The Sweet and Twenties

Beverley Nichols. Jacket designed by Mark Chinnery.

Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1958. First edition, first impression. Hardback, octavo; red cloth-bound boards, dust jacket. 247 pages. 16 hors texte black-and-white plates and numerous text illustrations. English. 220 x 150mm. 0.5kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; light shelf wear to jacket, not price-clipped; some dustiness to top edge, some spotting to edges, previous owner's pencil inscription to front endpaper.

Beverley Nichols' nostalgic look at the decade that brought us the Bright Young Things and the Charleston. He focuses on the highs (and occasional lows) of society and the artistic circles of the 1920s, with chapters such as 'Cause celebre', 'The hostess with the mostest', 'Sex - and a song' and 'Let's all go down the Strand'. There are appearances from Edith Sitwell, Fred Astaire, Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton, Gertrude Lawrence, Elinor Glyn, Syrie Maugham, Lady Colefax, Lady Mendl and Lord Berners. An amusing, gossipy read.