Diaries: Into Politics - Alan Clark > Reviews > Very Witty

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	High
How interesting was the book?	Compelling
How useful was it?	Very useful
Would you read it again?	Absolutely
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Witty, well written, Candid, good account of a turbulent time
Disadvantages:	Not to every ones tastes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Alan Clark Diaries “Into Politics” are his own hand written diaries, transferred into print. They are his thoughts on the major events of the times. Alan Clark was a conservative MP, most of the time on the backbenches, throughout the Thatcher years and latterly for a portion of Major’s government and for a short time, before his death in opposition.

These diary extracts chart his entry into the political arena, from 1972, when he was fighting for adoption by a constituency, to his role in opposition and then the Thatcher governments. This particular volume stops at the end of 1982, after the Falklands War, in which Alan Clark succeeded in becoming a prominent national figure and leading light in the backbenches. His latter political life is charted in (ironically) the first volume of diaries to be published and is also well worth a read.

This is a fascinating book, Clark; whatever you may think of his politics (extreme right wing) is candid and witty. These were diaries that were never meant to be published and contain his thoughts on a wide number of issues, not just politics. At the start his concern for his children shines through and it record the anxieties of being a parent of teenage boys. His waywardness with money is a huge factor and despite owning a castle, he teeters on the edge of bankruptcy for a few years, his doom and gloom is very real and makes you wonder how he ever managed to get into such a situation.

When the diaries move to his entry into the political arena as MP for Plymouth, the intrigue thickens and these diaries show the backstabbing and hatred that exist within a political party to its full extent.

Most of all this work is amusing, Alan Clark is always chasing the ladies and becomes crestfallen at the realisation that young women look at him as they would their own father. His frustration at not achieving government office shines through (although he does latter in the 1980’s) when he says, “It would be nice to be a minister and I am grumpy - sometimes very cross at not being one.”

Another amusing feature is the charting of his own sex drive, frequently feeling randy! One quote made me laugh “..as I lay by the pool, thought how diminished was my sexuality. Always in the past I would get erotic sensations lying out after a dip.” These quotes go on, even including his fancying of Thatcher!

If you have any interest in politics, these are a good read, even if you do not they are still amusing as Clark’s caddishness comes through he was one of the last of the dinosaur English gentlemen, privileged, wealthy and always after the ladies. You may not agree with his views, but he will amuse you. I think these diaries record the times very well and there frankness is wonderful, most of all compared to other tomes of political diaries and autobiographies they are not at all hard to read and the way they are set out in extract nature makes them great for bed time reading. His style has of course been hilariously copied in the Evening Standards, not the Alan Clark diaries and these actual diaries, I think will stand the test of time. Of course they may not to be every ones tastes but then what book is.