MixedThe GuardianYou could call this book a bumper bonanza bargain, except it’s the work of Alan Bennett, so such over-the-top adjectives feel inappropriate. Bennett’s reputation is for wryness, modesty, pointed but unshowy observation. Thwartedness, also: ambitions unfulfilled, passions fumbled. Nothing grandiose or overheated ...funny, sometimes screamingly so. Some of the diary entries are short, just gags really, shafts of light to leaven the everyday ... Although it’s his diaries that make up most of this book, Bennett’s other works aren’t afterthoughts. They represent just a small part of what he has been up to, aside from his diligent diarising...book is a pleasure, though, yes, a temperate one ... In short, then, don’t read this enormous tome for thrills. This is a life being lived, some of it privately, and we all know what life can be like. Same-same, routine, ordinary.
