I am currently writing a series of reviews on books that I have read in the past, in part because I am a new member of the Goodreads website. I wanted to post reviews based on my memory of those books and how I felt about them at the time. As time goes by, memory can often be unreliable. Inevitably, I am finding that it is the books that I really enjoyed which are the ones that I have better memories of. The bad ones have long since been forgotten.
The
Kenneth Williams diaries is one that I am happy to give five stars. For a
start it is a book that despite its 850 plus pages is just a snapshot
of Williams life. He kept a diary for more or less every day of his
adult life. The volumes sat there in his home and after Williams died it
was Russell Davies that took on the job to condense it down to the book
that we get to read. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to read all of them. Davies probably had to read through a lot of mundane,
everyday life entries to get to the good bits. Even then, much was
probably left out. Williams diaries and letters collection were
eventually bought by the British Library and as far as I know that is
where they still are.
Williams was a complex character. Like
many in the UK at the time, I got to see him because of the series of
Carry On films. Williams view of those films were that he was better
than that. I don't think he liked them very much. He wanted more out of
his acting. He could be kind, intelligent, caring and very funny, but he could also be nasty, horrible to anyone he didn't like and short-tempered. A listen to the Just A Minute radio broadcasts he made for the BBC, you can hear how he loses it from time to time. The diaries
record his opinions about others. Many wondered what he had written
about them in his “infamous” diaries.
As he got older, his
insecurities about his life are on full show in the diaries, especially
around his health. His sad end and a mystery around how his life ended
(certainly at the time) is there for all to see. He does say occasionally, “what's the point?” I get the impression that he felt that
he never quite achieved what he wanted to get out of life.
It's a
fantastic read, but I do think it helps to have seen the “public” face
of Williams to really appreciate the other side of his character that
comes out in his diaries. I may read it again as and when I get the
time.
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