Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57: The Diaries; 1943-57 (The Henry Chips Channon: The Diaries)

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The world is so different now o few this is like reading the diaries of a much more historical figure. He is certainly a rival to Peeps (though less immediately engaging because of the narrowness of him and his sphere of interest). That there were still people who actually thought and behaved as he did in those not so far off days was an eye opener for me and makes me wonder what I am naive about today!

This rich and weighty final volume of his Diaries encapsulates the last 15 years of Channon's life through which he --- no longer likely to secure any ministerial preference or power in his capacity as a Conservative Member of Parliament for having been a supporter of Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement --- becomes deeply immersed in describing "events in and around Westminster", in addition to "gossiping about individual MPs' ambitions and indiscretions." He shares with the reader much of what his social life developed into via his relationships with many of the notable figures of the era (e.g. the popularly acclaimed playwright Terance Rattigan with whom he once formed a close, intimate relationship whilst remaining contentedly linked with his beloved "Bunny" --- Peter Coats, a man 13 years his junior whom he had met in the summer of 1939 --- despite the prolonged separation imposed on both of them by the war in which Coats served as an aide to General Archibald "Archie" Wavell who later became the next to last Viceroy of India). Three formidable volumes have appeared, admirably edited by Simon Heffer displaying considerable scholarship . . . Channon, for all his misjudgements, ingratiating behaviour and bigotry, is revealing about public and private life, society and sexuality, and honest about himself to a degree that makes these Diaries a weird kind of masterpiece. LRB a b c Cooke, Rachel (28 February 2021). "Gossip, sex and social climbing: the uncensored Chips Channon diaries". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 January 2022. It is to be hoped that a single volume of the Channon diaries will be produced. This smaller portion of Chips is needed for the general reader who may not wish to plod through endless accounts of conversations with titled people and minor royalty. However, for the serious student of Britain in the inter-war and post-war period, these three volumes taken together are an essential primary source. Simon Heffer justifies some of this by saying he was ill pretty regularly towards the end of the book. He was, however, well enough to socialise with royalty throughout this period.

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I’ve never been the biggest supporter of the Conservative Party, but found certain aspects potentially attractive. As a snobbish, garrulous, socially upper-classed individual, Henry ‘Chips’ Channon represented none of those areas. Chips Channon is irresistibly entertaining company - at any rate in print . . . All in all, a pretty disgraceful life that is a guilty pleasure to read about. Peter Parker, Spectator The MP and socialite 'Chips' Channon was an unlikeable character - bitchy, snobby, prejudiced and caustic. But those vices make him an entertaining diarist. This is the final volume of a triologywhich provides a running commentary on high society and politics from the 1920s onwards, edited with aplomb by Simon Heffer. Biography and Memoir Book of the Year 2022, The Times

Cooke, Rachel (28 February 2021). "Gossip, sex and social climbing: the uncensored Chips Channon diaries". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 July 2021.

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He was a century behind even in the changing mid to late 20c, sometimes even two! His erudite observations on those who wielded power and privilege are probably more reliable than many others, though is views on political policy and the unfolding sweep of history are absurd now and were not much less so as he wrote them. Myopic and prejudiced, ignorant and blinkered, his word was narrow and shrank even more so as he aged. Had he put his potentially excellent brain to real use he may have grown and become a real political player, but he was a dilettant, only an MP because of the adjacent life it afforded him, and because in those days, it was still possible to treat being an MP as a gentleman’s pastime.