Keeping On Keeping On

"In this, Alan Bennett’s third volume of nonfiction prose, the British screenwriter/playwright/cultural institution proves as wry, self-deprecating and fabulously fusty as ever. In excerpts from diaries kept between 2005 and 2015, he tuts and clucks at the Tories, deplores garish new architecture and gets miffed at hearing himself described as “twee” – only to follow that entry with this one: “On Saturday we blackberry up Crummock Lane.” And later, “I’ve taken to eating the occasional date, though it’s not a fruit I wholly like.” Bennett’s fully aware of his charming tea-cosy of a writerly persona, making Keeping On Keeping On the perfect book to curl up with as the nights get longer, and colder. “One does try not to be an Old Git,” he sighs, “but they don’t make it easy.”"