Item 199 - John Gere. Typescript letter signed to Beaton, from London.

Has read the typescript of Beaton's diaries with interest, amusement and pleasure. Feels that it won't be clear whether the book is intended as an autobiography or as a more impersonal record. It seems not quite one thing or the other. Feels that the autobiographical parts are inclined to be disjointed. Beaton's genius lies in his ability to make something of lasting value out of something that would strike most people as trivial. The thing that would give him most pleasure would be a book with a high proportion of detatched observations with no narrative thread linking them.