Flora Whitney

1922–1974

Diaries, 1922–1974

Six volumes of his diaries, spanning the years 1922–1974, are published in his lifetime. According to Hugo Vickers, who edited a fuller edition, opinions in the published volumes are softened, whereas in the originals Beaton can be truly venomous.

1930

Meets Peter Watson in Vienna

The British art collector Peter Watson at first seems unremarkable to him but soon captivates him; in Venice, where they stay with friends including Oliver Messel, Beaton nurses Watson through an illness. Watson and Messel soon become romantically involved, and Beaton enters four years of intense obsession from which, in the words of his biographer Hugo Vickers, he never wholly freed himself; he and Watson never became lovers.

1930–1945

Leases Ashcombe House in Wiltshire

At the country estate of Ashcombe House he entertains many notable figures and develops his theatrical style of interior decoration.

1931

Hoyningen-Huene and Horst travel to England

In 1931, while Beaton is a photographer for British Vogue, George Hoyningen-Huene of French Vogue travels to England with his new friend Horst, who will begin working for French Vogue that November. The exchange of ideas within this collegial circle of artists on both sides of the Channel and the Atlantic gave rise to the look of style and sophistication associated with the 1930s.

1932

First meets Greta Garbo in Hollywood

He meets the actress Greta Garbo in Hollywood; many years pass before they meet again. In his memoir Photobiography he calls her by far the most beautiful of all the women he has ever seen.