The Happy Years: 1944-48

A classic six-volume memoir of the twentieth century, spanning through the Second World War, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Sir Cecil Beaton (1904 –1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, painter, diarist and Academy Award–winning stage and costume designer.

Beaton’s third volume covers 1944-48. In 1944 Beaton, as official photographer for the Ministry of Information, was sent to Paris to arrange an exhibition of war photographs. While there he renewed his acquaintance with Picasso and encountered many other famous faces, including Gide, Cocteau and Gertrude Stein.

The war over, Beaton the photographer became Beaton the designer and he began to work for Korda in films. Then in 1946, on a visit to New York, he sought out the woman he had met just once ten years before, and everything was suddenly different. For the woman was Greta Garbo. And Beaton was in love…

THE HAPPY YEARS is the third volume of Cecil Beaton’s Diaries, a personal memoir of the twentieth century, covering famous artists and photographers, political figures, socialites, the rich & famous and movie stars.

Perfect for fans of THE CROWN, LOVE, CECIL, fashion photography, artist’s memoirs, and twentieth-century history.