Volume 24, Number 5 · March 31, 1977
Dissatisfactions of Power
By Clive James
The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume I: Minister of Housing, 1964-1966
by Richard Crossman
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 688 pp., $16.95
The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume II: Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, 1966-1968 (to be published in August, 1977, by Holt, Rinehart & Winston)
by Richard Crossman
Jonathan Cape, 851 pp., £9.50
In contrast to the US, which so far has been asked to deal with only one volume of the late R.H. Crossman's Diaries, Great Britain by now finds itself contending with two, comprising more than 1,500 pages of text. Philosophers are divided on the question of whether the narrative therein unfolded is grippingly boring or boringly gripping. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. There is so much detail crammed into these books that it is an act of bravery to pick them up. Once picked up, they are difficult to put down. The reader despairs: haunted by the prospect of missing something, he is nevertheless aware that life is very short. Most Britons who claim to have read Crossman through have not done so, even when they own the volumes—all they did was read the extracts published in the London Sunday Times. Possibly they took the wiser course. But the patient reader will derive more than just self-satisfaction from tackling the whole thing. Part of its gist lies in the apparent irrelevancies. However unsystematically, in these clotted pages the way of life of the British governing class is being laid out before your eyes, even when the diarist thinks he is talking about something else.
Review, 3843 words
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