","title":"The Enigmatic Edwardian","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49524983955729,"sku":"GOR001729650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635270131985,"sku":"GOR003633827","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346535911697,"sku":"CIN0283993995G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50560294224145,"sku":"GOR013999498","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50736444801297,"sku":"GOR002672921","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50843491172625,"sku":"CIN0283993995VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0283993995.jpg?v=1751356397"},{"product_id":"ancient-as-the-hills-book-james-lees-milne-9780719555961","title":"Ancient as the Hills","description":"A collection of witty and candid diary entries to follow A Mingled Measure.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49527131996433,"sku":"GOR001374873","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49557894693137,"sku":"GOR001920437","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650303467793,"sku":"GOR001993872","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50468008165649,"sku":"CIN0719555965G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51819844108561,"sku":"GOR010054548","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719555965.jpg?v=1750848043"},{"product_id":"diaries-book-james-lees-milne-9780719555916","title":"Diaries","description":"This is the second volume of Lees-Milne's diaries covering his time as the National Trust's youthful Country Houses Secretary. The success of his ability to persuade country house owners that the Trust - then a tiny organization - would be the saviour of their houses, is fully demonstrated here.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49528300405009,"sku":"GOR004336313","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49540912808209,"sku":"GOR008631954","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52651773821201,"sku":"GOR003560626","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719555914.jpg?v=1751431134"},{"product_id":"bachelor-duke-w-spencer-cavendish-book-james-lees-milne-9780719556005","title":"Bachelor Duke: W Spencer Cavendish","description":"A look at the life of the 6th Duke of Devonshire, the greatest collector of his age and transformed Chatsworth into a palace of spectacular grandeur. He never failed to return from his travels without some new object. Yet despite his riches and social status, he was also devoid of snobbery.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49528473616657,"sku":"GOR003720384","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650965643537,"sku":"GOR013412965","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49653900935441,"sku":"GOR001905113","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50043517763857,"sku":"CIN0719556007G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50412377374993,"sku":"GOR010862224","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719556007.jpg?v=1751328520"},{"product_id":"ceaseless-turmoil-book-james-lees-milne-9780719565786","title":"Ceaseless Turmoil","description":"In this penultimate volume, James Lees-Milne is as engaging and readable as ever; his sharpness and wit are undiminished as he forges into his eighties. He discusses architecture with the Prince of Wales and royal mistresses with Princess Michael of Kent. As the grand old man of country house conservation, he becomes a media celebrity, but he declines a C.B.E. and refuses to be photographed by Lord Snowdon. He reads in The Times of the death of the boy who seduced him at Eton, and publishes a novel about a German count who seduces first an English schoolboy, then the boy's mother. Candid, touching, penetrating and often hilariously funny, these diaries chronicle a way of life and a view of the world that are rapidly vanishing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49528862310673,"sku":"GOR003827543","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49552000844049,"sku":"GOR004555656","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49634483994897,"sku":"GOR008631517","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445264879889,"sku":"GOR010799159","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719565782.jpg?v=1751168977"},{"product_id":"milk-of-paradise-book-james-lees-milne-9780719565809","title":"The Milk of Paradise","description":"The twelfth and final volume of James Lees-Milne's magnificent diary covers the last five years of his life, until a few weeks before his death at the age of eighty-nine.  Old age and infirmity have not diminished his interest in life, and he expresses sharp and original views on everything from modern architecture to New Labour.  After the loss of his bossy but beloved wife Alvilde, he devotes himself to visiting friends, observing their habits and relishing their gossip and anecdotes.  Whether describing an afternoon with the Prince of Wales, a week-end at Chatsworth, a nostalgic return to the scenes of his youth or a day at the latest London exhibitions, he displays the same mixture of candour, waspish wit, eloquent exasperation and human understanding which has delighted his readers since the first of these volumes appeared in 1975.