Sasha Swire’s Sunday Times bestseller, Diary of an MP’s Wife (Abacus £9.99) is out now in paperback.
1. Henry “Chips” Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) 1918-38
The best political diaries are witty, waspish, snobbish and gossipy. And they are often written by people not necessarily at the heart of power, but at its edge. Chips Channon is an absolute master at the form. His diaries are delicious, dangerous and utterly compulsive.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hutchinson £35; The Week Bookshop £27.99
2. The Harold Nicolson Diaries
1966
Nicolson was an MP and a diplomat married to the poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West. Both were gay but devoted to each other and their famous garden at Sissinghurst. I’m as much a nature writer as a diarist, so share Nicolson’s concentrations and interests.
W&N £12.99; The Week Bookshop £9.99
3. Diaries: In Power
Alan Clark (1994)
Like Chips, Clark had the flaws of vanity and lechery and crashing snobbery, but he was a natural writer of people, places and politics. Penned during a time when the bad behaviour of a politician was either ignored or dismissed.
4. The Diary of Samuel Pepys
1825
The diary of the 17th century naval administrator is perhaps the most famous of them all. Pepys’s writings reveal how life under the bubonic plague mirrors our own pandemic, including similarities in how people responded to the crisis.
Everyman £18.99; The Week Bookshop £14.99
5. Bee Journal
Sean Borodale (2012)
This poem-journal chronicles the life of the hive, from the collection of a small nucleus to the capture of a swarm two years later. As an amateur beekeeper, I’ve found it to be something of a bible.
Vintage £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
6. Notes from Walnut Tree Farm
Roger Deakin (2009)
A journal of sorts, but more a medley of musings, feelings and observations about the natural world of rural Suffolk. Deakin had a unique way of painting the humblest of scenes with the richest of prose.
-
The Roses: Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in black comedy rebootThe Week Recommends 'Acidly enjoyable' remake of the 1980s classic features a warring couple and toxic love
-
Why reports of Donald Trump's demise are greatly exaggeratedIn The Spotlight US president has once again brushed aside rumours that he's dead
-
Lose yourself in these magnificent mazesThe Week Recommends These fiendishly clever puzzles aren't just for kids
-
The Roses: Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in black comedy reboot
The Week Recommends 'Acidly enjoyable' remake of the 1980s classic features a warring couple and toxic love
-
Film reviews: The Roses, Splitsville, and TwinlessFeature A happy union devolves into domestic warfare, a couple's open marriage reaps chaos, and an unlikely friendship takes surprising turns
-
Music reviews: Laufey, Deftones, and Earl SweatshirtFeature "A Matter of Time," "Private Music," and "Live Laugh Love"
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogsThe Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibitionThe Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite booksThe Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
-
6 laid-back homes for surfersFeature Featuring a home near a world-renowned surf spot in Hawaii and a house built to withstand the elements in South Carolina
-
Twelfth Night or What You Will: a 'riotous' late-summer jamboreeThe Week Recommends Robin Belfield's 'carnivalesque' new staging at Shakespeare's Globe is 'joyfully tongue-in-cheek'
