Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) cover art

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1)

1918-38

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Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1)

By: Chips Channon
Narrated by: Tom Ward
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. Whether describing the antics of London society in the interwar years, or the growing scandal surrounding his close friends Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the abdication crisis, or the mood in the House of Commons in the lead-up to the Munich crisis, his sense of drama and his eye for the telling detail are unmatched. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life.

A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, 60 years after Chips' death, can the text be shared in all its glory.

©2021 Chips Channon (P)2021 Penguin Audio 20th Century Diaries & Journals Europe Great Britain Historical Memoirs, Diaries & Correspondence Modern England

Critic Reviews

The greatest British diarist of the 20th century. A feast of weapons-grade above-stairs gossip. Now, finally, we are getting the full text, in all its bitchy, scintillating detail, thanks to the journalist and historian Simon Heffer, whose editing of this vast trove of material represents an astonishing achievement. Channon is a delightful guide, by turns frivolous and profound. (Ben Macintyre)
Wickedly entertaining . . . scrupulously edited and annotated by Simon Heffer. Genuinely shocking, and still revelatory. (Andrew Marr)
Sensation, spite, social climbing, high society, self-indulgence, sex; Chips Channon had the raw materials to make his uncensored diaries newsworthy a century after he began them. They shock, repel and compel because they don't conceal . . . He is calculating, selfish, amoral, vain, ambitious and deluded, and more of us should follow his example. Not in the living, but in the recording of it. (Jenni Russell)
All stars
Most relevant
I had not heard of Chips Channkn and cannot believe that I knew so little. His personal and accurate view of British aristocracy and politics leaves nothing untouched.
His subtle eluding of male relationships of the time makes you wonder about how he may view our rake on homosexuality now - I loved his candid self deprecating view of himself and said what many others must have thought
Read all three volumes and if you have a interest in The art deco era of splendour scandal and politics you won’t be disappointed

Eye opening view of a past way of life

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Anyone with a interest or who would like to know more of the English aristocracy’s attitude towards Hitler and the Nazi regime should watch the film “The Remans of the Day”.

An eye opener!

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I think the narrator hates Channon - as many people seem to have done. He reads the whole thing through gritted teeth and sounds like a pompous ass with his trilled Rs - and frequently mispronounced words ('Porgy' with a soft G, 'Genoa' with the accent on the second syllable). If you must, read these long-winded diaries, don't get the Audible version.

If you must, read the book, don't listen to it!

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What a sad, selfish boring life. Don't waste your time - I didn't finish the so-called diaries.

Narcissism

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