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49528872304913,"sku":"GOR002560954","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548553224465,"sku":"GOR003646215","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50216581726481,"sku":"CIN0719565804G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51802942865681,"sku":"GOR009504359","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719565804.jpg?v=1751106210"},{"product_id":"diaries-1971-1983-book-james-lees-milne-9780719566820","title":"Diaries, 1971-1983","description":"James Lees-Milne (1908--97) has been hailed as the greatest English diarist of the twentieth century. Funny, indiscreet, candid, touching and sharply observed, his journals both reveal a fascinating personality and hold up a mirror to the times. This second compilation from the original twelve volumes (also incorporating interesting new material), covers his life during his sixties and early seventies, when he was living in Gloucestershire with his formidable wife Alvilde. Having made his name as the country house expert of the National Trust and a writer on architecture, he sought to establish himself as a novelist and biographer. With some misgivings he published his wartime diaries, little imagining that it was as a diarist that he would achieve lasting fame. These diaries vividly portray the vicissitudes of a writer's lot, the merry-go-round of life on the Badminton estate of the eccentric Duke of Beaufort, and meetings with many friends including John Betjeman, Bruce Chatwin and the Mitford sisters.But perhaps they are most remarkable for the poignancy with which they depict the writer's own feelings of joy, regret, frustration, amusement and love -- including a tendresse for the editor of this volume.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49529708314897,"sku":"GOR006264355","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51437175046417,"sku":"GOR004108650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52546233368849,"sku":"GOR010793254","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719566827.jpg?v=1751328540"},{"product_id":"holy-dread-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562129","title":"Holy Dread","description":"In the ninth volume of James Lees-Milne's diaries, the ardour towards their eventual editor \"M\", has cooled to a more durable tenderness. There is no change however, in the sharpness of his observation. 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 Hillaire Belloc sets himself alight and has to be rolled on the bathroom floor. Diana Mosley tells how the Kaiser, visiting Eton, asked to have a boy \"swished\" for his entertainment. Zita Jungman, a former \"Bright Young Thing\" of the 20s, is so far behind with her newspaper reading that she learns months later 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 John Betjeman - \"the best man who ever lived and the most lovable\" - 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\".","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49530332971281,"sku":"GOR003614091","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49649056448785,"sku":"GOR002067869","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562120.jpg?v=1751444374"},{"product_id":"enigmatic-edwardian-book-james-lees-milne-9780283997389","title":"The Enigmatic Edwardian","description":"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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49531551219985,"sku":"GOR003537240","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631783420177,"sku":"GOR002466820","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50183523533073,"sku":"GOR002209783","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347673747729,"sku":"CIN0283997389G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0283997389.jpg?v=1751389543"},{"product_id":"some-cotswold-country-houses-book-james-lees-milne-9780946159451","title":"Some Cotswold Country Houses","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49532887597329,"sku":"GOR002267319","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49656055562513,"sku":"GOR002707144","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50303415812369,"sku":"CIN0946159459G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52706994356497,"sku":"GOR007687288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0946159459.jpg?v=1751235106"},{"product_id":"deep-romantic-chasm-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562112","title":"Deep Romantic Chasm","description":"The eighth volume of James Lees-Milne's acclaimed diaries is unlike its predecessors, in that it shows Lees-Milne developing an overwhelming tendresse for a much younger man. As candid in writing about himself as about others, he records the doubt, happiness, guilt and other turbulence that accompany an emotion he did not expect to feel again. This is the first volume to be edited not by the diarist himself but his literary executor, the friend in question. The text deals with much else besides love and its difficulties. Lees-Milne writes the biography of his friend Harold Nicolson, sometimes in the process worsting his publisher, the formidable Norah Smallwood of Chatto \u0026amp; Windus. With Derek Hill (but without an importunate Bruce Chatwin) he twice visits Mount Athos, recording the delights and discomforts of a spiritual journey to the Holy Mountain. Both the man and his period are irresistibly present in these pages, as one minute he is exasperated by Labour's winter of discontent, or predicts incineration by Soviet attack, and in the next recreates the values and friendships of an earlier, gentler age.Here he is as engaging and readable as ever, mixing candour and an often malicious wit with generosity of spirit and sympathy for human frailty.  