| The Duff Cooper Diaries | 
 enlarge | Creator: John Julius Norwich
Publisher: Phoenix
Category: Book
List Price: $20.95 (€16.55)
Buy New: $14.25 (€11.26)
You Save: $6.70 (€5.29) (32%)
Buy New/Used from $14.25 (€11.26)
Avg. Customer Rating:   (2 reviews)
Sales Rank: 178798
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.7
ISBN: 0753821052
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.082092
EAN: 9780753821053
ASIN: 0753821052
Publication Date: September 28, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 months
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The long awaited and highly revealing diaries of the politician, diplomat, and socialite who married Lady Diana Cooper, Duff Cooper was a first-rate witness of just about every significant event from 1914 to 1950. His diary includes some magnificent set pieces?as a young soldier at the end of World War I, as a politician during the General Strike of 1926, as King Edward VIII's friend at the time of the Abdication, and from Paris after the liberation in 1944, when he became British ambassador. If Duff Cooper's name has dimmed in the 50 years since his death, publication of these diaries will bring him to the fore once again. His family has long resisted publication?indeed Duff Cooper's nephew, the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis, was so shocked by the sexual revelations that he suggested to John Julius Norwich that it might be best for all concerned if they were burnt. Now, superbly edited by John Julius Norwich, who familial link ensures all kinds of additional information as footnotes, these diaries join the ranks.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A Most Admirable Rake November 26, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
A great book for those interested in the public and private life of a key political player for HMG during the first half of the last century. Nicely edited by the diarist's son.
Duff Cooper was a WW I war hero, writer, member of the House of Commons, who resigned from the British cabinet over policy related to Hitler. He was a handler for the difficult General de Gaulle during WW II, then ambassador to France. While doing all this, he greatly enjoyed pretty women (often married) and very fine living. It is fitting that he ultimately died aboard ship on a New Year's Day.
An incredible role of bit players appear in these diaries: to name a few, the killer of Rasputin, Will Rogers, Cole Porter, Greta Garbo, and Evelyn Waugh.
Aside from the high society social history of the time, serious readers will learn more on important events and people, such as Churchill, the rise of Hitler, the handling of Palestine, De Gaulle and early post-war France, and the seeds of what is now the European Union.
 ... amusing 512 pages ..... October 25, 2006
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
Duff Cooper's name is associated with two main tempestuous events.
He played a remarkable role during the Egyptian crises of the early 1920s. Saad Zaghlul - prominent Egyptian Lawyer and Prime Minister - demanded at the head of Wafd Party, independence for Egypt but the British arrested him to weaken the nationalist movement.
Britain's action sparked civil unrest degenerating to debauchery and unrestrained violence. About 1000 Egyptians were killed in one month when the British decided to deport Zaghlul to Malta.
That was what Egyptians call the 1919 First Revolution.
Cooper interfered with the British authorities in London and was able to convince his government to back down; Saad Zaghlul was released and returned to Egypt.
The Wafd `Delegation' arrived in Paris and presented its case, at Versailles' Peace Conference - post WWI - for immediate independence.
What Cooper succeeded in preserving as authentic support for Zaghlul, was ruined when the United States - the Champion of Wilson's 14 points - ended up backing Great Britain, and the British Protectorate over Egypt continued for thirty five more years.
Cooper was adamantly against Munich agreement signed in 1938 with Adolph Hitler. He was a staunch critic of Neville Chamberlain policy of `appeasement' and played active role that led to Chamberlain's downfall. This appears quite interesting considering Cooper's great admiration of `Talleyrand' - known as widely controversial and equivocal in European history -. Chamberlain was not naive, he was another Talleyrand but his cohorts never noticed.
In 1943, under Winston Churchill, Cooper was appointed Britain's liaison to the Free French.
By 1944 he became Ambassador to France.
The city of `love and romanticism' flourished intimate relationships with wives of foreign diplomats. His wife, Lady Diana Cooper, had fostered intimate relationship with the American Ambassador in Paris. Cooper was no exception; he too had `special' relationship with the wife of `an' American diplomat and it is said they had illegitimate son.
While the soldiers were fighting, the diplomats were flirting. (better not to use another word !!!!)
|
|
|
