Bibliograph

Henry 'Chips' Channon, the diaries, 1943-57, edited by Simon Heffer

Type

Label

Henry 'Chips' Channon, the diaries, 1943-57, edited by Simon Heffer

Language

eng

resource.biographical

autobiography

Illustrations

platesfacsimilesportraitsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Henry 'Chips' Channon

Responsibility statement

edited by Simon Heffer

Sub title

the diaries, 1943-57

Summary

This third and final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon 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

Target audience

adult

resource.variantTitle

Henry 'Chips' Channon, Volume 3

Contributor