Here’s what Chips was up to in 1942.
“Thursday 18th June 1942
A peaceful day and I neglected my parliamentary duties …”
Here’s what Maud Russell was doing on the same day.
“Today I lunched with Alice. Gerald Berners and Chips Channon there. His talk was rather pro the men who attack the PM. I know he, Channon, is the sort of man who would ‘collaborate’ without a pang. He is the lounge-lizard type.”
Chips does not mention Maud Russell in his diaries, at least in Vol II; I’m too lazy to go upstairs to check Vol I and Vol III has not been published. He might have been surprised that Maud was also a diarist, published in 2017: A Constant Heart, The War Diaries of Maud Russell, 1938 – 1945.
John Julius Norwich’s Foreword is a reminder of his inimitable, light touch.
”It (Mottisfont) was always popular with pilgrims to Winchester, since it was fortunate enough to possess the little finger of John the Baptist … What remains clearly in my mind is the fact that the beds were all carefully turned down after lunch to allow for an hour’s siesta.”
“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.” (Holden Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger) It’s Groundhog Day all over again – seeing the last century through diaries.