When the heavily censored version of the social climber Henry Channon’s scandalous diaries were first published in 1967, it was replete with juicy gossips, parties with adulterous spouses, and gay friendships. It threw the English world into a tizzy. Now the unredacted volumes are all set to be made available to the public. When intimate details of famous people whom everyone has heard and known for all their lives are made public the masses lapped it up with alacrity. Now, the first volume of the caustic diaries written by the master diarist Chips Channon , edited by the legendary Simon Heffer is out for public scrutiny. Chips Channon’s life is dotted with fancy parties and flashy dinners with the town’s most elegant personalities. From Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler, from Marcel Proust to Wallis Simpson, Chips Channon’s circle has some distinguished names. His diaries are not just a source that abounds in juicy gossips; it is also a classic for historians opening a window into the long lost world, shedding light on various watershed moments in history like the Berlin Olympics, the abdication crisis, the pre-war Nazi ties with Britain and so on. The diaries shed light on the opulence of the London society and the increasingly decadent lifestyle of the social high class. It brings to life a forgotten epoch . If you have read the Macmillan Diaries, then Chips’ diaries may pique your interest as well. Of course, nothing would be foolhardier than equating them, but Chips Channon’s dairies are equally entertaining on different levels. Buy a copy now and enjoy the saucy, bitchy snippets with which Chips relishes his readers with. T ( )

This first volume of the virtually complete diaries is a considerable expansion of the expurgarted version published many years ago. It chronicles in enormous detail Channon's social ascent first in France and then more significantly in England to 1938. His comments on all those around him (and he knew virtually everyone in 'smart' society in 'thirties England) are perceptive and frank. He himself does not always come out too well, as he makes little effort to hide his faults, both those he would have acknowledged at the time and also those which now seem more reprehensible than would have been the case then. Although thrilled to be in politics at a junior level, his political perceptions were often inaccurate and too much swayed by his tendency to idolise certain people. The diaries are also fascinating for the view they give of sexual relations at that level of society, which both straight and gay, were far more free than in other levels.
Some endearing quirks shine through: his inability to get anyone's age right (corrected in the manifold footnotes); his revulsion for his own countrymen; his frank love of money and the 'bibelots' he bought so often. His energy must have been prodigious, so hectic was his life, even if his actual contribution to the good of society as a whole was almost nil. ( )

I bought this on the basis of some excellent press reviews, despite some hesitation about the likely attitude and comments by the diarist. In fact I found it unexpectedly fascinating. Channon had a social and financial background so different from mine, and moved in such totally different social and political circles, that it read almost like science fiction!
Nevertheless, I was sufficiently intrigued by his account of politics in the pre-war years to buy the second volume.
Frankly bisexual as well as a far rightwing enthusiast, his comments on individuals were sometimes extremely frank, sexually as well as politically, and I can see why publication of this (almost) unexpurgated volume was delayed.

I noticed that reviewers had radically different attitudes to the editor's voluminous biographical footnotes, but on balance I found them useful. If you don't, just ignore them. ( )