Darling Monster
The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The glittering letters of British socialite Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich, from pre-World War Two London to post-Liberation Paris
‘Please, darling monster, write as often as you can. It’s so sad waiting for letters that don’t come and are not even written. I love my darling boy. Don’t treat me so badly again or I’ll have your lights and liver when I get home.’ 19 November 1939
‘I wish, I wish it was all over – Hitler defeated, the lights up again and the guns still.’ 2 October 1940
Lady Diana Cooper was the Edwardian It Girl who inspired novelists from Evelyn Waugh to Nancy Mitford. Born Lady Diana Manners, she was an aristocrat, society darling and an actress. Married to political star Duff Cooper, they were the golden couple at the heart of 20th century British upper-class life. This extraordinary collection of letters written by Diana to her only son, John Julius Norwich, takes us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz to rural Sussex to post-Liberation Paris.
Beyond all the glitz, Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny and fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance and was often shy, who was happiest in the countryside and whose greatest love were her husband and son John, who would later become a leading historian and broadcaster. These illuminating letters document some of history’s most dramatic events, but they provide a vivid and touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, separated by war, oceans – and the constraints of the time they lived in.
‘Diana Cooper is as vivid in literature and social legend as she was in life. Her letters are frank, witty and humorous’ The Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"She was an inveterate letter-writer," Norwich (Absolute Monarchs: The History of Papacy) declares in the introduction to his intriguing but uneven collection of letters from his mother, Lady Diana Cooper. She was born to a duke, and became a socialite, a great beauty, a movie actress, ambassador's wife, and doting mother. Cooper led an extraordinary life by any standard, and her letters give readers entr e to a rarified world. This sampling of correspondence covers crucial years during which Cooper's husband served as minister of information during WWII, as well as Cooper's life in Paris as an ambassador's wife, and her eventual retirement to the French countryside. Her letters are open and honest, even when writing to her son when he was still a child, and peppered with references to her famed acquaintances, including Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier and Janet Leigh, and Nancy Mitford. The book is most engaging in the first half, as Cooper describes London during the Blitz and her adventures running a small farm. With plenty of room devoted to mundane details like the weather or illness, the volume is admirably annotated, though readers may struggle to keep track of all the names cited, and yearn for more context. Nevertheless, Cooper is always quick with a turn of phrase, and the collection reminds us of a time, not so long ago, when letters were a natural part of life. 45 b&w photos in 16-page insert.
