Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1)

1918-38

By: Chips Channon

Narrated by: Tom Ward

Brought to you by Penguin.

Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. Whether describing the antics of London society in the interwar years, or the growing scandal surrounding his close friends Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the abdication crisis, or the mood in the House of Commons in the lead-up to the Munich crisis, his sense of drama and his eye for the telling detail are unmatched. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life.

A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, 60 years after Chips' death, can the text be shared in all its glory.

©2021 Chips Channon (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

The greatest British diarist of the 20th century. A feast of weapons-grade above-stairs gossip. Now, finally, we are getting the full text, in all its bitchy, scintillating detail, thanks to the journalist and historian Simon Heffer, whose editing of this vast trove of material represents an astonishing achievement. Channon is a delightful guide, by turns frivolous and profound. (Ben Macintyre)

Wickedly entertaining . . . scrupulously edited and annotated by Simon Heffer. Genuinely shocking, and still revelatory. (Andrew Marr)

Sensation, spite, social climbing, high society, self-indulgence, sex; Chips Channon had the raw materials to make his uncensored diaries newsworthy a century after he began them. They shock, repel and compel because they don't conceal . . . He is calculating, selfish, amoral, vain, ambitious and deluded, and more of us should follow his example. Not in the living, but in the recording of it. (Jenni Russell)

Wow! When the honesty is almost too much.

Amazing point-of-view to experience. Very honest, shockingly so. I admire the man for wanting this published.

Diary of a man on the Wrong Side of History

An fascinating glimpse into the 1920s-1930s Great Britain by a man who supported a King who abdicated & a Prime Minister who has gone down in history as a great & unsuccessful appeaser. The narrator—where good audiobooks often go bad—is brilliant both as narrator & occasional actor. Channon has been well served.

Despicable man with a great, really long diary

An American man who never really worked but expected great wealth to come to him. Hated America (his mother was born 5 miles from where I grew up in Wisconsin). He was petty, self serving, snobbish and classist. Married into enormous wealth, loved Hitler and Mussolini. Can't wait to invest another 48 hours listening to the next volume. It was interesting to be listening to this when the queen died.

Amusing and Outrageous

Delightfully gossipy, sycophant to any and all royalty, no matter how minor and how extinct the title. Interesting insight into the Abdication Crisis, the rise of Hitler (unfortunately Chips was a big fan of Nazis - he thought them a bulwark against Communism), was feted by Goering and Ribbentrop at the Hitler Olympics, knew the Queen Mother before she married the Duke of York, and despised Churchill as much as he was a fan boy of Chamberlain and appeasement. A petty, despicable and ridiculous person (he hated his American origin and parents though he loved their money that allowed him to live very well in London), he nonetheless penned a very interesting diary.

Brilliant book. Brilliant narrator.

Loathesome man, brilliant diarist. A fly on the wall for so many world shattering events. I could not stop listening to them and have promptly purchased Vol 2 of Chips’ diaries. Exceptionally well narrated.