Diaries - Alan Clark

The first volume of Alan Clark's diaries cover the period 1983-1991 and the two Parliaments he served under Margaret Thatcher as an Employment, Trade and Defence Procurement Minister. Clark never quite attained the prominence or power he craved in the Conservative government of the time but his general lack of tact and sense of humour made him a relatively famous and entertaining media figure who seemed much more interesting than most of his colleagues. In his day he was sort of like a much more refined, politically incorrect, calculating and intelligent version of Boris Johnson. His diaries are irreverent, superbly written and hugely enjoyable. The entries ...  Read the complete review

A fascinating insight into Government from an independant spirit who only towed his own party line. Candid, indiscreet and salacious with his opinions not restricted to his own colleagues and opposition. Here is a man driven, by his own demons, to record passages of life that can be amusing, serious, deprecating or brutal, sometimes all these, but he is always alarmingly honest and candid. He thrusts his opinions off the page and into your mind, often showing a character never revealed to the contemporary press or public. Coercive ...  Read the complete review

I never found the hysteria surrounding the death of Diana very interesting or significant and think now what I thought at the time: that it merely another proof of the number of stupid, shallow, and gullible people in the world. Perhaps I’m wrong, at least in part. It might prove that, but have greater significance too. The much smaller but in some ways remarkably similar hysteria that has recently surrounded the death of Donald† suggests that it does have greater significance. Or perhaps Di's death awakened a morbid taste for mawkish sentiment in many of us that we are now looking for any excuse to indulge. Well, almost any excuse. The ...  Read the complete review