Cecil Beaton at Home: An Interior Life

A private view of the genius of Cecil Beaton, reflected through the lens of his town and country idylls, and his passion for interior design, gardening, and entertaining a circle of Bright Young Things. Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was one of twentieth-century Britain’s Renaissance men: photographer, costume designer, set designer, playwright, creator of fashion fabrics, and writer on raffiné interiors and the personalities who inhabited them. He also happened to be a fine interior decorator. Cecil Beaton at Home focuses on two homes dear to Beaton’s heart—Ashcombe House, near the Wiltshire village of Tollard Royal, and Reddish House, located in Broad Chalke, another village in the same county—as well as London's Pelham Place and Beaton’s New York hotel suites. Simultaneously a retreat, an inspiration, a photographer’s studio, and a stage for impressive entertaining, Beaton’s country homes also fueled his passion for art, gardening, and delight in village life. Against his often-extravagant interiors, Beaton’s private life unfolds—his unique talent for self-promotion, desire for theatricality, and uncertain pursuit of love. This lavishly illustrated visual biography brings together original photographs, artworks, and possessions from his interiors to present an intimate picture of Beaton’s extraordinary life.

Andrew Ginger is the managing director of Beaudesert Limited. Combining twenty years of experience in interiors at the highest level with a Cambridge art historical background, Ginger has also acted as designer for the growing house collection of archive document handprints for the last ten years.

Hugo Vickers is an English writer and broadcaster who has written biographies of many twentieth-century figures, including the Queen Mother, Cecil Beaton, and Vivien Leigh, and a study of Greta Garbo.