Books at The Beaumont
Whenever I go to either a private home or hotel, I am always interested to see what reading material is on offer and whilst home owners are often keen to share favourites, Hotels often unfortunately fill their shelves with style rather than substance. My heart always lifts when
the books available are diaries, anthologies, memoirs or biographies because I can read without the frustration of not finishing them. To that end when choosing the books for The Beaumont, the criteria were somewhat selfishly defined by my preferences – but there again I always think that the best restaurants and hotels are those when the proprietor creates somewhere they would like to go to themselves and hope that sufficient people enjoy that experience themselves – witness Nick Jones and Soho House.
Each room at The Beaumont gets a selection of currently published books enhanced by second hand favourites in the same genre; the finding of which entailed me happily whiling away some time going through the shelves of Heywood Hill. I am grateful to owner Nicky Dunne with whom I had lots of fun debating which books to include although in fact some of my choices were dictated by availability.
First on my list, for example, was Citizens of London by Lynne Olson which was a great influence on my imaginary history of The Beaumont as it charts the history of America’s entry into the war thanks to the proslytising of Ambassador Gil Winant, Averell Harriman and legendary broadcaster Ed Murrow. Sadly out of print in hardback even in the States, it is a truly edifying work which deserves greater exposure and I believe it is only a matter of time before Gil Winant will be celebrated for the visionary and extraordinary man he was.
Letters of Note: Correspondence deserving a better audience edited by Shaun Usher
A collection of 125 of the world’s most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters that for me are the perfect hotel companion as even five minutes reading is memorable. From Virginia Woolf’s heart-breaking suicide letter, to Queen Elizabeth II’s recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression ‘OMG’ in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi’s appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop’s beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci’s remarkable job application letter, Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.
I was delighted to meet the author on a visit to The Beaumont and his sparkle matched his book. Vincent Poklewski Koziell arrived in Britain in 1939 as a young Polish refugee from the German occupation of Poland. His family, who were diplomats, were taken in during the war by their close friends the Duke and Duchess of Kent. Through this connection Vincent came into contact with many people from royalty, politics and the intelligentsia. After surviving the peculiarities of a British boarding school education, he was sent out to earn his keep and developed a broad curriculum vitae: he sold vacuum cleaners in Wandsworth, washing machines in Glasgow and houses in Sardinia. He worked as a butcher in the Bronx, negotiated the ‘Mad Men’ world of the 1950s advertising world in London, and ran a nightclub in Mayfair. Vincent is a born entertainer and raconteur. Makes me realise I have led a quiet and sheltered life!
Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952
Lady Diana Cooper was an aristocrat, society darling, an actress of stage and early screen. When she married rising political star Duff Cooper, they became the golden couple who knew everyone who was anyone; they sat at the very heart of British public life. Diana’s letters to her only son, John Julius Norwich, cover the period 1939 to 1952. They take us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz, which the Coopers spent holed up in The Dorchester (because it was newer, and therefore less vulnerable, than the Ritz). Duff Cooper was appointed British Ambassador to France and the couple settled into the glorious embassy in post-Liberation Paris- I actually particularly like his diaries and was tempted to include instead of this choice but I prefer this collection. Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny, fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance, who was often cripplingly shy, who was happiest in the countryside with her cow and goats and whose greatest love and preoccupation were her husband and son. As a portrait of a time and some of history’s most dramatic and important events, these letters are invaluable. But they also give us 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. “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). One helluva Mother!
Flappers: Six women of a dangerous generation by Judith Mackrell
London Stories edited by Jerry White
London has the greatest literary tradition of any city in the world. Its roll-call of story-tellers includes cultural giants who changed the way the world thought about writing, like Shakespeare, Defoe and Dickens. But there has also been an innumerable host of writers who have sought to capture the essence of London and what it meant for the people who lived there or were merely passing through. They are stories of fact and fiction and occasionally something in between. Authors include many of my favourites: Thomas de Quincey, W. M. Thackeray, J.B. Priestley, Graham Greene, Maeve Binchy, Doris Lessing and Hanif Kureishi. Fascinating for a visitor and an insight into our literature as well as London.
