Book description
Alan Bennett's first collection of prose since Writing Home takes
in all his major writings over the last ten years. The title piece is
a poignant family memoir with an account of the marriage of his
parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a
long-held family secret. Also included are his much celebrated diaries
for the years 1996 to 2004. At times heartrending and at others
extremely funny, Untold Stories is a matchless and unforgettable
anthology. 'Funny, moving and true.' Blake Morrison, Guardian 'I have
never read a book of this length where I have turned the last page
with such regret. It is intelligent, educated, engaging, humane,
self-aware, cantankerous and irresistibly funny. You want it to go on
forever.' John Carey, Sunday Times 'I can only join the mighty chorus
of praise.' Nicholas Hytner, Sunday Telegraph 'Alan Bennett, with his
combination of pitiless observation and gentle understatement, is
perhaps the best loved of English writers alive today.' Sunday
Telegraph Untold Stories is published jointly with Profile Books.
Alan Bennett first appeared on the stage in 1960 as one of the
authors and performers of the revue 'Beyond the Fringe'. His stage
plays include Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus, and The Lady
in the Van, and he has written many television plays, notably A Day
Out, A Woman of No Importance and the series of monologues Talking
Heads. Single Spies was first produced at the National Theatre in
1988, followed in 1990 by his adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
and in 1991 by The Madness of George III. Alan Bennett is the author
of the best-selling biography Writing Home, and the short novels The
Clothes They Stood Up In, Father Father Burning Bright, The Lady in
the Van and The Laying On of Hands.
