Book Synopsis'I seem to have banged on this year rather more than usual. I make no apology for that, nor am I nervous that it will it make a jot of difference. I shall still be thought to be kindly, cosy and essentially harmless. I am in the pigeon-hole marked 'no threat' and did I stab Judi Dench with a pitchfork I should still be a teddy bear.' Alan Bennett's third collection of prose Keeping On Keeping On follows in the footsteps of the phenomenally successful Writing Home and Untold Stories, each published ten years apart. This latest collection contains Bennett's peerless diaries 2005 to 2015, reflecting on a decade that saw four premieres at the National Theatre (The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks), a West End double-bill transfer, and the films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van. There's a provocative sermon on private education given before the University at King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and 'Baffled at a Bookcase' offers a passionate defence of the public library. This is an engaging, humane, sharp, funny and unforgettable record of life according to the inimitable Alan Bennett.Trade ReviewCleverer and funnier than any one person has a right to be. -- John Carey * Sunday Times *Our most subversive playwright... and able to make the world dance with a single word. On every page there is a phrase to make you smile, poetry disguised as comedy. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *Fire lit. Hot, thick toast. Coffee. Reading the inimitable Mr Bennett. Happiness. -- Nigel SlaterConfirms his reputation as one of the sharpest and funniest writers in the English language. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * Spectator *Our greatest living writer. -- Roger Lewis * The Times *Screamingly funny. -- Observer * Miranda Sawyer *An endlessly rewarding read by a man for all seasons and one who occupies a unique place in our culture and affections -- Liz Thomson * The Arts Desk *Few diarists could offer such a consistently funny and touching authorial voice as Bennett. Long may he keep on keeping on. -- Ben Lawrence * Daily Telegraph *There is no other writer, certainly none from any other era or nation, quite like Alan Bennett, and having this much more of his work is an uncovenanted blessing. -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *There is not a dull or uninteresting page here ... teddy bear he may be but he has a tiger's teeth * The Herald *This latest anthology of diaries and essays is a beautiful, humane and honest collection of reflections -- Rachel ReevesEvery piece here conveys the sense of an idiosyncratic and cussed mind, alive and open to the world -- Joe Moran * Guardian *The literary equivalent of a warm cup of Horlicks spiked lavishly with whisky * Metro, Books of the Year 2016 *[A] lavish miscellany ... appreciative, nostalgic and also hugely funny. * Prospect *'Alan Bennett, with his combination of pitiless observation and gentle understatement, is perhaps the best-loved of English writers alive today * Sunday Telegraph *Intelligent, educated, engaging, humane, self-aware, cantankerous and irresistibly funny -- John Carey * Sunday Times *Alan Bennett's work, which stands as one of the major achievements across several genres in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, demands the very best of us: not our praise but our attention. -- Ian Samson * TLS *
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