Michael Bloch Born in 1953, Michael Bloch read law at St John's College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar by Inner Temple. He worked for Maitre Suzanne Blum, the Paris lawyer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and wrote six books about the couple. His other biographical subjects include Joachim von Ribbentrop, Frederick Matthias Alexander and Jeremy Thorpe. He is James Lees-Milne's literary executor and has completed the editing of his diaries. Praise for James Lees-Milne 'This book has been eagerly awaited by addicts of James Lees-Milne's diaries, and they will not be disappointed ... It is not merely a rehash of the diaries, but brings to life the mercurial and delicate intelligence that brought them into being' A. N. Wilson, Country Ufe 'A pleasing, rounded picture of the upper-class muddler who was the greatest English diarist of the twentieth century ... conveys the contradic tions of character and circumstances out of which this complicated, elusive but attractive personality evolved towards late-flowering celebrity' Rosemary Hill, London Review of Books 'Very funny indeed' D.J. Taylor, Independent on Sunday James Lees-Milne is well served by this crisp, comprehensive life' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'A creditable achievement ... Bloch succeeds in dropping us off safely at the gates of a minor, but convincing, national treasure' Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph 'Michael Bloch has resisted writing a pompous, laborious tombstone of a book about this long, busy, well-documented life. His biography is disciplined, compact, elegant and tender' Richard Davenport-Hines, TLS 'Superbly written and enormously entertaining ... In all respects, Bloch's is an admirable and fair biography which should encourage many more readers to the delights of the diaries' Christopher Gray, Oxford Mail 'Bloch's vivid and sparkling biography successfully avoids the pitfalls of writing about a subject known to the author and one who had already written so extensively about himself ... Lees-Milne emerges as a complex, benign and multi-faceted character. That he escapes the shadow of his diaries is the ultimate achievement of this admirable book' Matthew Dennison, Herald 'Bloch has dug deep and told all about his indiscreet, emotional, wrong headed, infuriating, yet curiously disarming subject . . . The result is an absorbing and faintly disquieting example of the contemporary biographer's art' Anne Chisholm, Spectator 'Bloch has served his old friend well. delivering a book every bit as well written and entertaining as the diaries' Robert O'Byme, Irish Times 'A bible of bisexuality' The Economist '"What is the point of those Lees-Milnes?" the Duke of Beaufort once wanted to know ... Michael Bloch has triumphantly proved the point of James Lees-Milne' Petroc Trelawny, Catholic Herald 'Michael Bloch's biography of one of the most colourtul - and waspish - characters to have worked for the National Trust gives a unique insight into the workings of our charity in its early days' National Tmst Maxazine 'Bloch's enjoyable biography incidentally relates a conservation epic, Lees-Milne's virtually single-handed rescue from catastrophe of the finest portfolio of country houses in the world, those of the National Trust' Simon Jenkins, TLS Books of the Year 'For devotees of the Diaries, Michael Bloch's biography is essential ... a dignified achievement' Anita Brookner, Spectator Books of the Year 'I wasn't sure I wanted to read a full-length life of my hero since he never stopped writing about himself I couldn't have been more wrong. Michael Bloch, Lees-Milne's last great love, combines admiration and affection with a beady eye' Jeremy L!!wis, Oldie Books of the Year 'For those of us still lamenting the fact that James Lees-Milne has gone where no diaries are published, it is some relief to have this moving biography as a final fix' Richard Holloway, Herald Books of the Year I#, ,./ I ! . f' /· :- James Lees-Milne _The Life MICHAEL BLOCH JOHN MURRAY To Charles Orwin First published in Great Britain in 2009 by John Murray (Publishers) An Hachette UK Company First published in paperback in 2010 © Michael Bloch 2009 The right of Michael Bloch to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Apart from any use pem1i11ed under UK copyright law no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system. or tr,msmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior writtl"n pem1ission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or covl"r other than that in which it is published and without a sin1ilar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British library ISBN 978-0-7195-6550-2 Typeset in Bembo by ~is Fil~~.tport, Cheshire ""' .- . Printed and bol$l-:.,:)q- ,~iys~l~~.J'~ pie .. John Murray policy is to use pap~rs that•~ nltura~~;:~-•\·l/i•iri_.>,d recyclable products and made !"~.,~~ from wood grown in sustainable fores~. ~re~fn~~...arutnutrrinyg processes are expected to confom1 to the env,ronm_e~~ of origin. John Murray (PUbltsl!~r ]38 Euston Road London NW1 3BH www,johnmurray.co.uk Contents Illustrations IX Preface xi 1. The Dreaming Boy 2. Further Education 29 3. Patrons and Patronesses 53 4. Anne 73 5. The National Trust 90 6. Soldier Blue 119 7. 'The Man Who Saved England' 134 8. A New World 167 9. Alvilde 194 10. Married Life 213 11. Mid-Life Crisis 241 12. Alderley 258 13. Bath and Badminton 286 14. Struggling On 314 15. Grand Old Man 333 Publishing History ofJ ames Lees-Milne's Diaries 353 Notes 355 Index 383 vii Illustrations I. Wickhamford Manor, Worcestershire 2. On Aberdovey beach,June 1914 3. WithTyke 4. At Eton 5. Desmond Parsons 6. With his mother in Provence 7. With Diana Mitford 8. Lord Lloyd 9. Harold Nicolson IO. In Switzerland with Kathleen Kennet and her son Wayland 1 I. Riding with Penelope Berjeman 12. With the Johnnie Churchills and Anne Gathorne-Hardy, 1935 13. At the National Trust 14. Stourhead: the house 15. Stourhead: the park 16. Robert Byron 17. James Pope-Hennessy 18. Stuart Preston 19. With Rick Stewart-Jones, 1938 20. Holidaying in Italy 21. West Brompton Detachment of the British Red Cross, 1939 22. West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire 23. Eardley Knollys and Desmond Shawe-Taylor at Long Crichel 24. Alvilde Chaplin with her Pekinese, Foo 25. Portrait by Derek Hill, 1954 26. Dining on the Riviera 27. The view from Alvilde's garden in Roquebrune 28. Vita Sackville-West 29. John Kenworthy-Browne 30. Alderley Grange, Gloucestershire 31. Strolling in the lime alley ix ILLUSTRATIONS 32. Lansdown Crescent, Bath 33. In Beckford's Library 34. Essex House, Badminton. 35. Jim and Alvilde reconciled in old age Credits: the author (1. 14. 15. 2.2.. ::!.7. 30. 34); Heinecke Rare llook Jnd Manuscript Library, Yale U111wrsity (2.. _l. 13. 17. 18. 19. 2.0. 2.1. 2.3. 2.4. 2.6): Nicholas Robinson (4. <,. 7. IO. 2.5. 2.9. 31, p. 35); Lord Rmse (5); National Portrait Gallery. London (8. 2.X); G1:tty lma~es (9): Mrs Snnon Fr,1zer (11. 12); Estate of Robert Byron (16); Derry Moore (33). X