As always, he writes with the sharp eye of a novelist and is amusingly observant about inconstancies of feeling and opinion, especially his own. Diffident, penetrating, thoughtful, prejudiced, not always admirable in his own self-estimation, he inspires the same affection in print as he did in life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535075418385,"sku":"GOR003668115","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49646089109777,"sku":"GOR004318744","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719562112.jpg?v=1750912619"},{"product_id":"another-self-book-james-lees-milne-9780719555985","title":"Another Self","description":"In his book, James Lees-Milne recalls the early years of his life. He tells of when he started prep school with an entrance so absurd it haunts him until the day he leaves; his family; his military experiences during WWII; and his role in saving decaying houses for the infant National Trust.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49536473137425,"sku":"GOR001739975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52449322664209,"sku":"GOR001845806","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52525564133649,"sku":"GOR003649215","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52603211383057,"sku":"GOR008081015","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719555981.jpg?v=1751262652"},{"product_id":"fourteen-friends-book-james-lees-milne-9780719555947","title":"Fourteen Friends","description":"In this sequence of sketches, the diarist brings to life 14 friends who, unknowingly, formed his values, framed his views and added relish to his days. Among others they include Robert Byron swimming in the Bay of Naples, and Rosamond Lehmann communing through a medium with dead loved ones.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49538885681425,"sku":"GOR003448997","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50339310698769,"sku":"CIN0719555949VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50602695852305,"sku":"GOR008660701","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50995096912145,"sku":"GOR001625057","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51320759451921,"sku":"GOR010613684","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104740765969,"sku":"CIN0719555949G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719555949.jpg?v=1751425803"},{"product_id":"ceaseless-turmoil-book-james-lees-milne-9780719565793","title":"Ceaseless Turmoil","description":"In this penultimate volume, James Lees-Milne is as engaging and readable as ever; his sharpness and wit are undiminished as he forges into his eighties. He discusses architecture with the Prince of Wales and royal mistresses with Princess Michael of Kent. As the grand old man of country house conservation, he becomes a media celebrity, but he declines a C.B.E. and refuses to be photographed by Lord Snowdon. He reads in The Times of the death of the boy who seduced him at Eton, and publishes a novel about a German count who seduces first an English schoolboy, then the boy's mother. Candid, touching, penetrating and often hilariously funny, these diaries chronicle a way of life and a view of the world that are rapidly vanishing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543060488465,"sku":"GOR001981798","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49649056383249,"sku":"GOR013643361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49654515564817,"sku":"GOR003441955","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50480219652369,"sku":"GOR011388760","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719565790.jpg?v=1751106209"},{"product_id":"beneath-a-waning-moon-book-james-lees-milne-9780719562181","title":"Beneath a Waning Moon","description":"Those who know him already will be prepared for the unexpected, and they will not be disappointed. Those new to him may be surprised to find - along with his honesty and delicious perceptiveness - the almost surreal oddness of some of his anecdotes. The thoughts, pleasures and regrets of those who appear in these pages are similarly fascinating. The Prince of Wales feels that the mantle of John Betjeman has fallen on his own shoulders, Diana Mosley explains why Macmillan rather than Ribbentrop should have been hanged after the war, Mick Jagger displays an extensive knowledge of Shakespeare, and Alan Clark admits he is bored stiff by his life in politics. JLM unites a sensibility uniquely his own with inconsistencies and prejudices of a kind we all share. He combines wit, acerbity and compassion, and is as delightful a companion in print as in life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543062978833,"sku":"GOR002639902","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570614804753,"sku":"GOR011516613","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49628306473233,"sku":"GOR012925657","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51421035987217,"sku":"GOR013577040","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/071956218X.jpg?v=1751422827"},{"product_id":"diaries-1971-1983-book-james-lees-milne-9780719566837","title":"Diaries, 