Henry Chips Channon The Diaries V..., Chips Channon
Henry Chips Channon The Diaries V..., Chips Channon
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Henry ‘Chips' Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1)
1918-38

Author: Chips Channon

Narrator: Tom Ward

Unabridged: 39 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/08/2021

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 Commons in the lead up to the Munich crisis, his sense of drama and his eye for the telling detail are unmatched. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life.

A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, sixty years after Chips's death, can the text be shared in all its glory.

© Chips Channon 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

Goodreads review by KOMET on January 01, 2022

In the spring of 2012, I had the pleasure of reading the abridged diaries (edited by Robert Rhodes James) of Henry 'Chips' Channon (1897-1958), which covered the years 1934 to 1953. (That heavily abridged book had originally been published in 1967, leaving out the names of most of the people Channon......more

Goodreads review by Phil on July 10, 2021

What we learn is less about the critical events of the inter-war period, or obtain deep insights into the personalities of some of the key figures of the time. What we do get is twofold: an amazing insight into how upper class society worked and a wonderment about how successful Channon was in risin......more

Goodreads review by Shawn on January 12, 2022

So a very famous person, once famously said, in a very famous movie: "You know how bitchy f**s can be." (see: Valley of the Dolls). This, perhaps, could have been the subtitle of this volume of Chips Channon's diaries (although he was bisexual rather than gay, I would assume from the dairies). Also,......more

Goodreads review by Forthbridge on June 11, 2021

Channon had a bad press - supporting Hitler and cronies was not the best career move. But the diaries have appeal with frankness being a huge asset. He does not pretend to be a nice person. Lots of sex, spending and political intrigue. I think that it does illustrate a time in history when Lord Bagw......more

Goodreads review by PAUL on October 16, 2021

Diary of a scrounging ponce would have been a more apt title.......more

Quotes

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 Statesman

The between-the-wars diaries of the romping, social-climbing MP Henry Channon make for an irresistible, saucy read. There are plenty of anecdotes, bons mots and delicious tales of scandal . . . one of the most impressive editions of our time. The Telegraph

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 The Observer

Sensation, spite, social climbing, high society, self-indulgence, sex; Chips Channon had the raw materials to make his uncensored diaries newsworthy a century after he began them. They shock, repel and compel because they don't conceal . . . He is calculating, selfish, amoral, vain, ambitious and deluded, and more of us should follow his example. Not in the living, but in the recording of it. The Times

Although Channon was frequently wrong and occasionally repellent, there is no denying his talent as a diarist or the historical value of his diaries. Lacking pomposity or dissemblance, his entries are often witty, sometimes perceptive, and always fascinating Air Mail

The diaries are fascinating and sometimes a key historical record. And the man could write. Daily Mirror

Heffer has done his job with scholarly aplomb. Throughout his life [Chips] had the knack - invaluable for a diarist with dreams of publication - of bumping into all the right people. Fascinating stuff . . . a work of high camp. The Spectator

Gripping reading . . . While countless of Chip's decent contemporaries and especially politicians are today forgotten, the diaries make him an indispensable source for anyone writing of this period. The Sunday Times

A fabulous potpourri of first-hand history, snobbish gossip, acute insight and stomach-churning enthusiasm for Nazism (by no means unique among the British upper-classes at the time). Channon was vain, funny, bitchy, clever, pithy and fabulously well-connected: all the qualities of a superb diarist. Daily Mail

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