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theatre-going society of pre and post-war London, personified by Noel Coward. Indeed he belonged to that world.
Beaton was an extremely talented man - a man of the theatre (as stage designer); and of films (as artistic designer). He was also an extremely brilliant portrait photographer of celebrities - politicians, film and stage stars, beautiful aristocrats - and a sharp autobiographer.
―
Oxford University Press have, indeed, performed a public service in re-printing these two books, products of the propaganda arm of the Allied War effort in World War II. They capture in words and pictures the exotic and heroic backdrop of places and people - the military, of course, but also the peasant men, women and children of the two main theatres of war in the Far East, South East Asia and China. The words of Beaton's travel diaries and pencil sketches provide marginal observations to the photographs which, in most cases, "speak for themselves" in usually the direct language of propaganda. (However, it must be admitted that exposures of the manly heroic breasts of the soldiery record as well Beaton's sexual ambivalence, which doubtless lies at the heart of his creative genius).
It is interesting to note that at the time, in 1942, when these War Correspondent's despatches were being executed, Beaton was anguishing over the artistic dilemma of whether to carry out the assignment, principally as a photographer war-artist, or whether to pursue his more artistic endeavours.
In conclusion, it is perhaps unfair to Oxford, when they have done a very good job with an introduction by the Keeper of Photographs at the Imperial War Museum, London, illuminating the context of these now exceptional picture archives of the war - for this reviewer to feel a slight pang of disappointment with the reprints when compared with the originals. There the typography, design and format provide an additional dimension of insight into the ethos of that dramatic period of history.
ALAN BIRCH
Nancy Tapper, Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal Society Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, xx + 309pp. Bibliography, Index.
333
theatre-going society of pre and post-war London, personified by Noel Coward. Indeed he belonged to that world.
Beaton was an extremely talented man a man of the theatre (as stage designer); and of films (as artistic designer). He was also an extremely brilliant portrait photographer of celebrities politicians, film and stage stars, beautiful aristocrats and a sharp autobiographer.
―
Oxford University Press have, indeed, performed a public service in re-printing these two books, products of the progaganda arm of the Allied War effort in World War II. They capture in words and pictures the exotic and heroic backdrop of places and people the military, of course, but also the peasant men, women and children of the two main theatres of war in the Far East, South East Asia and China. The words of Beaton's travel diaries and pencil sketches provide marginal observations to the photographs which, in most cases, "speak for themselves" in usually the direct language of propaganda. (However, it must be admitted that exposures of the manly heroic breasts of the soldiery record as well Beaton's sexual ambivalence, which doubtless lies at the heart of his creative genius).
It is interesting to note that at the time, in 1942, when these War Correspondent's despatches were being executed, Beaton was anguishing over the artistic dilemma of whether to carry out the assignment, principally as a photographer war-artist, or whether to pursue his more artistic endeavours. In conclusion, it is perhaps unfair to Oxford, when they have done a very good job
with an introduction by the Keeper of Photographs at the Imperial War Museum, London, illuminating the context of these now exceptional picture archives of the war - for this reviewer to feel a slight pang of disappointment with the reprints when compared with the originals. There the typography, design and format provide an additional dimension of insight into the ethos of that dramatic period of history.
ALAN BIRCH
Nancy Tapper, Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender and Marrigage in an Afghan Tribal Society Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, xx + 309pp. Bibliography, Index.
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