He was also a diarist, and his witty, waspish and extensive diaries were published in twelve volumes and well received. They attracted a cult following. Larry McMurtry commented that Lees-Milne, like Pepys and Boswell before him, was disarmingly open about his failings — indeed, would not have known how to go about concealing them.[6] Nicholas Birns observes that Lees-Milne spoke "so candidly about himself, his life, and his love of art and architecture that his authorial relationship with the reader becomes a privileged one, not to be readily or casually communicated, not to be flaunted or brandished."[7]" Lees-Milne, though, also wrote other works, which included several biographies—for instance of Harold Nicolson, The Bachelor Duke of Devonshire, and Lord Esher—and an autobiographical novel.