Product Description

INTO POLITICS begins in 1973 with Clark's selection as Tory candidate for Nancy Astor's old seat in Plymouth (rival candidates included future Conservative luminaries Michael Howard and Norman Fowler). Alan Clark describes his election to the Commons in the 1974 general election; his years as a backbencher coincide with Edward Heath as PM, his downfall and the arrival of Margaret Thatcher. This volume ends with the inside story of the Falklands War. In his private life Alan and his wife Jane and their two young sons take over Saltwood Castle, previously the home of his father Kenneth (Civilisation) Clark. His enthusiasms for the estate, skiing, fast cars and girls are never far away.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192306 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Following the public devouring of Alan Clark's Diaries, the "long-awaited" second helping takes the form of a posthumous prequel, covering 1972 to 1982, the formative years of this idiosyncratic political wag. And what do we discover? Blithely racist, he considers standing for the National Front, and writes that "I'm the nearest thing they're likely to get to an MP". He professes belief in National Socialism, is vehemently anti-European, and thrills to the sight of "fair-haired children" waiting outside school for their mums when he visits the Falklands in 1982. Indeed, blondes dominate his vision: his lecherous eye is everywhere, even propositioning in the Commons' public gallery, while his wife Jane stoically picks up the pieces.

After the first volume, some flatteringly spoke of Clark as a diarist to rival Samuel Pepys or Sir Henry "Chips" Channon. This time, the comparison begged is with Adrian Mole. A melancholic first half details an interminable string of losses at backgammon, neurosis over ageing, perpetual hypochondria, as well as quite affecting parental concerns. Politics remains a sideline, even when elected as an MP in 1974. It's only when the Conservatives come to power in 1979 under Margaret "The Lady" Thatcher (who reminds Clark of his mother), that the tone settles and becomes familiarly expansive, perhaps with an awareness of a future audience. Despite his hatred of his Plymouth constituency--such a pain--he revels in Commons clubbability, developing heroes such as Enoch Powell, chums such as Jonathan Aitken, and adversaries such as the "odious" Michael Heseltine, or that "butterball", Ken Clarke. The Falklands War is greeted as a personal triumph, albeit from the backbenches, but he does well to remind us how unpopular the Government was prior to it, and the lifeline it gave to Thatcher. Moving with caddish bounds from obsequious simpering to bovver-boy arrogance, Clark longed for immortality, and in a peculiar way he has found it: as a charmingly solipsistic narcissist, whose irreverence continues to tickle a British funny bone. However, as the mists of time descend, and the footnotes lengthen, perhaps future generations will wonder at such dubious charm, and our more dubious fascination with Clark's rakish progress. --David Vincent This review refers to the hardcover edition of this title.

Review
We have given this a press date of 24 July. We will get paperback review coverage and Ion will be doing interviews. Jane and Ion are doing an event at the Winchester Festival on 10 July. More news in the next bulletin.

About the Author
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 teh BBC with John Hurt as Clark and Jenny Agutter as Jane Clark. Alan Clark died in 1999. Ion Trewin is a London publisher. Originally a journalist, he was Literary Editor of The Times 1972-79. He was Alan Clark's editor and publisher for the original 'Diaries' and following his death edited two further volumes of the celebrated diaries. In 2008 he edited and introduced THE HUGO YOUNG PAPERS: Thirty Years of British Politics Off the Record (Allen Lane) which won the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award 2009. Married with a son who is a literary agent and a daughter who is a teacher, he has since 2006 been literary director of the Man Booker prizes. He was chairman of the Cheltenham Literature Festival 1996-2007.

Customer Reviews

Amusing and revealing
This second installment of Alan Clark's diaries, covering the period before he joined Mrs Thatcher's government, is every bit as enjoyable and irreverent as the earlier volume. We see Clark, recently removed to Saltwood Castle, begin his political career beset by worries: money, women, hypochondria, the well being of his sons, his car collection, his losses at backgammon, the decline of the nation. By the end of the diaries, all these worries are (momentarily) cast aside as the Falklands War is won and Clark seems destined to take his place in the Cabinet. As befits an accomplished military hstorian, Clark writes with precision and feeling: his descriptions of colleagues and opponents are among the high points in the diaries and, with the benefit of hindsight, have proved to be remarkably prescient.

