Advantages: Will last you a long time! Entertaining, humourous, and poignant.
Disadvantages: Not a quick read.

...Alan Bennett was unknown to me before I picked up this book. All I knew was that he was a playwright. I acquired the novel from Asda at a very good price of £3.99. I was looking for an intellectual, stimulating and humourous read. I definitely got what I asked for. The book is long and the print is small so it takes a while to read. It is what it says it is though - it is a mix of journal entries and musings. Naturally, it is very well written, and is easy to follow - but it is clear that this something written for adults as the language can be quite complex. Bennett does not leave much to the imagination, it has to be said, and he reveals a lot of personal insight on his family life, and can be at times very critical of family members. So much so that as a reader I felt quite invasive, almost like an intruder, knowing so much... Read review

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Advantages: Compulsive reading from start to finish.
Disadvantages: Only that 2 pages of the introduction were repeated in a later Bennett collection.

...cleaning they’ll pack her off to a home. One day her dusting does land her in serious bother as she takes a tumble. She tries desperately to get herself into a position where she might call for help, but it’s no use – no-one can hear her. Until, that is, the local policeman calls through the letterbox to check Doris is ok… “You’ve done it now, Doris”. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The book identifies and pictures the actors and actresses who performed each monologue on BBC TV. I find with Bennett’s work that I read in character and this is no exception… every piece is read in the voice of the performer (Alan Bennett, Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge, Julie Walters, Stephanie Cole and Thora Hird). Ten years after this series of Talking Heads, Bennett released another… Talking Heads 2, would you believe. Six more monologues... Read review

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Advantages: Great introduction to Bennett.
Disadvantages: Quite pricey for a short book.

...‘Telling Tales’ by Alan Bennett does exactly what it says on the cover… Alan Bennett, one of the country’s best loved wordsmiths, tells ten tales about his childhood in Leeds, a provincial city in the West Riding where life generally tended to avoid. In several of the tales Bennett details the causes of his frustration as a youth – he knew that his family was very ordinary (not working class, but certainly not middle class), yet at the same time being much different to all others. His mother, too, assumed that life for everyone else was much different to hers and that the cocktail party lifestyle she read about in Woman’s Own was the norm and attainable by a move to the hallowed ‘down South’. We learn much about Bennett’s ‘Mam and Dad’ (so good to see the word Mam, I feel I’m one of the few who still uses it). Their real names were... Read review

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Advantages: Compendium of short autobiographical stories, insights into plays, theatres and actors.
Disadvantages: Diaries can get a little tedious. Lectures not well illustrated.

...Alan Bennett likens his book “Untold Stories” to one of those comic-book Christmas Annuals jam-packed with all sorts of stories, pictures and puzzles. “Untold Stories” is indeed a compendium style book with its collection of autobiographical stories, diary entries, lectures, comments on plays / theatres & actors and photographs. And just like an annual, Untold Stories was published in readiness for Christmas in October 2005. Alan Bennett was diagnosed with cancer in 1977 and thought he was dying when he gathered together his works for the book. In his final story of the book, “Another Rock Bun” which details his illness from his feelings on hearing the diagnosis through to his current state of remission, Bennett explains that he “had no wish to travel or to see exotic parts of the world . . . so instead I began, I suppose, to tidy... Read review

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Advantages: Funny and enjoyable
Disadvantages: The theatrical sections are a bit heavy going

...Writing Home is a collection of Alan Bennett's prose writings, diaries, thoughts on plays and films he has worked on, his family background and much, much more. It was first published in 1994 and is a very good book to dip into now and again when you are stuck for something to read. On the back cover it states that the book brings together twenty-five years worth of reminiscences, reviews, broadcasting and diaries. There are broadly five sections to the book. The first is titled 'Past and Present' and includes five seperate pieces of writing. These include three gentle and nostalgic autobiographical chapters about Bennett's family and relatives and growing up in Leeds. Also included are tributes to Innes Lloyd and Bennett's great friend of many years, the broadcaster Russell Harty, who died in 1988. There is also a very enjoyable... Read review

