The Unexpurgated Beaton

"Beaton was a marvellous writer as well as a great photographer. His diaries provide wonderful insights into designers like Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. They have the same economy and deftness of touch as his fashion illustrations. He was very good at summing up what people were like at a particular moment. He talks about doing the designs for Coco , the Broadway musical based on Chanel’s life. Katharine Hepburn rather improbably played the title role. Beaton had a horrendous time with Hepburn and Chanel on that and he’s wonderfully descriptive about it. I also love the way he writes about Chanel in old age: she talked so much that he couldn’t get a word in. But she comes across as compelling and entirely herself. He describes her as absolutely determined and a force of nature."