A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and Diana Cooper, 1913-1950

Diana was beautiful, funny and outrageous; ducal daughter, actress, star of The Miracle, wholly uneducated but with a marvelous gift for words and images. Duff was witty, sensual, superbly intelligent; statesman, diplomat and author of uncommon distinction. In 1913 they met. Duff wooed Diana with extravagant eloquence leavened by self-mockery; he was an impecunious Foreign Office Clerk and knew that the Duke of Rutland would never countenance his suit. Then came the war; one by one the men closest to them died in battle; Duff himself went to the Front and became a hero; they resolved to marry. It was an extraordinarily successful marriage, given Duff's infidelities, Diana's eccentricities, their separate careers, and pleasure-loving natures that constantly sought new diversions and new friends. Whenever they were apart they wrote letters; the brittle love letters of their first acquaintance; Duff's moving letters from the Western Front and Diana's replies from embattled London; Diana's theatrical journeys around America while Duff was carving out a political career in London. ". . . bores with God's help we will never be," wrote Duff soon after they first met. They never were. Artemis Cooper, Duff and Diana's grand-daughter, has edited their letters with affection and skill. Love, scandals, jokes, theatrical and political gossip; their correspondence provides a marvelous portrait of two extraordinary characters and the age in which they lived.