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The Sunday Times bestselling edition of Chips Channon's remarkable diaries. Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. Whether describing the antics of London society in the interwar years, or the growing scandal surrounding his close friends Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the abdication crisis, or the mood in the House of ...
Sir Henry "Chips" Channon's position as a Member of Parliament allowed him entree to a privileged world of socializing, politics, and historic events. The years covered in this volume, 1934-53, recall a vanished world in which every social and public figure of the day made the party, joining in endless gossip. Culled from some three million words from the original diaries, the editor's selection gives us the pivotal moments and characters of history, etched indelibly by a master observer. "How sharp an eye? What neat malice! How, in their fashion, well written and truthful and honest they are!"--"Malcolm Muggeridge, Observer."
The second volume of the remarkable, Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Chips Channon. 'A masterpiece - a time machine that transports the reader back to British politics and high society at the end of the 1930s.' Robert Harris 'The uncensored, unvarnished thought of one of the 20th century's greatest diarists. - Best Biographies of the Year, Telegraph 'An unrivalled guide to the social and political life of Britain in the first half of the 20th century.' Books of the Year, The Times 'Fascinating.' New Statesman 'Never a dull day, never a dull sentence.' Daily Mail _______________________________________________ This second volume of the bestselling diaries of Henry 'Chips' Channon takes us...
The third and final volume of the remarkable Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon ___________________________________________ 'An utterly addictive glimpse of London high society and politics in the 40s and 50s.' Robert Harris 'An instant classic . . . quite simply the greatest social and political diaries of the 20th century.' Daily Telegraph 'Rich, exuberant, copious and shatteringly honest.' Spectator 'A scurrilous read. Fascinating. Gripping!' Alan Titchmarsh 'Chips writes with such vividness that one feels one is living each day in his exalted company.' The Oldie _______________________________________ This final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry '...
Born in Chicago in erstwhile London, Chips Channon was the quintessential party man who moved in vertiginously high social circles, partying and hobnobbing with leaders, politicians, actors, socialites, etc. Chips’ uneventful, yet colorful life would have remained buried under the sands of time, but for the slanderous diaries that run into 30 volumes of 3 million words. Chips’ diaries are replete with the juicy gossips of the private life of top-notch elites of the society that ruled the roost during the pre-war era. Despite being a livid and candid account of sexual indulgences of the most famous people of the time, Chips’ diaries also open a window to London in all its opulence, gran...
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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. He has been described as 'The greatest British diarist of the 20th century'. This final volume fully justifies that accolade.