Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon has been described as “THE GREATEST
BRITISH DIARIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY”. This final volume of his
unexpurgated diaries fully justifies that accolade, and we’re
delighted that Simon Heffer will join us again in Edinburgh to guide
us through it with his expert commentary.
This third and final volume begins as the Second World War is turning
in the Allies’ favour. It ends with Chips descending into poor
health but still able to turn a pointed phrase about the political
events that swirl around him and the great and the good with whom he
mingles.
Throughout these final fourteen years Chips assiduously describes
events in and around Westminster, gossiping about individual MPs’
ambitions and indiscretions, but also rising powerfully to the
occasion to capture the mood of the House on VE Day or the ceremony of
George VI’s funeral. His energies, though, are increasingly absorbed
by a private life that at times reaches Byzantine levels of
complexity. We encounter the London of the theatre and the cinema,
peopled by such figures as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien
Leigh and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as a seemingly endless grand
parties at which Chips might well rub shoulders with Cecil Beaton, the
Mountbattens, or any number of dethroned European monarchs.
