The Kenneth Williams Diaries

"This is my favourite book of all time. It is the most devastatingly honest account of a person who was clearly a manic depressive. You can trace his mania and depression day-by-day. I don’t think there is a more eloquent account of how that feels. There is something about him I love. He goes out and makes an exhibition of himself. He hates himself for it. There is such self-criticism all the way through—even from very early on. It’s also a study of sexual repression and his sexuality was illegal until 1967. It is a study of how destructive denial can be. “He captures dark moments, failings, inconsistencies and moments of great beauty with wit and spiky honesty.” I think there is something innocent and quite sweet about him that is very youthful. In a way he never leaves his youth and that is part of his appeal. I know there is some graphic stuff in there but no more graphic than anything in my other choices. It isn’t classed as a YA book—but it is a good book to read when you are a teenager. He can be adorable, repugnant, racist, eloquent and self-deprecating. It’s a study of the human mind: the good, the bad, the nasty, the sane, the insane. Which is refreshing as there’s a lot of time spent pretending we are all so nice these days. He captures dark moments, failings, inconsistencies and moments of great beauty with wit and spiky honesty."