Lacking any real insight or substance this collection of diary entries will likely leave you feeling slightly short-changed.

As you'd expect, 'House Arrest' is an erudite, insiteful, quietly witty book, whilst somewhat infused with an air of pathos throughout - Bennett alludes to the aging process and the things, such as cycling, that he's no longer able to do due to his advancing years.His 2009 play, The Habit of Art, received glowing reviews and was broadcast live the following year by National Theatre Live. His 2009 play, The Habit of Art , received glowing reviews and was broadcast live the following year by National Theatre Live. He may clearly be increasingly frail but, even in lockdown, Alan Bennett retains his customary waspish wit in the latest tranche of his diaries ― Choice --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Young Alan was strictly forbidden from setting foot in this den of contagion until, lured by Mrs Sherwood’s cloud-like yorkshire pudding, he decides to risk it: “It was as if I’d signed my own death warrant.

Always a privilege to have the insight into someone’s diaries and in a way it feels like diaries during the height of the pandemic are even more intimate and personal than others. HMQ pictured in the paper at an investiture wearing gloves, presumably as a precaution against Coronavirus. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. I spent a pleasant half hour reading this but it's not as jaunty as his diaries have been in the past and the constraints of the pandemic and ageing mean that much of his reflection now relates to past rather than present encounters.However, the book really was too short to obtain a good idea of the author's thoughts during the lockdown periods. The History Boys won Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier awards, as well as the South Bank Award. Bennett and his brother wore their school caps, his mother her swagger coat, and his father the suit with the good trousers. In Ritual, pioneering scientist Dimitris Xygalatas leads an enlightening tour through one of the most shadowy realms of human behaviour. I expected insights into the pandemic, the impact on his life, the community, nothing but cups of tea, a few chats with friends over the fence and being driven around.

I very much identified with his recollection of the loss of his conversational powers whilst trying to book a routine appointment after lockdown and having to hand the phone over to his partner, Rupert, who that bit younger and having kept up his conversational skills working from home on zoom, completed the task. Sadly, not much insight from these entries into how the pandemic affected him or much on his views of the effects of the various measures on friends, neighbours and the general population - which I expected when originally obtaining this book. Alan Bennett is a renowned playwright and essayist, a succession of whose plays have been staged at the Royal National Theatre and whose screenplay for The Madness of King George was nominated for an Academy Award. The biggest takeaway I got from this is that Alan Bennett is also sometimes confused or perplexed by contemporary poetry and grandiose articles in the TLS. AllThatSheCarried by Tiya Miles is an eye-opening social history of love and resilience, and an insightful testament to the people who are left out of the archives.He made his first stage appearance with Beyond the Fringe and his latest play was The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. Bennett is such a master of the mundane I actually would have relished reading about what he did in that first lockdown when the world shrank for everyone. So, my 4* rating reflects how good these 45 pages of musings were but don't reflect my disappointment!

The pandemic is the background and, indeed, the foreground to this latest and most slender tranche of journals, which runs to a mere 64 pages. The director pops round later that day to discuss details, which he is obliged to semaphore from the other side of the street. Less than 50 pages of nothing, there are a handful of snippets which appear to be going somewhere but immediately are snuffed out. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor.TheBookAtWar by Andrew Pettegree is the perfect present for bibliophiles and history buffs alike – a fascinating exploration of the role of books in wartime. Perhaps to be expected as the author gets older, many of the entries sparked various reminiscences in him, which were interesting. House Arrest - Pandemic Diaries' (2022) - is a very lovely, although very short (coming in at less than 50 pages) collection taken from Alan Bennett's diaries of the time.