Are these the best diaries covering Britain in the first half of the twentieth century? But what about those of Chips Channon, Harold Nicolson, John Colville, Lord Alanbrooke? (this list doesn't knowingly exclude Alan Clark, but he was recording the second half of the century). All published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in hb; Phoenix in pb. As John Julius Norwich - Duff Cooper's son - says in his Introduction, his father was a first-rate witness of just about 'every significant event from 1914 to 1950.' But his diaries were also, like Alan Clark's, confessionals about his numerous love affairs. Unlike Alan Clark, however, he was less shy at admitting them to his beloved wife, Lady Diana Cooper. Every great diary requires the diarist to reveal himself to the reader. Duff Cooper does this in spades. He also includes some magnificent set pieces - as a young soldier at the end of WWI, as a politician during the General Strike of 1926, as King Edward VIII's friend at the time of the Abdication, and from Paris after the liberation in 1944, when he became British ambassador. If Duff Cooper's name has dimmed in the 50 years since his death, publication of these diaries will bring him to the fore once again. His family have long resisted publication - indeed Duff Cooper's nephew, the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis, was so shocked by the sexual revelations that he suggested to John Julius Norwich that it might be best for all concerned if they were burnt. Now, superbly edited by John Julius Norwich, who familial link ensures all kinds of additional information as footnotes, these diaries join the ranks. Here is history as it was being made - but with an enthralling social edge, like Alan Clark, Chips, Colville, Nicolson, even Alanbrooke, or if one goes back further, to Pepys and Evelyn.
