'The waspish fun of the descriptions of film stars, writers, royal people and all the familiar famous carry you along towards the next plum … The unforgettable voice is the only thing missing from these diaries - a sheep-like baa followed by a laugh at his own outrageous remark' – The Duchess of Devonshire - Daily Mail 27 September 2002 'Like all great diarists Beaton has the essential qualities of candour and unflinching honesty … Vickers has also done an admirable job with the footnotes. Some of his pithy annotations are as diverting as the diary entries themselves' – Hugh Massingberd - The Spectator 26 October 2002 'As a diarist, his eye for detail and ability to distil the impressions gleaned from an event into a few paragraphs are impressive … I found myself totally gripped by the whole book' – Patrick O'Connor - Literary Review October 2002 'Savagely bitchy, brilliantly vivid and wonderfully gossipy' – Penny Vincenzi - Critic's Choices - Daily Mail 13 December 2002 'The uncensored diaries of the legendary portraitist are scathing, scandalous - and compulsively readable' – Vogue 2002 'Gossipy and juicy - and irresistible. Names are dropped by the dozen on every page' – Booklist 2002 'I relished the un-retouched word portraits of celebrities Beaton photographed and hob-nobbed with' – Alexander Walker - Evening Standard 25 November 2002 'A revelation' – Richard Edmonds - Birmingham Post 30 November 2002 'His bluntness appears to have infected his editor' – Christopher Gray - Oxford Times 22 November 2002 'Biographer Hugo Vickers has cut through the tape and selected previously unpublished diaries from the 1970s to reveal the true Beaton - waspish, witty and perceptive, with an utter disregard for the perceived status of others' – Robert Colbeck - Yorkshire Evening Post 26 October 2002 'No one is spared' – Glenys Roberts - Daily Mail 23 September 2002 'Thanks to Hugo Vickers you can now revel in his acerbic take on twentieth-century high society' – Marie Claire October 2002 'Vickers has done a great service by restoring the waspish observations of, and minimising the deference to, the beau monde' – The Times 4 October 2003 'Beaton was an acerbic dissector of the foibles of friends and enemies, a relentlessly social snob, and someone capable of enjoying the hospitality of his legendary hosts before skewering them in his diary the following morning' – Vogue (USA) November 2003 'Hugo Vickers has done the diarist a favor by letting rip much of what was held back from the last volume Beaton published when he was alive' – Thomas Mallon - The New Yorker 10 November 2003 'This witty, wonderful book is a delight! Almost impossible once begun to put down' – Harriet de Rosiere - Palm Beach Journal 2004 The Unexpurgated Beaton (ed)(2002) Hardback (UK) 2002 Paperback (UK) 2002 Hardback (US) 2003 Paperback (US) 2005