CECIL BEATON - Malice in Wonderland   
With Hugo Vickers  

Wednesday the 1st of June 2011
Doors at 6 pm, Lecture commences at 7 pm

Cecil Beaton moved easily through the world of mid-20th-century celebrity, photographing, caricaturing and sleeping with the people he met along the way. What was his secret? Hugo Vickers thinks he produced a kind of magic and in his lecture will examine exactly how. Not only did he photograph most of the interesting, alluring and important people of the 20th century, but he made them look stunning. But there was more. He was a traveller, arbiter of taste and fashion, war photographer, painter and exceptionally wicked caricaturist. He was able to mix with actors, painters, musicians, film stars, society figures and, later in life, the wilder representatives of the so-called "Peacock Revolution" of the 1960s. He managed to elevate himself from being a star-struck young man gazing at his idols in the street to a favoured guest at their tables.

Hugo Vickers
Hugo Vickers is a writer and broadcaster, who has written biographies of many twentieth century figures, including the Queen Mother, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, a study of Greta Garbo, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, and his book, The Private World of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor was illustrated with pictures from their own collection. Mr Vickers's book, The Kiss - The Story of an Obsession won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction.

Talks at 11 Mare Street - please click here to buy tickets