The Last Diaries - Softcover

The Last Diaries: In and Out of the Wilderness is the final self-revealing chronicle of Alan Clark's highly eventful life and times. The French are eternally amused by the insistence of English newspapers that our politicians' lives must be squeaky clean (after all, they reason, what's a mistress or two?). And certainly John Major's famously ill-advised "Back to Basics" campaign exploded in his face as minister after minister came crashing down in flames as a succession of sex scandals hit the headlines. But one politician always rode above such hyperventilating moral indignation--Alan Clark, whatever his faults (and he would be the first to admit they were legion), was never a hypocrite. When charged with a new indiscretion (such as his famous liaison with virtually the entire female side of a family) he would cheerfully admit it, and even those not sharing his High Tory sympathies would not hold it against him.

Such is the sheer vigour and perception on display here (not to mention the disarming candour--none of that famous "economy with the truth" in these unbuttoned pieces), that it's a considerable cause for regret that this is the last we will have from the late politician. In the great tradition of such diarists as Pepys, Clark delivers a fascinating picture of an era and his place in it. Just a few words of Clark on (for instance) Tony Benn displays Clark's from-the-hip observations: "His mind is so quick and versatile--but the loony prejudice just beneath the surface... the motivation that keeps him active." All those anodyne politicians' memoirs, which strove to be as unrevealing as possible, look even paler next to a document as forceful as this. Whether or not your name is in the index, this is absolutely fascinating reading from a flawed politician who nevertheless makes most of his colleagues--in and out of the Tory party--look uninspiring figures indeed. --Barry Forshaw

The skill in the diaries and memoirs of most politicians lies in the delicate airbrushing out of their faults and weaknesses. Alan Clark's self-portrait, on the other hand, is defiantly warts-and-all ... His three volumes of diaries will ensure his immortality (Craig Brown Mail on Sunday)

Ever present in this volume is his preoccupation with the illness that finally claimed him. It is more sombre, infinitely more foreboding than his other work ... The last entries, by Jane recording Alan's final days, are hugely moving ... This is simply the best book I have read since - well, since the last Clark oeuvre (Steven Norris The Times)

A rare record of what it is like to be dying by a master of the English language (Bevis Hillier Spectator (Books of the Year))

This volume of Clark is better on small details of an indulged life, of Eccles cakes and stilton, the vanity of his timed runs up flights of stairs, his befriending of jackdaws whose pellets he takes abroad for good luck (Quentin Letts Daily Mail)

The last diaries are a muted version of the others, full of stengun judgments, scorn, candour and opinion - also ambition recollected in imperfect tranquility (Edward Pearce Tribune Magazine)

Alan Clark's relationship with God in these diaries is both funny and moving ... These diaries do not stalk the corridors of power. There is very little high-level gossip, but some of our favourite characters from the early diaries make appearances ... As his hypochondria gives way to real sickness, his moral gambling to terror, his selfish and equivocal attitude towards his wife to absolute love and gratitude, the diaries assume an immense sadness and profundity ... Alan Clark was not a good man, but he was a dazzling diarist. He writes, self-pityingly: "I suppose I will be remembered for the Diaries." He will, and for this one most of all. A grand love story eclipses a political career (Sarah Sands Daily Telegraph)

A long way from the acerbic knockabout looked for by Clark's admirers ... The latter part of the book is darkened by the diarist's recognition that [those] frissons of demise are no illusion: he has brain cancer ... the journal of a disappointed man becomes that of a mind at the end of its tether. At the same time the heartless, even caddish, candour gives way to long impassioned avowals of devotion to a sorely tried wife. When he finally abandons his pen, Jane Clark adds her own brief log, in which reciprocated devotion sits uneasily with sick-room grue. "I love God," she writes, "but this is such a cruel way to demolish such a brilliant brain" (E.S. Turner TLS)

Pure pleasure ... there ought to be a constant supply of Alan Clarks (Sue Townsend Mail on Sunday (Books of the Year))

The Pepys of our time ... More than anything else The Last Diaries is a love story. And like its theme it will endure (Graham Stewart Spectator)