Lesley Blanch
Encyclopedia
Lesley Blanch, MBE
, FRSL
(born June 6, 1904, London – died May 7, 2007, Garavan, near Menton, France ) was an English
writer, fashion editor and writer of history.
A scholarly romantic, Blanch attended St. Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith
. She would spend the greater part of her long life travelling about those remote regions her books record so vividly. Her lifelong passion was for Russia
and the Middle East
. She was, in the words of the historian Philip Mansel, “not a school, a trend, or a fashion, but a true original.”
Blanch studied painting at the Slade
and went on to do private commissions, portraits and book jackets for T. S. Eliot
at Faber
amongst others. She soon turned to journalism, and was features editor of British Vogue
from 1937-44. She covered various aspects of Britain at war for the Ministry of Information, and documented the lives of women in the forces with her friend the photographer Lee Miller
. She married Robert Alan Wimberley Bicknell in 1930 and they were divorced in 1941, although the marriage had long since ceased. She claimed, according to an interview in The Sunday Times
in August 2006, that she had married Bicknell in order to obtain a house in Richmond, near the Thames
in London.
In 1945, she married the French novelist-diplomat Romain Kacew, aka Romain Gary
. Life in the French diplomatic service took them to the Balkans, Turkey, North Africa, Mexico and the USA. In the USA they associated with Hollywood stars such as Gary Cooper
, Aldous Huxley
, George Cukor
, David Selznick, Sophia Loren
and Laurence Olivier
.
Gary left her for American
actress Jean Seberg
and they divorced in 1962. Blanch continued to travel from her Paris base, and saw old friends Nancy Mitford
, Violet Trefusis
, Rebecca West
and the Windsors. She was a close friend of Gerald de Gaury
, who gave her insights into middle eastern customs and culture.
The best known of her 12 books is The Wilder Shores of Love, about four women who "followed the beckoning Eastern star.” It pioneered a new kind of group biography focusing on "women escaping the boredom of convention," and the title added a phrase to the English language. Blanch's love of Russia, instilled in her as a child by a friend of her parents whom she simply called The Traveller, is recounted in Journey into the Mind's Eye, Fragments of an Autobiography which is part travel book, part love story. Lesley Blanch considered her best book to be The Sabres Of Paradise (the biography of Imam Shamyl and history of Imperialist Russian rule in early 19th century Georgia and the Caucasus).
in 2001, and in 2004 the French government awarded her the medal of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
in 2004. She died just one month shy of 103.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FRSL
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
(born June 6, 1904, London – died May 7, 2007, Garavan, near Menton, France ) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
writer, fashion editor and writer of history.
A scholarly romantic, Blanch attended St. Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
. She would spend the greater part of her long life travelling about those remote regions her books record so vividly. Her lifelong passion was for Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. She was, in the words of the historian Philip Mansel, “not a school, a trend, or a fashion, but a true original.”
Blanch studied painting at the Slade
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
and went on to do private commissions, portraits and book jackets for T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
at Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
amongst others. She soon turned to journalism, and was features editor of British Vogue
Vogue (British magazine)
The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...
from 1937-44. She covered various aspects of Britain at war for the Ministry of Information, and documented the lives of women in the forces with her friend the photographer Lee Miller
Lee Miller
Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer...
. She married Robert Alan Wimberley Bicknell in 1930 and they were divorced in 1941, although the marriage had long since ceased. She claimed, according to an interview in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
in August 2006, that she had married Bicknell in order to obtain a house in Richmond, near the Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
in London.
In 1945, she married the French novelist-diplomat Romain Kacew, aka Romain Gary
Romain Gary
Romain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
. Life in the French diplomatic service took them to the Balkans, Turkey, North Africa, Mexico and the USA. In the USA they associated with Hollywood stars such as Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
, David Selznick, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
.
Gary left her for American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....
and they divorced in 1962. Blanch continued to travel from her Paris base, and saw old friends Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
, Violet Trefusis
Violet Trefusis
Violet Trefusis née Keppel was an English writer and socialite. She is most notable for her lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, which was featured under disguise in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography....
, Rebecca West
Rebecca West
Cicely Isabel Fairfield , known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public...
and the Windsors. She was a close friend of Gerald de Gaury
Gerald de Gaury
Gerald de Gaury MC was a British military officer, Arabist, explorer, historian and diplomat.He served as part of the Hampshire Regiment in the First World War, where he was wounded on several occasions, including in the Gallipoli Campaign....
, who gave her insights into middle eastern customs and culture.
The best known of her 12 books is The Wilder Shores of Love, about four women who "followed the beckoning Eastern star.” It pioneered a new kind of group biography focusing on "women escaping the boredom of convention," and the title added a phrase to the English language. Blanch's love of Russia, instilled in her as a child by a friend of her parents whom she simply called The Traveller, is recounted in Journey into the Mind's Eye, Fragments of an Autobiography which is part travel book, part love story. Lesley Blanch considered her best book to be The Sabres Of Paradise (the biography of Imam Shamyl and history of Imperialist Russian rule in early 19th century Georgia and the Caucasus).
Awards/Honours
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Lesley Blanch was appointed MBEOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 2001, and in 2004 the French government awarded her the medal of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Death
She celebrated her 100th birthdayCentenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
in 2004. She died just one month shy of 103.
Publications
- The Wilder Shores of Love, 1954
- Round The World in 80 Dishes, The World Through The Kitchen Window (cookbook), 1955
- The Game of Hearts: Harriette Wilson And Her Memoirs (edited and introduced by Lesley Blanch), 1957
- The Sabres of Paradise: Conquest and Vengeance in the Caucasus, 1960 (a biography of Imam ShamilImam ShamilImam Shamil also spelled Shamyl, Schamil, Schamyl or Shameel was an Avar political and religious leader of the Muslim tribes of the Northern Caucasus...
) - Under A Lilac-Bleeding Star, Travels And Travellers, 1963
- The Nine Tiger Man, A Tale Of Low Behaviour In High Places, 1965
- Journey Into The Mind's Eye, Fragments of an Autobiography, 1968
- Pavilions of the Heart, The Four Walls of Love, 1974
- Farah, Shahbanou of Iran, 1978
- Pierre Loti: Portrait of an Escapist, 1983
- From Wilder Shores, The Tables of my Travels (cookbook), 1989
- Romain, un regard particulier, 1989
External links
- lesleyblanch.com, the author's official website
- the literary agent
- the literary executor
- Time Traveller, Guardian Online Review Profile article by Joe Boyd, July 9, 2005