The Last Diaries
In and Out of the Wilderness
Published on 14. November 2002
Audio
Audio cassette
978-0-7528-5367-3 (ISBN)
Description
Alan Clark's acclaimed Diaries end a month before his death in 1999. After the first volume (30 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list), The Times wrote: 'The best diarists, from Pepys and Boswell, to 'Chips' Channon and Harold Nicolson, have been the souls of indiscretion. But none so indiscreet as Mr Clark. For its Pooterish self-assessment, for Mr Toad's enthusiasm for new things, for Byron's caddishness, for its deadly candour, it is one of the great works in the genre.' This third volume begins in 1991 with Alan Clark contemplating quitting as MP. Life at Saltwood Castle, his home in Kent, hangs heavy; then comes the Scott inquiry and the Matrix Churchill affair, the publishing of the first volume of the Diaries, which leads 'the coven', a family of former girlfriends, to sell their story to the News of the World. The diaries follow his ongoing efforts to return to Westminster. As ever there is much, much more: his long-suffering wife Jane, his family, an affair, and, not least, the country life. This volume closes with the tragedy of his final months when he is diagnosed with a brain tumour, but he keeps his diary until he can no longer read the keyboard.
Jane Clark movingly reads her own diary of Alan's illness and death.
Jane Clark movingly reads her own diary of Alan's illness and death.
More details
Edition
Abridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Edition type
Abridged edition
Dimensions
Height: 139 mm
Width: 109 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Duration
Dauer: 360 min
Weight
258 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7528-5367-3 (9780752853673)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Alan Clark, Tory MP for Sutton (Plymouth) 1974-92; for Kensington & Chelsea, 1997-99. Minister in Thatcher and Major governments, 1983-92. Historian (debut with The Donkeys). Married with two sons; lived at Saltwood Castle, Kent. Ion Trewin, the editor, is a former literary editor of The Times. He is now editor in chief of a leading London publisher. He edited Alan Clark's Diaries: Into Politics. Ion Trewin is a London publisher. Originally a journalist, he was Literary Editor of The Times 1972-79. He was Alan Clark's editor and publisher for the original 'Diaries' and following his death edited two further volumes of the celebrated diaries. In 2008 he edited and introduced THE HUGO YOUNG PAPERS: Thirty Years of British Politics Off the Record (Allen Lane) which won the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award 2009. Married with a son who is a literary agent and a daughter who is a teacher, he has since 2006 been literary director of the Man Booker prizes. He was chairman of the Cheltenham Literature Festival 1996-2007. Michael Cochrane's long and varied career includes television roles in Wing, Love in a Cold Climate, The Citadel, Fortunes of War and Longitude. He has also featured in numerous television comedies including shows at The Old Vic, the Savoy and the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, Films include Escape to Victory, The Far Pavillions and The Saint. He has read extracts from these Diaries for BBC Radio 4. Jane Clark is Alan Clark's widow.