1971-1983","description":"James Lees-Milne (1908-97) has been hailed as the greatest English diarist of the twentieth century. Funny, indiscreet, candid, touching and sharply observed, his journals both reveal a fascinating personality and hold up a mirror to the times. This second compilation from the original twelve volumes (also incorporating interesting new material), covers his life during his sixties and early seventies, when he was living in Gloucestershire with his formidable wife Alvilde. Having made his name as the country house expert of the National Trust and a writer on architecture, he sought to establish himself as a novelist and biographer. With some misgivings he published his wartime diaries, little imagining that it was as a diarist that he would achieve lasting fame. These diaries vividly portray the vicissitudes of a writer's lot, the merry-go-round of life on the Badminton estate of the eccentric Duke of Beaufort, and meetings with many friends including John Betjeman, Bruce Chatwin and the Mitford sisters. But perhaps they are most remarkable for the poignancy with which they depict the writer's own feelings of joy, regret, frustration, amusement and love - including a tendresse for the editor of this volume.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543731544337,"sku":"GOR003395477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49555472515345,"sku":"GOR001954506","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52108953026833,"sku":"GOR007490176","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719566835.jpg?v=1750744373"},{"product_id":"mingled-measure-book-james-lees-milne-9780719556098","title":"A Mingled Measure","description":"Part of a series of eight volumes of diaries kept by James Lees-Milne, this text covers the years from 1953-1972 and offers a fastidious, penetrating and humourous view of a world now largely vanished.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544333295889,"sku":"GOR002039987","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50033443963153,"sku":"CIN0719556090G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51329193771281,"sku":"CIN0719556090VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52329665495313,"sku":"GOR005375564","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719556090.jpg?v=1751262654"},{"product_id":"diaries-1984-1997-book-james-lees-milne-9780719568398","title":"Diaries, 1984-1997","description":"Despite advancing years, James Lees-Milne's descriptions of the people he meets, the houses he visits and country life on the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton estate are sharper than ever.  He continues to enjoy a wide variety of experiences, and vividly recaptures a weekend at Chatsworth, a monastic retreat, a journey in a helicopter, an encounter with Mick Jagger and an intimate lunch with the Prince of Wales. As the grand old man of country house conservation, he becomes a media celebrity, but declines a CBE and refuses to be photographed by Lord Snowdon.     In old age, he draws close to his formidable wife Alvilde, whose death in 1994 both shatters and liberates him, but he remains emotionally interested in members of his own sex.   As always, he is a penetrating commentator on the times. A tour of the Cotswolds makes him ruefully aware of the yuppy trends of the Thatcher era, while he predicts that the victory of New Labour will herald a descent into American-style vulgarity and yob culture.     Witty, waspish, poignant and self-revealing, James Lees-Milnes last diaries contain as much to delight as the first, and confirm his reputation as one of the twentieth century's great English diarists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544666677521,"sku":"GOR002071515","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49569993818385,"sku":"GOR002475675","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49648850501905,"sku":"GOR008348585","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49729779728657,"sku":"NGR9780719568398","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50127728476433,"sku":"CIN0719568390VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358693134609,"sku":"CIN0719568390G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51248244130065,"sku":"GOR010760539","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719568390.jpg?v=1751445569"},{"product_id":"another-self-book-james-lees-milne-9780571133246","title":"Another Self","description":"A new edition of the autobiography covering the early years of James Lees-Milne's life. The original volume was published in 1970, and discusses the author's childhood and army career, as well as his subsequent employment by the National Trust.