A review by bibliomaniac2021
The Kenneth Williams Diaries by Kenneth Williams, Russell Davies

dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

V engrossing.  Diaries prove that KW was the Hamlet of Light Entertainment: on the one hand he was the purveyor of lavatory humour in comedy films; later he became the caustic habitué of mindless panel games. But the private man was also the agonized man who soliloquized, reflecting on human behaviour and evil in the world, not to mention copiously reading novels at a single sitting in order to acutely dissect them. And the two worlds never connected except inside the head of KW which is revealed- to some degree- in these entries.

 Dissimulation as a guide to survival; one of his favourite quotes was T. S. Eliot's "prepare a face to meet the faces."