Overview
Celebrated diarist, famous womanizer, Tory MP and controversial minister—a castle-owning toff and lecherous cad to some, to others a colorful and life-enhancing figure—Alan Clark was politically incorrect before the term was invented. He is best remembered for his sensational diaries—but what of the man? Alan Clark rarely spoke about his upbringing, even to his family. Was it as unhappy as he hinted? Ion Trewin has had unrestricted access to extensive family papers (including twenty years of unpublished diaries). He has talked to politicians, to those who knew him at the prep school which burnt down, to friends at Eton and Oxford, and to some of the many women he found impossible to resist despite a loving marriage of 41 years. From his struggles to teach himself to write to formidable historian and diarist, from his enthusiasm for Margaret Thatcher to the "drunk at the Commons dispatch box" affair, this is a revealing and absorbing account of a remarkable and unforgettable man.
Synopsis
Celebrated diarist, famous womanizer, Tory MP and controversial minister—a castle-owning toff and lecherous cad to some, to others a colorful and life-enhancing figure—Alan Clark was politically incorrect before the term was invented. He is best remembered for his sensational diaries—but what of the man? Alan Clark rarely spoke about his upbringing, even to his family. Was it as unhappy as he hinted? Ion Trewin has had unrestricted access to extensive family papers (including twenty years of unpublished diaries). He has talked to politicians, to those who knew him at the prep school which burnt down, to friends at Eton and Oxford, and to some of the many women he found impossible to resist despite a loving marriage of 41 years. From his struggles to teach himself to write to formidable historian and diarist, from his enthusiasm for Margaret Thatcher to the "drunk at the Commons dispatch box" affair, this is a revealing and absorbing account of a remarkable and unforgettable man.