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544746303761,"sku":"GOR002417220","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566784454929,"sku":"GOR001433450","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50354851086609,"sku":"CIN057113324XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50578301321489,"sku":"GOR001802820","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50728252244241,"sku":"CIN057113324XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51172952375569,"sku":"CIN057113324XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/057113324X.jpg?v=1750879767"},{"product_id":"prophesying-peace-book-james-lees-milne-9780571133260","title":"Prophesying Peace","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49545983983889,"sku":"GOR004111675","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49619096633617,"sku":"GOR001254758","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49653412200721,"sku":"GOR002484303","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571133266.jpg?v=1751359764"},{"product_id":"bachelor-duke-w-spencer-cavendish-book-james-lees-milne-9780719549205","title":"Bachelor Duke: W Spencer Cavendish","description":"A biography of the 6th Duke of Devonshire, William Spencer Cavendish, friend of Joseph Paxton and patron of the arts. This book examines his role as Lord Chamberlain, confidant of various Prime Ministers and landlord of Chatsworth House.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49546025074961,"sku":"GOR002069008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49611348312337,"sku":"GOR003243904","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358486925585,"sku":"CIN0719549205G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50454324805905,"sku":"CIN0719549205A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50784272285969,"sku":"CIN0719549205VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52294359056657,"sku":"GOR001706268","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719549205.jpg?v=1750784798"},{"product_id":"diaries-1942-1954-book-james-lees-milne-9780719566813","title":"Diaries, 1942-1954","description":"James Lees-Milne (1908-97) made his name as the country house expert of the National Trust and for being a versatile author. But he is now best known for the remarkable diary he kept for most of his adult life, which has been compared with that of Samuel Pepys and hailed as 'a treasure of contemporary English literature'.   The first of three, this volume covers its first dozen years, beginning with his return to work for the National Trust during the Second World War, and ending with his tempestuous marriage to the exotic Alvilde Chaplin.   The diary vividly portrays the hectic social life of London during the Blitz, when in the intervals between struggling to save a disintegrating architectural heritage he enjoys a dizzying variety of romantic experiences with both sexes. His descriptions of visits to harassed country-house owners are as perceptive as they are hilarious.   With the war's end, the mood changes as he portrays a world of gloom and austerity. He shares the prevailing pessimism, yet during these years arranges the transfer of some of England's loveliest houses to the safe keeping of the National Trust. Finally he escapes from England to live on the Continent with his beautiful paramour, yet remains restless and dissatisfied.   The diaries of James Lees-Milne were originally published in twelve volumes between 1975 and 2005. Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne's literary executor and editor of the last five volumes of the complete work, has produced this skilful compilation from the first five volumes - including interesting new material omitted from the original publications.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49546723295505,"sku":"GOR002545712","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49554692014353,"sku":"GOR001994853","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49728474743057,"sku":"NGR9780719566813","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359803150609,"sku":"CIN0719566819A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50705976721681,"sku":"GOR011016035","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50958804451601,"sku":"GOR005179044","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104758558993,"sku":"CIN0719566819G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719566819.jpg?v=1750944887"},{"product_id":"harold-nicolson-book-james-lees-milne-9780241123546","title":"Harold Nicolson","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548060754193,"sku":"GOR001346600","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49662337876241,"sku":"GOR001582546","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52083214680337,"sku":"GOR002310134","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241123542.jpg?v=1751290949"},{"product_id":"another-self-book-james-lees-milne-9780859552813","title":"Another Self","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49556396278033,"sku":"GOR002474876","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49559832822033,"sku":"GOR002255967","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49661639622929,"sku":"GOR013669294","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51248249045265,"sku":"GOR009376698","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859552810.jpg?v=1750980076"},{"product_id":"deep-romantic-chasm-book-james-lees-milne-9780859553049","title":"Deep Romantic Chasm","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49556951007505,"sku":"GOR008866715","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445265764625,"sku":"GOR013954075","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51232902119697,"sku":"GOR011591000","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859553043.jpg?v=1751234653"},{"product_id":"through-wood-and-dale-book-james-lees-milne-9780719555992","title":"Through Wood and Dale","description":"This volume of James Lees-Milne's diaries sees him cope with publication of the earliest two, Ancestral Voices and Prophesying Peace. Characters include Winston Churchill re-enacting the battle of Jutland on a dinner table, and Bob Boothby's pleasure in describing the drawbacks of fame.