Rainy, windy day. But we're retired. Plenty to read. Alternating, in the read-aloud department, Lillian Beckwith's fictionalised memoirs of life as an Englishwoman relocated to the Hebrides (1950s) and Alan Clarke's political diary, or one volume thereof. Both very funny, in entirely different ways. Clarke is the man who came up with the 4 I's of the (would be published) diarist:
You need to make your diary immediate; write it on the day, because even on the day after you begin to think, "I can improve history a bit." Be indiscreet; as Chips Channon said, there's nothing more dull than a discreet diary; you might as well have a dull or discreet soul. Be intimate; those intimate details are very important. And make your diary indecipherable, so that if somebody chances upon it, they cannot quite read what you have said.
Clarke is indiscreet, both about colleagues and about his eye for women, but he's also quite funny, with adolescent ego and quite a lot of charm mixed in with his insider view of the Thatcher era Tory party and the downfall of Thatcher.
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