Kenneth Williams Diaries

‘I’ll put you in my diary!’ comedian Kenneth Williams was known to threaten on occasion, although tantalisingly he kept the journal to himself during his lifetime. Here at last, in one spellbinding volume, are four million words of it. For more than forty years the much-loved actor, broadcaster and comedian Kenneth Williams kept a journal whose existence he occasionally used as a thread ('You'll be in my diary!') but whose contents he tantalisingly kept almost completely to himself. After his death in 1988, rumours that the diaries might one day be published sent a shiver of anticipation and dread through the theatrical world. What would they reveal about friends and colleagues? And what would they disclose of the darker, lonelier side which it was widely suspected lay behind Williams's outrageous public person? Now the four million words of the diaries have been condensed into a single volume – the most talked-about, controversial and startling theatrical book since 'The Orton Diaries'. Devastatingly honest about himself, Williams is equally unsparing in his verdicts on his fellow-man. In his descriptions of Tony Hancock, Maggie Smith, Joe Orton, Stanley Baxter and countless others, his waspish sense of humour, love of anecdote and ear for dialogue are given full rein. Malicious, hilarious, uninhibited and harrowing, 'The Kenneth Williams Diaries' are a unique portrait of one of Britain's most popular, yet most misunderstood, performers. "Annihilatingly honest… fascinating… these diaries cast a bizarre spell. They appal, they delight, and now and then do both at once." ANTHONY QUINN, 'Independent' "Caustically compelling." TIME OUT "Unputdownable… with the appeal of eavesdropping on the conversation of a unique personality." MICHAEL CODRON, 'Financial Times' "Hilarious anecdotes abound… one of the 'most read' books of the summer." WHAT'S ON