Not only are the diaries amusing but they also provide a revealing insight into the political process - in the age of the professional politician the lack of talent, of which Clark cannot be accused, is no bar to the road to the top. At times, Clark seems to be genuinely surprised that his own inate talents have not taken him further sooner. More particularly, the dairies tell us much about the Tory party. It is surprising how soon after the 1979 election the party in Parliament began to have doubts about its leader, a feature mirrored, albeit much sooner, after the 1992 election. In this regard, these diaries should be read in conjunction with Gyles Brandreth's "Breaking the Code", the diaries for the period he spent as a Tory M.P. between 1992 and 1997. Although the styles are different, together the books cast a revealing light on party politics and help to explain, but do not excuse, the gap between the electorate and their elected representatives.

Alan Clark - Acerbic, Hypochondriac, Lecherous, Lazy, Shocking, Nationalist, Odious, Philanderer BUT Extremely Likeable!
Alan has been described as the diarist of his century. I disagree with that opinion. Surely, Alan Clark is the diarist of his millennia! I've read Boswell, Pepys, Dorothy Wordsworth, et al, and as outstanding as these were, none can hold a candle to Clark's ability to capture the moment. As for the man himself, you could not invent him if you tried!

I am often nonpluss to find copies of Alan's diaries so readily available for purchase online. I would have thought by now that the secret was out about Alan's unique and irrepeatable tome and all copies of his diaries present and future are sold out!

Perhaps at last, here is the "Great White Hope" that boxing never quite delivered. Acerbic, hurtful, hypochondriac, lecherous, lazy, shocking, nationalist, odious, philanderer, intolerable BUT equally extremely lovable, intellectual, likeable, original, fresh, interesting, affable, utterly human, devastatingly infectious and a national treasure worthy of a statue in Soho! If I have one regret, it is that Alan Clark did not live long enough to help Boris Johnson pen his diaries!

At once, Alan is utterly repellent and utterly butterly! He loved, adored and often worried about his boys James and Andrew and he was so utterly loving and devoted to Jane - but only God knows how he managed that! I secretly quite like him, adore him even and his writing I love - despite his impossible ways. I am sure my poor mother (RIP) would regret ever bringing me up for saying so. And having just admitted that, never again will I be embarrassed for fancying Diana Rigg in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"!.

Reading his diary and knowing he was real does not detract one bit that it would be impossible to invent Alan - he's that unbelievable! Once asked by John Pilger, the Australian journalist - "I read that you were a vegetarian and you are seriously concerned about the way animals are killed. Doesn't that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners are killed?" Answered Clark with characteristic frankness, "Curiously not, no." On the troubles in Northern Ireland, Clark's view was as frank as they were odious: "I concluded that the only solution is to arm the Orangemen - to the teeth - and get out." And on Christmas carol service: "I only can properly enjoy carol services if I am having an illicit affair with someone in the congregation. Why is this? Perhaps because they are essentially pagan, not Christian, celebrations." And of course, a professional cad, to date, he is the only Member of Parliament to have been accused of being drunk at the despatch box! And Alan Clark's Nazi and racist tendencies are well documented in his diaries. He referred to the courtrie of Jewish ministers in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet as "Jew Boys" not to mention Alan Clark's suggestion that immigrants ought to be sent back to "Bongo-Bongo Land"!

As one who came from Bongo-Bongo Land to "This England!"; I found Alan and his diaries irresistible, refreshing and instantly likeable, but odiously so! If that sounds ambivalent, that is because that was the nature of the man himself. However, my ambivalence does not extend to his writing because I cannot heap enough praise on Alan Clark's Diaries (all three volumes). They are without a doubt, the work of a master diarist at the top of his game who is by far the Greatest English diarist of all time!

Yemmi Agbebi - Manchester, UK

Diaries:into Politics
Strangely enough, I started my Clark diary experience with this one and have since read "In power" which, I think, most people have read first. I am glad I started with this one, as I have now been able to read, in chronological order, the history of Alan Clark. Although I am a political fanatic, it is the non-political aspects which I love about this book. Most political people do not have much of a "hinterland" outside politics but I find Clark's diversions into other fields very interesting: His love of cars, his great knowledge of running large houses, his love of wine, his love of travel (beautiful heartfelt descriptions of many parts of the country), furniture, books, history etc etc. It is also his wicked sense of humour which keeps me reading him. I was most amused by his description of some poor vice-chairman of a Tory constituency party as "literally spastic". I am sure it was not true and I feel sorry for the object of his ire, but between me and the pages I found the exasperation of Clark behind that remark very funny. There is an interesting sub text throughout the book. Clark is obsessed with his looks and the passage of time. He also laments time wasted in meetings, on the train to Plymouth etc and identifies better things he could be doing (like enjoying his castle and its grounds). On balance one is left with the question: is politics really worth turning one's back on all the good things in life?