Untold Stories

Alan Bennett is one of the great cornerstones of the arts in Britain and to read an autobiography is always going to be interesting and informative. His achievement is all the greater coming from such a humble background and it must have been all the more difficult for him mixing with contemporaries who were mainly upper class ex public school types, and you do detect a hint of bitterness. He does however go into great detail about his family and upbringing leaving no secrets unrevealed. As with all the other sections of the book it's recalled with great insight and humour. Being such a stalwart of English literature I felt compelled to read it and I wasn't disappointed, despite it's huge size. I just wish he would accept the knighthood he richly deserves.

Laughter in the Confessional (13/13 people found this helpful)

If you know Alan Bennett's work through his plays or have enjoyed the memorable collection Writing Home in the 1990's, you might wonder what this current anthology has in store. Well the short answer is that it is the same only different. The customary Bennett humanity, acute observation, keen intelligence and wry humour are much in evidence in the diaries from 1996-2004 included here, and in several of the shorter book reviews and essays. However, it has to be said that this volume like the second set of Talking Heads takes on a much darker hue focussing on issues that the writer has only alluded to before. The first long piece is a detailed account of the mental illness suffered by his mother and aunt and pulls no punches in its depictions of the institutions they attended or the impact this had on the wider family and how their conditions indirectly led to the discovery of a family secret. Similarly, recent years have seen A.B becoming more relaxed about his sexuality and this comes over in the article Written on the Body and contented accounts of domestic bliss with partner Rupert. Then there is an increasing anger in his comments on social and political matters especially his bitter denunciation of the Iraq war. Finally there is his perceptive account of facing a life threatening battle with cancer where the title is instructive of his attitude- An Average Rock Bun. Yet even as the content becomes more hard-edged, the quality of the prose remains as pleasing as ever: Bennett remains the master of the telling phrase, his deployment of vocabulary always apposite. Consequently, we are offered a rounded portrait of this famously secretive man far more illuminating than Alexander Game's empty biography of a few years ago. Above all you will be delighted to know, Bennett is as funny as ever whether he is talking to the local coal merchant: `you're not a patch on your dad' or commenting on the men who changed a tyre in ten minutes: `I feel I want to ask them home so they can take charge of my life'. The key to the genius of Bennett is that so often you smile in recognition at the truth of his observations having seen similar yourself, only he expresses them twice as fluently and with three times the humour.

One of the best books I have read (3/4 people found this helpful)

I was hooked from the first page on this book which is brilliantly written, amazingly honest - almost too honest - and the sort of book that you think about on the way to work.

At times the subject matter of the book verges on the mundane but he has such a way of bringing characters to life in your mind that you would happily read about them watching the grass grow!

You won't regret it, but... (13/19 people found this helpful)

'Untold Stories' was the first book I have read by Alan Bennett, the seemingly ubiquitous Christmas billboard advertising prompting me to make the purchase that I would otherwise have missed. Similarly I have (rather shamefully, in retrospect) neglected to see any of his plays or read any of his other books. Given the heavy advertising budget gone into the publication of this book (by two publishing houses, I note, therefore perhaps double the budget?), I imagined that much of the content in the book would appeal to all generations. Unfortunately, being 50 odd years his junior, I found a lot of the writing 'beyond me' as it were, as so often happens with more senior writers (towards the end of the book Bennett confesses that he does not know how to use the internet, a handicap that to me seems incomprehensible in this day and age, given my lifestyle). To a reader that is unfamiliar with his work, a lot of this book can be disregarded: who wants to read about the background of a play when one has not seen or read the play that is being described? Similarly, myself not a particular aficionado of art, his narrative on paintings was tedious and dreary at times; indeed there were moments I felt that I was ploughing through the text, impatient to reach the last pages. I noted that the front cover of the book there is a rave review quoted from Nigel Slater. It is no surprise, perhaps, that 'Toast' (Slater's autobiography) was similarly complimented in Bennett's diaries, a conicidence that seems somewhat more than accidental.

Despite these substantial complaints, however, I do not regret reading this mammoth autobiography. Bennett's writing is truly a pleasure to read, and his relentless dislike of the press (and in particular Mr. Murdoch, which is duly mentioned several times throughout) is intensely satisfying: I suppose we do have something in common, after all. The closing pages of 'Untold Stories' (the title piece and in my opinion, the best section of this book) does not fail to touch and his narrative detailing the perils of living with cancer and his experience of being 'queer bashed' in Italy shed light on topics that are too often left unstated.

Untold stories, unfinished book (8/11 people found this helpful)

This book won't do anything to tarnish Alan Bennett's reputation as one of Britain's best writers, but it is only this reputation that allows him and his publisher to get away with such a lazy offering.
Bennett thought he was dying of cancer, and this was his way of rounding up his best unpublished work. However, at the time of writing this review Alan Bennett is very much alive, so the reason for rushing this book to press in this format no longer applies. You've got time now Alan. Go back and do the job properly.
The writing, of course, is excellent. The autobiography (or, more accurately, the biography of the Bennett/Peel families) that takes up the first third of the book is fascinating, warm, touching, funny and poignant. But it stops rather abruptly, leaving Bennett set for a dull career in higher education. And yet, a few years later, he is on Broadway. How did that happen?
And in a story that is so closely focused on Bennett's family, his brother Gordon is mentioned so fleetingly that he seems like Trotsky to Alan's Stalin.
Then the book lurches into an interminable section of diaries. Friends who read it all tell me there is some good stuff in there, but there was just too much. Yes, I know Bennett is a master at making the banal fun, but there's a limit. Hire an editor, Alan.
And then there are the lit crits and presentations. They are mostly good, but they miss something when shorn of their contexts. So the pieces on 'The Lady In The Van' or 'The History Boys' don't mean much if you haven't seen the shows. Again, some explanation (or an editor) is required.
The same sloppy approach mars the photos. Several people appear with no explanation of who they are, and they don't appear in the text. Maybe George Fenton and Lyn Wagenknecht are so famous that they don't need any introduction. They certainly don't get any. Yet other characters are described in great detail in the stories, and their appearance is deemed important - so why not show their pictures? Bizarrely, there is a picture of an empty chair in a back garden, labelled simply 'Yorkshire'.
This is not so much one book of untold stories as three incomplete books. Bennett didn't think he would have the time to complete them. Now he has, so he should.

Alan Bennett

Reader Reviews:

Humour and insight (2/3 people found this helpful)

Laughter in the Confessional (13/13 people found this helpful)

One of the best books I have read (3/4 people found this helpful)

You won't regret it, but... (13/19 people found this helpful)

Untold stories, unfinished book (8/11 people found this helpful)

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