Neglected Genius

Max Beerbohm wrote to Siegfried Sassoon that Haydon's was the best diary he had ever read. Harold Acton declared him ' a more exciting figure than Ruskin' and Aldous Huxley sang his praises. Haydon's portraits hang in almost all Britain's major collections but it is here that he reveals himself the witty, brilliant diarist with passionate unforgettable opinions about everything from Napoleon's digestion to Queen Victoria's complexion.