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49557999419665,"sku":"GOR002565361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601428193553,"sku":"GOR004370669","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650125898001,"sku":"GOR002046937","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/071955599X.jpg?v=1750700479"},{"product_id":"diaries-1984-1997-book-james-lees-milne-9780719568381","title":"Diaries, 1984-1997","description":"Despite advancing years, James Lees-Milne's descriptions of the people he meets, the houses he visits and country life on the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton estate are sharper than ever. He continues to enjoy a wide variety of experiences, and vividly recaptures a weekend at Chatsworth, a monastic retreat, a journey in a helicopter, an encounter with Mick Jagger and an intimate lunch with the Prince of Wales. As the grand old man of country house conservation, he becomes a media celebrity, but declines a CBE and refuses to be photographed by Lord Snowdon. In old age, he draws close to his formidable wife Alvilde, whose death in 1994 both shatters and liberates him, but he remains emotionally interested in members of his own sex. As always, he is a penetrating commentator on the times. A tour of the Cotswolds makes him ruefully aware of the yuppy trends of the Thatcher era, while he predicts that the victory of New Labour will herald a descent into American-style vulgarity and yob culture. Witty, waspish, poignant and self-revealing, James Lees-Milnes last diaries contain as much to delight as the first, and confirm his reputation as one of the twentieth century's great English diarists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49560919769361,"sku":"GOR002948711","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631449383185,"sku":"GOR006105818","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51142895829265,"sku":"GOR005776374","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52545923154193,"sku":"GOR011477755","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719568382.jpg?v=1751137353"},{"product_id":"caves-of-ice-book-james-lees-milne-9780571133277","title":"Caves of Ice","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49561118769425,"sku":"GOR001689231","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49633043284241,"sku":"GOR002325847","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49669327192337,"sku":"GOR002536234","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571133274.jpg?v=1750911485"},{"product_id":"another-self-book-james-lees-milne-9780719556067","title":"Another Self","description":"The autobiography of James Lees-Milne. We see him as a flimsy, pious child re-enacting with rotten fish before his astonished father the story of Tobias, while the angel makes off with the loot. We watch him start at prep school with an entrance so absurd it haunts him until the day he leaves. Disgraceful scenes at a roadhouse in Bray led to an early exit from Eton, and he drives his Mitford friends' egregious Farv almost to apoplexy. His life is beset by ogres: among them his luckless father, a good man with limited horizons; numb with dismay he sees Maurice Hastings go after-dinner shooting at the private parts of statues at Rousham Park. But one monster at any rate, the odious martinet Sir Roderick Jones, is satisfyingly worsted with unexpected help from the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566953177361,"sku":"GOR002994869","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49637544001809,"sku":"GOR005679734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49649268359441,"sku":"GOR003684241","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53557384511761,"sku":"CIN0719556066G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719556066.jpg?v=1750816838"},{"product_id":"midway-on-the-waves-book-james-lees-milne-9780571137237","title":"Midway on the Waves","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49569325252881,"sku":"GOR003527527","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49577817669905,"sku":"GOR011825478","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49649056416017,"sku":"GOR008079484","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49925744197905,"sku":"GOR002217993","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571137237.jpg?v=1750783410"},{"product_id":"people-and-places-book-james-lees-milne-9780719551451","title":"People and Places","description":"Describes 14 houses, including Knole, Blickling, Stourhead and Cotehele which the author was responsible for bringing into the care of the National Trust. It brings the owners, the buildings and their pasts to life as the sometimes cliffhanging story of their passing to the Trust is documented.