In Love, Cecil, Lisa Immordino Vreeland offers an evocative por­trait of this talented whirlwind whose creative work captured many facets of the 20th century. Using photography, drawings, letters, and scrapbooks by Beaton and his contemporaries, along with excerpts from his sparkling diaries and other writ­ings, Immordino Vreeland brings his spirit to life in a way that no previous book has been able to do.

Immordino Vreeland organizes her book around the circles of Beaton's daily life: the people who inspired and influenced him, his colorful friends, his fellow photographers, his Hollywood conquests, his wartime service, and his English roots. This cavalcade offers a shimmering vision of high style, but it also captures often-troubled souls struggling to create the open, tolerant, creative worlds of art and culture that we have inherited today.