West Cork

Cecil Beaton

Place: Time Traveller's bookshop in Skibereen, West Cork
Time: Easter friday, 2013, around noon time, a beautiful grey winter day
Arriving in Skibereen, we stop on our way to Vivian's to look at the immaculate new bookshop, worthy of Munich or Milan, that has recently opened. On my right I stumble upon a row of Cecil Beaton's diaries. Idly, I pick up "Self Portrait with Friends, The Selected Diaries of Cecil Beaton 1926-1974". I know Cecil Beaton as the famous royal photographer and socialite but have no idea Cecil Beaton has written such extensive diaries, beginning in the roaring 20's. I open the book at random. I am instantly smitten: what grace, wit, levity, immediacy in the descriptions, how fast and brilliantly everything passes before your eyes. You are there with Beaton, partying in London, discovering Hollywood, meeting Greta Garbo, taking the portrait of the Queen, gingerly photographing Winston Churchill, going out in Marrakesh with Mick Jagger. And the photos: dozens, hundreds, thousands, portraits, fashion, war reportage. And he could also draw. What an excess of talent. Cecil Beaton: a coup de foudre.