Alan Bennett At 90

[poliphilo]

 Alan Bennett has been an old man for ever so long- and now, at ninety, he has released the latest installment of his diaries. In spite of cataract and a failing memory for words (especially names) he still writes beautifully. And still has interesting things to write about- and meets as many celebrities in a day as I have briefly encountered in a lifetime. Writers, actors, politicians- he knows and has known them all. He sits outside his London home and they saunter by,  exchange an observation or two and provoke memories. The tone is ruminative, humorous, melancholy- mildly but never deeply philosophical- and if he has demons he keeps them well tucked in under his skirts.  When his birthday comes round they ring the church bells in the Yorkshire village where he has his other home. Few writers get to be so well loved.....

If you want the book in hardback it'll cost you £25.00. That's too much. I shall wait and source my copy from a charity shop.....

Comments

[cmcmck]

Or see if is gets published in PB.

[poliphilo]

That'll probably happen, but the charity shop would be even cheaper.

I have all (?) the previous volumes of his diary and it would be a shame not to have this one as well.

[paserbyp]

Bennett lived for 40 years on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town, London, and in 2006 moved a few minutes' walk away to Primrose Hill with his partner Rupert Thomas, the former editor of The World of Interiors magazine. Bennett also had a long-term relationship with his former housekeeper, Anne Davies, until her death in 2009.

Bennett is an agnostic. He was raised Anglican and gradually "left it [the church] over the years".

In 1988, Bennett declined the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and in 1996 declined a knighthood.

In September 2005, Bennett revealed that, in 1997, he had undergone treatment for colorectal cancer and described the illness as a "bore". His chances of survival were given as being "much less" than 50 per cent and surgeons had told him they removed a "rock-bun" sized tumour. He began Untold Stories (published 2005) thinking it would be published posthumously, but his cancer went into remission. In the autobiographical sketches which form a large part of the book Bennett says of himself "I am homosexual", but also mentions "flings" with women. Previously Bennett had referred to questions about his sexuality as like asking a man who has just crawled across the Sahara desert to choose between Perrier or Malvern mineral water.

In October 2008, Bennett announced that he was donating his entire archive of working papers, unpublished manuscripts, diaries and books to the Bodleian Library, stating that it was a gesture of thanks repaying a debt he felt he owed to the British welfare state that had given him educational opportunities which his humble family background would otherwise never have afforded.

In September 2015, Bennett endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. The following month, after Corbyn's election victory, Bennett said: "I approve of him. If only because it brings Labour back to what they ought to be thinking about."

Following the death of Jonathan Miller in 2019, Bennett became the last surviving member of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet which had also included Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

For many years Bennett has owned a cottage in Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales.