House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries

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However, the book really was too short to obtain a good idea of the author's thoughts during the lockdown periods. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. TheNotebook by Roland Allen is a gorgeously illustrated cultural history of the humble notebook, from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers. Until, that is, the horrible thought strikes him that it must look as if he is acknowledging the applause, perhaps even trying to generate it himself. Now eighty-six and arthritic, he has swapped his bicycle for a wheelchair, but he gave us two new monologues for the revamp of Talking Heads in 2020 – the royalties from which he donated to NHS charities.

He may clearly be increasingly frail but, even in lockdown, Alan Bennett retains his customary waspish wit in the latest tranche of his diaries ― Choice --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Some really touching and poignant moments in here; a few bits that stand out are when Bennett has a small interaction with a stranger sweeping the street that “makes his morning” (such interactions being rare at that point), a footnote in a poem in LRB triggering a vivid childhood memory from 1941 (genuinely fascinating and one of my favourite things is when a tiny snippet evokes mass nostalgia), and when he struggles to explain how his glasses have broken to an optician because of the lack of speaking he’s done to other people during 2020 (definitely remember making some pretty awful blunders for a good few months until I worked out how to socialise again). and talking completely gibberish on the telephone havingly seemingly lost my ability to construct a sentence.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Later, arriving at the vaccination centre for his first jab, Bennett firmly announces that he is here “for the virus” (in his defence, he points out that both of them are “v words”). As always, I found Alan Bennett's writing style and social observations delightful, poignant and amusing but the book is so short that I felt a real sense of disappointment when I reached the end of his reflections, leaving me with a feeling of having been 'cheated'! Felt like a contractual obligation was being fulfilled with this very slight and disjointed melange.

It’s a short read, but probably no shorter than any of his previous diaries over a 12 month period, in Writing Home, Untold Stories and Keeping On Keeping On, especially when he was under ‘house arrest’. House Arrest - Pandemic Diaries' (2022) - is a very lovely, although very short (coming in at less than 50 pages) collection taken from Alan Bennett's diaries of the time. On Broadway, The History Boys won five New York Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics' Circle Awards, a New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Play, a New York Drama League Award and six Tonys including Best Play.Using words such as 'lovely' and 'charming' here to describe'House Arrest', could make Bennett's book sound trite or suggest that it somehow lacks depth, but it is neither of the things and as with everything from Alan Bennett - well worth your time. It's a very short selection, so easily readable in one sitting but none the less entertaining for that. Sadly, not much insight from these entries into how the pandemic affected him or much on his views of the effects of the various measures on friends, neighbours and the general population - which I expected when originally obtaining this book. Bennett’s House Arrest, covering the Lockdown and Vaccination years, is little more than an Epilogue at a mere 49 pages – a bit longer than a Talking Heads monologue. A fair few random memories thrown in from Alan's childhood with no context to the current era in which he is writing.

Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bought today and have no idea when this was published but it feels just like sitting with Alan Bennett for a chat. Less than 50 pages of nothing, there are a handful of snippets which appear to be going somewhere but immediately are snuffed out. Where this tortured restraint does not reach, though, is into Bennett’s ethical worldview which remain as richly communitarian as ever. I very much identified with his recollection of the loss of his conversational powers whilst trying to book a routine appointment after lockdown and having to hand the phone over to his partner, Rupert, who that bit younger and having kept up his conversational skills working from home on zoom, completed the task.On the phone to the optician about his broken glasses, he finds that he has lost the words, and his partner has to take over. The news that the cast and crew of the new Talking Heads series have agreed to take only a nominal fee and donate the profits to the NHS gives him a rare rush of pleasure in a world dominated by the bleak economics of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

Boris Johnson’s nightly addresses during the Pandemic are “ pretty pointless… a poor orator and speaker generally… the plainness of Keir Starmer a relief. Alan Bennett has been one of our leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. Contemplating the current regime of hand-washing and elbow-bumping pitches him straight back to the 1940s when the unfortunate family next door succumb to TB. In November 2020 he notices that the Queen, nearly 10 years his senior, is able to walk backwards when laying a wreath at the Cenotaph. Disappointed overall compared to much of the author's other work, which I have generally enjoyed - 4/10.He recounts a telling anecdote from 1941 in which the whole family went on a Sunday fishing expedition in the country.