The best British political diaries

TWO OF THE most entertaining British political diarists of recent times, Gyles Brandreth and Alan Clark, both Conservative MPs, once sat down in the House of Commons tearoom to draw up a list of ingredients essential for a compelling political diary. They called the rules they came up with the “four I’s”. A journal should be immediate—no rewriting history at a later date. It must be indiscreet; nothing is duller than a diary that dutifully keeps secrets. It should be intimate, exposing the diarist’s quirks and habits to foster a close relationship with the reader. Finally it should be made indecipherable to the diarist’s contemporaries, perhaps with bad handwriting or codenames. Let posterity enjoy its indiscretions.