It Gives Me Great Pleasure

Cecil Beaton.

The Quality Book Club. London. [c.1955]. First published in 1955 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Hardback, octavo; brown cloth-bound boards, with gilt title on pale blue to spine, top-edge brown, dust jacket. 214 pages. Decorative title-page, head and tail-pieces and line-drawings within the text. English. 205 x 140mm. 0.4kg. . Near fine, in near fine dust jacket; slight shelf wear; a clean copy.

‘Hypnotized by her beckoning finger, I sleep-walked from the wings into the amber glare of lights and shook Madame President’s hand. The microphone loomed at me like a cobra.
“It gives me great pleasure…”’
 
In the winter of 1952-3 and for six weeks in 1954 Beaton completed two lecture tours of America, combating his nerves and delivering his speech to a string of Ladies’ Clubs across the continent. It Gives Me Great Pleasure is an account of his adventures on these tours. The book is as much about discovering the people and places of America as it is about the lecture tour itself. Beaton visited many cities, including Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Grand Rapids, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, Florida, Boston and Montreal in Canada. Each destination had a different hotel, a different audience, a different culture and a different taxi driver. Through his anecdotes and stories Beaton explores the individuality of the different States and revels in the vastness of the America experience.