Lee Miller and the Limits of Post-war British Modernity: Feminity, Fashion, and the Problem of Biography

The piece contributes to two distinct literatures. The first is the growing field of ‘new biography’ and thus represents a new genre in my academic career. In this vein, it argues for questioning assumptions and practices in biography that insist on creating coherent, unified stories of their subjects. It calls for a more complicated assessment of Miller’s life and work, acknowledging the mystery of her retirement from photography before the age of fifty. She had a fascinating career a model, muse, photographer and even war correspondent, but by the time she was 40 years old, she was retired and living in the English country-side as a privileged gourmet and hostess. The historical record has not been kind in relation to the last 30 years of her life, generally portraying her as ‘difficult’ and a drunk. This piece makes an intervention into the historiography of post-WWII Britain and reassesses Miller’s later life and interests within the specific context of post-war Britain, simultaneously considering the importance of gender and the way it may have circumscribed privileged women’s choices in the 1950s and 60s