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16 December 2016 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7727 / Categories: Features
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Chapter & verse

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Dominic Regan reveals his top tomes

As we near the end of a memorably momentous year, you might just not be up to reading yet another transcript. With that in mind, I suggest a few books of a non-legal nature that might appeal.

Dear diaries

My favourite read of the year has been Keeping On Keeping On by Alan Bennett. The best and opening segment is his diaries which cover 2005-15. Whatever your political stance, I defy anyone to be unimpressed by the clarity and passion of his writing. He combines grand trips to New York with outings to churches in the wilds of England, packing his own sandwiches for the latter. The remainder of the book is a cupboard of pieces that he has written.

If you enjoy diaries then the waspish Sir Roy Strong, who manages to sneer at the Royal Family and pretty much everyone else he mentions, has just published Scenes and Apparitions , covering 1988-2003. Still available although published long ago, are the diaries of Kenneth Williams and Joe Orton. The

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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