I'm always reading more than one book.

from the current selection -

Cecil Beaton - The Glass of Fashion - (1954) - a very beautiful book with a small number of photos & many drawings from portraits & photos. Cecil Beaton designed the costumes for "My Fair Lady"

Alexis, The Memoirs of the Baron de Rede, ed. by Hugo Vickers - 1922-2004, prominent aristocratic aesthete, collector of French eighteenth-century furnishings and decorative arts and socialite in European circles and in New York. He was famous for his parties & fancy dress balls in Paris the 1950s, 60s & 70s - amazing story & pics.

Joseph Mitchell - Up in the old hotel & other stories stories of early/mid 20th century New York.

Ruth Park - The Frost & the Fire, about life on the New Zealand goldfields in the 1860's. It was originally titled 'One-a-pecker, Two-a-pecker' (well-known phrase from a famous NZ song - Bright fine gold) & includes many snippets from songs.

I've just discovered that Ruth Park wrote Bright Fine Gold & that the song is often called a traditional song!

sandra