The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841954446 ISBN 13: 9781841954448

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

A wide-ranging anthology - laid out, day by day, like a diary - "The Assassin's Cloak" features entries from Pepys, Boswell, Scott, Woolf and Adrian Mole; Kenneth Williams, Brian Eno, Jean Cocteau, Evelyn Waugh and Alan Clark, there are 365 opportunities to combine diarists of a distinctly different hue - from different ages and walks of life, with different tones and agendas. The result is a eclectic and serendipitous gathering that can be read selectively or continuously.

About this title

Review:

"I always say, keep a diary and someday it'll keep you", quipped Mae West, an insight that is wonderfully borne out in Irene and Alan Taylor's The Assassin's Cloak, an anthology of the world's greatest diarists. All of life can be found in this extraordinary compilation of diary entries by 170 of history's most famous (and infamous) diarists, beginning with "the Shakespeare of diarists", Samuel Pepys, and ending with the likes of the more notorious recent diarists, Roy Strong and Alan Clarke. The editors have cleverly arranged the book like a diary--there are entries for every day of the year, leading to fascinating juxtapositions, such as the thoughts of Leo Tolstoy, Queen Victoria and Josef Goebbels on three very different days in April. The selections are wonderfully judged, as they move from the momentous and the revealing--Noel Coward admitting "Gandhi has been assassinated. In my humble opinion, a bloody good thing but far too late"--to the banal and the downright bizarre--Wilhelm Reich claiming "I yearn for a beautiful woman with no sexual anxieties who will just take me! Have inhaled too much orgone radiation". Prepare to be shocked by the comments of those famous diarists you know, and intrigued by those you have never heard of (helpfully covered by short biographies at the end of the book), but more than anything be captivated by the sheer lust for life in all its detail reflected in a book that is clearly a long and arduous labour of love on the part of its authors. The sheer wealth of fascinating material in The Assassin's Cloak is overwhelming, and should be sampled day by day--rather like a diary. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

Gossipy, funny, perceptive and vicious extract. Every dip-in is a sheer delight. -- Kenneth Baker * * Observer * * Brilliant ... It's the perfect bedtime book. * * Evening Standard * * This gives a breath-taking selection from some of the world's greatest diarists throughout the ages ... a treat for browsing or longer sessions. * * Scotland on Sunday * * A sumptous feast. This inspired anthology of diverse diary entries, selected chiefly for their honesty, is relentlessly thought-provoking. * * The Independent * *

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1841954446
• ISBN 13: 9781841954448
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 710
• Editor: Taylor Alan, Taylor Irene