Book description
The first two volumes of Alan Clark's were irresistible, irreverent,
infamous, outrageous. This last volume is a fitting finale to the work
of a man who has been described as 'the best diarist of his century'.
The third volume begins in 1991 with Alan Clark contemplating quitting
as an MP. Life at Saltwood Castle, his home, hangs heavy; then comes the
Scott inquiry and the Matrix Churchill affair. Publication of the first
volume of the Diaries leads 'the coven', a family of former girlfriends,
to sell their story to the NEWS OF THE WORLD. This volume follows his
attempts to return to Westminster, an affair that threatens his
marriage, and closes with the tragedy of his final months when he is
diagnosed with a brain tumour, but keeps his diary until he can no
longer focus on the page. Alan Clark, educated at Eton and Oxford,
read for the Bar but did not practise. Tory MP for Plymouth Sutton
1972-1992; Kensington and Chelsea, 1997-99. Various junior ministerial
appointments in the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments of the
1980s. Best-known for his Diaries (three vols) which The Times placed in
the Samuel Pepys class. They were filmed by the BBC with John Hurt as
Clark and Jenny Agutter as Jane Clark. Alan Clark died in 1999.
