For half a century, photographer CECIL BEATON helped modernise the royal family through a winning mix of reverence and informality, as a new book of his portraiture reveals.

Cecil Beaton photographed the British monarchy for more than 50 years. Between 1927 and 1979, barely a year went by in which one of its members was not the subject of his enchanting lens.

Beaton was by turns a witty illustrator, a prolific writer, an arbiter of style, an accomplished painter and an award-winning designer for stage and screen. Yet despite his many talents, he felt perpetually the outsider.

Born to middle-class parents in 1904, he was, in the words of Truman Capote, ‘a total self-creation’. Throughout the 1920s, his photographs of the ‘Bright Young Things’ and judicious self-promotion enabled him to scale the social ladder. He would eventually list royalty, aristocracy and Hollywood icons among his closest acquaintances.

Although he claimed to hate the term ‘royal photographer’, it was a title he guarded fiercely; association with royalty was perhaps the social affirmation for which he always yearned.

More concerned with his idea of the person than the person themselves, Beaton used his lens to transform his subjects, and his romantic, reverential vision would help shape the image of the British monarchy in the mid-20th century. 

Cecil Beaton: The Royal Portraits is published by Thames & Hudson, £35. To order a copy for £29.75 with free UK delivery until 7 January, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.