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570814066961,"sku":"GOR001649861","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49639013548305,"sku":"GOR001732922","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50236652093713,"sku":"GOR003667574","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50891479974161,"sku":"GOR010597590","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53018884636945,"sku":"CIN0719551455G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719551455.jpg?v=1751295879"},{"product_id":"last-stuarts-book-james-lees-milne-9780701127206","title":"The Last Stuarts","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49574691406097,"sku":"GOR003821093","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49642017554705,"sku":"GOR004023168","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50149048680721,"sku":"GOR002902182","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0701127201.jpg?v=1751009684"},{"product_id":"earls-of-creation-book-james-lees-milne-9780141390376","title":"Earls of Creation","description":"This work offers an insight into the tastes and manners of an age which produced some of England's finest architecture. The five earls featured flourished in the 18th century, when the fashionable amateur exercised a greater influence than ever before in the long history of British art. The five - Burlington, Pembroke, Leicester, Oxford, and Bathurst - were deep-dyed aesthetes and creators of superb domains. The principal country houses which they designed - Chiswick house, Holkham Hall, Wimpole Hall, York Assembly Rooms, Wilton House, Marble Hill, and Cirencester Park - are almost all standing today and the landscape gardens which they laid out still amount to some of England's greatest treasure.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49579798167825,"sku":"GOR003063719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49793906573585,"sku":"GOR002047161","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49928803287313,"sku":"GOR004627908","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0141390379.jpg?v=1751227016"},{"product_id":"prophesying-peace-book-james-lees-milne-9780859552837","title":"Prophesying Peace","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49588501905681,"sku":"GOR002406105","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49662586880273,"sku":"GOR005286914","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445265371409,"sku":"GOR011074980","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859552837.jpg?v=1750884068"},{"product_id":"harold-nicolson-book-james-lees-milne-9780701125202","title":"Harold Nicolson","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49595568554257,"sku":"GOR003341408","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51093441937681,"sku":"GOR002981315","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0701125209.jpg?v=1751199374"},{"product_id":"ancient-as-the-hills-book-james-lees-milne-9780859552998","title":"Ancient as the Hills","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49598932287761,"sku":"GOR009382375","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49655042375953,"sku":"GOR013377455","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49850783203601,"sku":"GOR004367369","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50123419091217,"sku":"GOR013863528","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859552993.jpg?v=1751234652"},{"product_id":"diaries-1942-1954-book-james-lees-milne-9780719566806","title":"Diaries, 1942-1954","description":"James Lees-Milne (1908--97) made his name as the country house expert of the National Trust and for being a versatile author. But he is now best known for the remarkable diary he kept for most of his adult life, which has been compared with that of Samuel Pepys and hailed as 'a treasure of contemporary English literature'. The first of three, this volume covers its first dozen years, beginning with his return to work for the National Trust during the Second World War, and ending with his tempestuous marriage to the exotic Alvilde Chaplin. The diary vividly portrays the hectic social life of London during the Blitz, when in the intervals between struggling to save a disintegrating architectural heritage he enjoys a dizzying variety of romantic experiences with both sexes. His descriptions of visits to harassed country-house owners are as perceptive as they are hilarious. With the war's end, the mood changes as he portrays a world of gloom and austerity. He shares the prevailing pessimism, yet during these years arranges the transfer of some of England's loveliest houses to the safe keeping of the National Trust.Finally he escapes from England to live on the Continent with his beautiful paramour, yet remains restless and dissatisfied. The diaries of James Lees-Milne were originally published in twelve volumes between 1975 and 2005. Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne's literary executor and editor of the last five volumes of the complete work, has produced this skilful compilation from the first five volumes -- including interesting new material omitted from the original publications.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49599173820689,"sku":"GOR004124877","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49661436592401,"sku":"GOR006173609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0719566800.jpg?v=1751429383"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/de-de\/collections\/autor-buecher-von-james-lees-milne.oembed?page=6","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}