Molly Guinness

Darling Monster, edited by John Julius Norwich – review

Diana Cooper,with her son John Julius Norwich in London, 1944. Author: Keystone 
issue 12 October 2013

It must have been awful for Diana and Duff Cooper to be separated from their only child during the war, but we can be grateful for it because it’s a joy to read the correspondence it gave rise to. The letters in this book span the years 1939 to 1952 and take in the Blitz, Diana’s short spell as a farmer in Sussex, a trip to the Far East, when Duff was collecting intelligence on the likelihood of a Japanese invasion, the couple’s three years in the Paris embassy, and several more in their house at Chantilly, as well as...

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