Darling Monster

Witty, touching, perceptive and beautifully written... Read at a sitting or keep by your bed -- either way you will be enchanted -- Jonathan Dimbleby * Mail on Sunday * Cooper's letters have special immediacy and frankness... a lot of gossip, for sure, but also some sublime descriptive writing... And then there is her beadiness, which is worth its weight in silver breakfast trays... Truly blissful -- Rachel Cooke * Observer (New Review) * She treats her son, last seen in a dimly lit station, as a much missed grown-up to whom she can be exhilaratingly open. She sends him intimate glimpses of the great... the good... and the not-so good. Inescapably posh but rarely judgemental... she is rescued from glibness by her childlike curiosity and humour, and the always innocent eye with which she peeks at the world -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Daily Telegraph * This book is a rich fruitcake, stuffed with delicious and surprising plums -- Jane Ridley * Literary Review * Though always exigent of love, the letters are filled with jokes, sharp observation and relish for the passing moment. This selection of them offers a sparkling portrait of a maternal relationship -- Jane Shilling * Evening Standard * Diana Cooper is as vivid in literature and social legend as she was in life. Her letters are frank, witty and humorous * The Times *

Lady Diana Cooper was born on 29 August 1892. She married Alfred Duff Cooper, DSO., who became one of the Second Word War's key politicians. Her startling beauty resulted in her playing the lead in two silent films and then Max Reinhardt's The Miracle. In 1944, following the Liberation of Paris, the couple moved into the British Embassy, Paris. They then retired to a house at Chantilly just outside Paris. After Duff's death in 1954 Diana remained there till 1960, when she moved back to London. She died in 1986. John Julius Norwich, the only son of Diana and Duff Cooper, is the author of histories of Norman Sicily, the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire,the Mediterranean and, most recently, The Popes. He has also written on architecture, music and the history plays of Shakespeare, and has presented some thirty historical documentaries on BBC Television.