Sir Henry Channon (1897–1958)

When the heavily censored version of the social climber Henry Channon’s scandalous diaries were first published in 1967, it was replete with juicy gossips, parties with adulterous spouses, and gay friendships. It threw the English world into a tizzy. Now the unredacted volumes are all set to be made available to the public. When intimate details of famous people whom everyone has heard and known for all their lives are made public the masses lapped it up with alacrity. Now, the first volume of the caustic diaries written by the master diarist Chips Channon , edited by the legendary Simon Heffer is out for public scrutiny. Chips Channon’s life is dotted with fancy parties and flashy dinners with the town’s most elegant personalities. From Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler, from Marcel Proust to Wallis Simpson, Chips Channon’s circle has some distinguished names. His diaries are not just a source that abounds in juicy gossips; it is also a classic for historians opening a window into the long lost world, shedding light on various watershed moments in history like the Berlin Olympics, the abdication crisis, the pre-war Nazi ties with Britain and so on. The diaries shed light on the opulence of the London society and the increasingly decadent lifestyle of the social high class. It brings to life a forgotten epoch . If you have read the Macmillan Diaries, then Chips’ diaries may pique your interest as well. Of course, nothing would be foolhardier than equating them, but Chips Channon’s dairies are equally entertaining on different levels. Buy a copy now and enjoy the saucy, bitchy snippets with which Chips relishes his readers with. T… (altro)

This massive (1000+ pages) slice of Channon's diaries falls into two parts. Covering the years October 1938 to mid 1943, the division isn't so much between 'before WWII' and 'during WWII' as between the period while Channon was actively engaged in politics as PPS to Rab Butler, and the period afterwards, when the focus is much more on 'society' – not that Channon lacked that even when he was 'fagging for Butler'.
Reading the diaries is quite a marathon because it can easily seem an endless round of meals and similar events, often with similar casts of characters. How interesting those are will depend on the reader. But within the text there are many nuggets of insights, personal and political, which raise this work well above mere repetition.
Channon is open in his views about other people, other types of people, other races and so on. Much of it would today be 'politically incorrect', and even on a more daily level there are details which show how divorced his life was from the common herd – for example, how insignificant food rationing was to those who could afford to dine often in hotels, and especially those like Channon whose servants no doubt had their own sources of supply for the many delicacies that appeared on his table. In fact, clothes rationing gets more mention than food, but Channon is reasured that his own wardrobe is enormous. He can even kit out Field Marshall Wavell in civvies when that old soldier is appointed as Viceroy – an appointment Channon congratulates himself on arranging, although it is also clear from the book that Churchill had little time for Chips so there may have been other factors in play.
This section of the diaries also shows up Channon's high-intensity approach to frendships – he does much for his friends but often gets fed up with them or on occasion turns into their enemy, spreading malicious rumours everywhere – a trait he deplores in others.
The distintegration of Channon's marriage to the ill-named Lady Honor is catalogued in detail; we are left in no doubt that it is all her fault. Channon's own many amours, mostly with men, are not presented as relevant to the situation. This is perhaps the one area of his life where Channon was perhaps in denial, compared with his self-awareness about his social attitudes.
Overall, this is compulsive reading for those who are interested. Those who are not probably gave up half way through Volume 1 in any case.… (altro)