House Arrest

The dyspeptic Pepys from Yorkshire, Alan Bennett, master of the "absurd and inexplicable" moments of ordinary life, offers up a curation of his thoughts, diaries and essays of the pandemic years that makes for a digestible stocking filler ... his thoughts and writing are as clear-eyed and vigorous as ever * Times Best Biography and Memoir Books of 2022 *
From the singular pen of the incomparable Alan Bennett comes a drily witty and endlessly charming diary of life in and out of lockdown, running the gamut from park bench encounters to haircuts to Boris Johnson * Waterstones Best Books of 2022: Biography *
Sparklingly sardonic ... There really is no one like Bennett, as this small gem demonstrates -- Martin Chilton * Independent *
Filled with elegiac memories and literary gossip ... a major National Treasure -- Lynn Barber * Telegraph *
Mournful and witty ... Bennett at his best -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail *
I worship Alan Bennett -- David Sedaris
His stories improve with each telling ... Perhaps it is Bennett's long experience as a dramatist that lends his prose such perfect timing -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
Our greatest living writer -- Clive Davis * The Times *
He still has the sharpest pen in Britain ... Bennett is at his best when flirting with indecency ... mesmerising and unbearably sad * Daily Telegraph *
There is no other writer, certainly none from any other era or nation, quite like Alan Bennett -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *
Cleverer and funnier than any one person has a right to be -- John Carey * Sunday Times *
His writing remains as deft and seamless as ever -- Kathryn Hughes * The Guardian *
Vivid and evocative in the way we've come to expect from him ... the diaries of the inimitable Alan Bennett are always highly anticipated -- Alastair Mabbot * The Herald *
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 *