The fourth volume of Alan Bennett's diaries, Enough Said, is (not unsurprisingly) a delight - full of amusing observations on life, acid commentary on politics, astute opinions on the arts, and fond reminiscences, written with characteristic warmth and wit.
"These days thoughts of death are seldom far away", he admits, and mortality does sadly cast an increasingly large shadow over the now 91 year old's life and writings. Outliving Victoria Wood by 20 years, for instance, is a matter of "apprehension not pride". But it's reassuring that he can still take pleasure in books, conversations with visitors, the stand-up of Stewart Lee, episodes of Friday Night Dinner and getting up Quentin Letts' nose.
Unlike your average diary entries, of course, these were produced in the full knowledge that they would be made public. As ever, credit to Bennett's friend Susan Powell and editor at Faber Dinah Wood for getting his scribbled scraps of paper into publishable form.
Buzz review here.
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