Cecil Beaton In His Own Words

Cecil Beaton was a portrait and fashion photographer, as well as a diarist and Oscar-winning designer. Here he discusses his life and achievements in a series of interviews from the BBC radio and TV archive: 
 
At Home: Cecil Beaton, broadcast on BBC Radio, 7th May 1957 (featuring Hywel Davies) 
Face To Face, broadcast on BBC Television, 18th February 1962 (featuring John Freeman) 
Late Night Line-Up, broadcast on BBC Television, 9th May 1968 (featuring Sheridan Morley) 
Desert Island Discs, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 26th January 1980 (featuring Roy Plomley) 
 
Due to the age and nature of this archive material, the sound quality may vary

Cecil Beaton was a portrait and fashion photographer, as well as a diarist and Oscar-winning designer. Here he discusses his life and achievements in a series of interviews from the BBC radio and TV archive: 
 
At Home: Cecil Beaton, broadcast on BBC Radio, 7th May 1957 (featuring Hywel Davies) 
Face To Face, broadcast on BBC Television, 18th February 1962 (featuring John Freeman) 
Late Night Line-Up, broadcast on BBC Television, 9th May 1968 (featuring Sheridan Morley) 
Desert Island Discs, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 26th January 1980 (featuring Roy Plomley) 
 
Due to the age and nature of this archive material, the sound quality may vary. 
 
&copy;2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Cecil Beaton

One of the most beautiful books of the year.

Showcases Beaton’s grittier side as he captured countries and cultures affected by the Second World War.

This plush Coffee table book contains the old rogue’s finest work…an eye-catching record of Britain at war.

Beaton had a supreme understanding of life as theatre, and set out to document the conflict with the same dramatic intensity he had used to capture society girls in the late 1920s and 1930s.

A handsome accompanying book of which the photographer himself would be proud.

Images that by turn show great beauty, document little known frontiers of war, celebrate pivotal individuals, recall forgotten horrors, and allow glimmers of humour in the often-unalloyed tragedy of our wartime reminiscence.

Beaton … was able to make poetry out of his subject – whether it was a bomber pilot waiting to be called, a shipyard gantry or a child’s face.

At the beginning of the Second World War the Ministry of Information, through the advice of Kenneth Clark, commissioned Cecil Beaton to photograph the Home Front. Beaton set to work recording the destruction of the Wren churches in the City and the heroism of Londoners under attack. He conducted a survey of Bomber and Fighter Commands for the RAF, which was published with Beaton's own astute commentary. Beaton was an effective propagandist, but his voice, like his photographs, was touchingly elegant. Whatever his subject, Beaton was always a stylist. 
 
Beaton's wartime work for the Ministry amounted to seven thousand photographs, which are now housed with their negatives at the Imperial War Museums. They form a great document both of the landscape of war and of the passing of the Empire. He travelled through the Western Desert and on to Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan and Syria. In 1943 he left for India where he photographed the final days of the Raj in New Delhi and Calcutta before joining the Burma campaign. He ended the war deep in Chinese territory where he witnessed the Nationalist resistance to the Japanese. 
 
Beaton's inherent sense of theatre extended from palatial drawing rooms to the jungle and the desert. Whatever the circumstances he never departed from his radical aesthetic. Theatre of War is published in conjunction with the Imperial War Museums on the occasion of a major exhibition.

Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

Penguin Shop: 15% off with code PENGUINXMAS2025

In Their Own Words

White Nights

Little Black Classics Box Set

Penguin Modern Box Set

Frankenstein

Cecil Beaton

Praise for Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War

One of the most beautiful books of the year.

Showcases Beaton’s grittier side as he captured countries and cultures affected by the Second World War.

This plush Coffee table book contains the old rogue’s finest work…an eye-catching record of Britain at war.

One of the most beautiful books of the year.

Showcases Beaton’s grittier side as he captured countries and cultures affected by the Second World War.

This plush Coffee table book contains the old rogue’s finest work…an eye-catching record of Britain at war.

One of the most beautiful books of the year.

Showcases Beaton’s grittier side as he captured countries and cultures affected by the Second World War.

This plush Coffee table book contains the old rogue’s finest work…an eye-catching record of Britain at war.

Books by Cecil Beaton

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter