Sir Henry (Chips) Channon was born in Chicago in 1897 (although he claimed 1899 as the year of his birth, until the true facts were exposed - to his embarrassment - in the Sunday Express). The son of a wealthy businessman, he accompanied the American Red Cross to Paris in 1917, was an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, and then settled in London where he mingled with society and enjoyed the high life. He married into the Guinness family, and became a Conservative MP for Southend from 1935 until his death. He knew or was friends with all the leading politicians and aristocrats of the period, wined and dined Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in the months before the Abdication crisis, and observed at first hand the last days of appeasement. He died in 1958. Elliot Templeton in Somerset Maugham's novel The Razor's Edge (1944) and the disappointed schoolmaster Croker-Harris in Rattigan's play The Browning Version (1948) were partly inspired by Channon.
This is a masterpiece about a period that fascinates me - a time
machine that transports the reader back to British politics and
high society at the end of the 1930s, as Europe stands on the brink
of a catastrophe that will destroy the very world it describes.
*Daily Mail*
Page for page, name for name, there is no one better than Chips
Channon at the particular blend of insight, snobbery and
self-regard that is the hallmark of really great diarists . . .
Chips knew everyone, went everywhere, and spared nothing. Of Philip
Kindersley, first husband of Oonagh Guinness, he writes, 'A
good-looking, almost dashing "Ya-hoo" . . . very common naked,
which is such a test'. Of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother,
'She is well bred, kind, gentle and slack . . . She is
fundamentally lazy, very lazy and charming . . . She will never be
a great Queen for she will never be up in time!' At nearly 1,000
pages, and with the broadest cast of characters, Chips is the clear
winner!
*Independent Ireland*
Even more gripping than the first volume . . . [Channon's] record
is of great value, not only for historical detail and literary
flair, but because it shows why appeasement often feels right, and
why it can be so dangerous.
*Daily Telegraph*
Fascinating. Heffer's meticulous and generous footnotes mean that
Channon's gossipy revelations are elevated into a serious work of
history.
*New Statesman*
Mr Heffer has undertaken a painstaking appraisal of the original
manuscript . . . He has erred on the side of inclusion, excising
little and allowing Channon to speak for himself . . . Mr Heffer
has produced a monumental second volume to match his first. Clearly
he has enjoyed his work marshalling the original manuscript and
anyone interested in the social and political life of Britain of
the period should enjoy his effort.
*The Critic*
For bon mots, nothing can beat Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries .
. . Chips is a little monstrous but redeemingly self-aware. These
are the uncensored, unvarnished thought of one of the 20th
century's greatest diarists.
*Telegraph*
Channon was a rich, catty snob whose entertaining diaries are a
portrait of a vanished epoch.
*Country and TownHouse Magazine*
Posh bonking, snobbery, and waspish commentary these diaries are an
unrivalled guide to the social and political life of Britain in the
first half of the 20th century. The Tory MP Chips Channon was well
connected and a thundering snob, but he also knew how to write.
*The Times*
I've been enjoying the guilty pleasure of browsing through the
complete and unexpurgated edition of the Diaries of 'Chips' Channon
. . . expertly edited by Simon Heffer. Like all really good
diarists, Channon had a sharp eye for detail and an ability to turn
a memorable phrase . . . his powers of observation were
unrivalled.
*TLS*
In the Diaries of Henry 'Chips' Channon, edited with colossal
thoroughness by Simon Heffer we have a disgracefully enjoyable
contribution to modern social history.
*TLS*
Witty, bitchy and wildly entertaining.
*Saga Magazine*
A compellingly readable diarist who lived through extraordinary
times and knew everybody.
*The Week Magazine*
One of our juiciest memoirs of the year . . . Volume II of the
unexpurgated diaries of Conservative MP Henry 'Chips' Channon is
every bit as gripping, jaw-droppingly snobbish, whiningly
self-obsessed and disarmingly frank as Volume I . . . Never a dull
day, never a dull sentence.
*Daily Mail*
Waspish high campery.
*Mail on Sunday*
Meticulous, witty and informative. The great strength of the
diaries is Channon's position at the heart of government. A
valuable source for historians of the period . . . I cannot wait
for the next volume.
*History Today*
Writer and historian Simon Heffer gives us part two of this full,
shamelessly frank work. And a remarkable labour of love it is. .
.This remarkable book, bursting with gossip, sex scandals and royal
barbs, is a brilliant portrait of champagne-fuelled London life on
the eve of war and in its early years . . . Utterly compelling
reading.
*Daily Mail*
The greatest British diarist of the 20th century. A feast of
weapons-grade above-stairs gossip. Now, finally, we are getting the
full text, in all its bitchy, scintillating detail, thanks to the
journalist and historian Simon Heffer, whose editing of this vast
trove of material represents an astonishing achievement. Channon is
a delightful guide, by turns frivolous and profound.
*The Times*
Wickedly entertaining . . . scrupulously edited and annotated by
Simon Heffer. Genuinely shocking, and still revelatory.
*New Stateman*
Channon's chief virtue as a writer is his abiding awareness that
dullness is the worst sin of all, and for this reason they're among
the most glittering and enjoyable [diaries] ever written.
*Observer*
The diaries are fascinating and sometimes a key historical record.
And the man could write.
*Daily Mirror*
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