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Advantages: Lovely
Disadvantages: Luvvies

...When Poet Laureate John Betjeman died, a very important title was conferred on Alan Bennett. He took over the role of National Teddy Bear. At least, according to journalist Francis Wheen he did. Apparently, the NTB may be gloomy, but also cheery. He must, above all, be lovable. And Bennett is undoubtedly widely loved. But I think Bennett's appeal is almost independent of his writing. He stands for peculiarly British values. He's successful - something we Brits are supposed to hate. But we don't. When it's combined with modesty, we love it. His nostalgia, his wit, his desire to preserve threatened places and ways of life embody all we feel is best about our national character. Yet his character, his work and his life are all deeper, more complex and less cuddly than any teddy. Most who love Bennett know little of his work. I... Read review

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Advantages: Funny, accurate satire.
Disadvantages: A bit close to the bone for some.

...A priest and his sexuality, a bored housewife and a burglary, a son who cannot wait for his father to die. These are the Three Stories told here by Alan Bennett, the nation's favourite teddy bear. The Laying on of Hands is probably the most successful of the three, technically speaking. The writing is tight, more contemporary, and the satire is Bennett at his most vicious. We find ourselves at a memorial service attended by media luvvies and other members of the chattering classes. The deceased is Clive, masseur to the stars. As Father Treacher sits at the back, taking notes on the "performance" - get the irony? - of Father Joliffe, who is officiating, the ceremony goes horrifically wrong… The Clothes They Stood Up In is my favourite of the tales, although perhaps it is looser in construction than its two partners are. Mr... Read review

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Advantages: Clever concept, sparkling dialogue, witty
Disadvantages: Too short for a paperback

...As the Grand Old Man of British letters and unofficial Writer Laureate, it is fitting that Alan Bennett should have chosen the Queen as the subject of this story. Not that this is his first foray into royal subject-matter: the Madness of King George was a successful play and film. But George III is a dead and gone figure of history. The Queen is very much alive, and writing a fictional piece about a well known public figure is quite a different proposition. The result, however, is an absolute delight. The premise - and this is no more than appears on the dust jacket and summaries - is that the corgis wander off and the Queen, in hot pursuit, follows them into a mobile library parked at the back of the palace. Persuaded to borrow a book, one thing leads to another and she becomes an avid reader. It is the consequences... Read review

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Advantages: A collection of writings by Alan Bennett.
Disadvantages: Some parts may not be to your taste.

...Four years ago I read Alan Bennett's "Writing Home". It was a collection of short writings, his "Lady in the Van", excerpts from his diaries during the nineteen eighties, notes on his plays and some short pieces to finish with. It was all topped off with some decent black and white photos which linked neatly with the text. I found the book enjoyable, but not overwhelmingly so and concluded that it had been published with the intention of making the most of the Christmas market. I decided that I wouldn't buy another like it. It reminded me of a large suitcase into which everything gets stuffed. There's no accounting for gifts though and that was how I acquired "Untold Stories", published in October 2005 - just in time for the Christmas market. There's an important difference with this book which makes it far superior... Read review

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Advantages: Charming, witty, often beautifully written
Disadvantages: Painful exposure of family secrets

...The book is overwhelmingly a portrait of its author in his now familiar persona: doddering old buffer, buddy of Cook and Miller et al, liberal and proud of it, kind but gruff old codger, etc. etc. Could it be that this collection, written, or collected, in the shadow of a cancer diagnosis is the one which stretches the reader's credulity just a little too far? Are we finally tiring of Bennett and his tales as we grow less fond, and perhaps more searching, in our judgements.? Is there not something deeply distasteful, not to say disloyal, in the author's detailed descriptions of his mother's decline into senility, his rendering of her illness as an amusing series of anecdotes, when he himself has written of her hatred of publicity, notice, undignified personal exposure? She was a woman, he never tires of telling us, who liked to keep... Read review

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