AUDIO: Alan Bennett: Diary From the Pandemic Year

Alan Bennett reads extracts from his diaries from March 2020 to March 2021.
Alan Bennett’s pandemic diary will be published as a signed, numbered London Review Bookshop limited edition at the end of June. Pre-order a copy at: lrb.me/housearrestyt
Read his 2020 diary here: lrb.me/bennett2020yt
Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/adw21W
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The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the world’s best writers to explore a wide variety of subjects in exhilarating detail - from culture and politics to science and technology via history and philosophy. In the age of the long read, the LRB remains the pre-eminent exponent of the intellectual essay, admired around the world for its fearlessness, its range and its elegance.
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[@woofla123]

I decorated his London house many years ago, squeezing past the lady in the van. A lovely man.

[@solcutta3661]

Arguably one of Britains Greatest writers..

[@sbwords]

When ever I need my compass resetting and a bit grounding, half an hour listening to AB does the trick.

[@WhippetOut]

I can’t express how this has made me feel. Just to say, AB is my hero, and to hear his voice again (as a new recording) fills me with love and warmth. Icon.

[@sylviekins]

He is amazing💕

[@jillforsyth6234]

I just love and revere him

[@vic4nic]

Such a talent, one of a kind....Love him.

[@heddybell]

Ditto!

[@4-dman464]

AB is always uplifting, even when addressing worrying concerns. It's his consciousness and personality, and pacing and irony that always enriches.

[@samandpoppythedog719]

Back in my youth never saw the interest in Alan Bennett, then a few years ago I heard him on the radio and thought forking brilliant. Since then brought books of his on both formats as I think nowt can beat a real book, I'm than hooked now that even introduced him to friends and associates who have worked for me within the advocacy and mental health to the extent of giving them the book Keeping On Keeping On.

[@peterfaldon1626]

AB's LRB diary update, my life has become enriched again, thank you so much.

[@londonreviewofbooks]

You're welcome, Peter

[@colinnuttall9579]

Alan Bennett is obviously an icon and literary treasure, well earned. Having been born in Ashton Under Lyne and growing up in Staybridge I was reefed out of this existence at the age of ten to live with my parents in Victoria Australia. Mr Bennett’s soothing, unexcited tones bring much of my family life flooding back to me. Northerners can sound like they are killing each other, but I’ve always found them to be the most gentle people. You just have to gain an ear to them. Oddly enough, having left this life behind, I was determined to lose my northern accent. I liked the radio news announcers voices but fear I have ended up with a curious nowhere accent. I’m not sure why this felt such a shameful thing that I needed to lose it, but I am unashamedly a norther British person. I can only think it was an immaturity on my part. I never really perfected received English and I never fully embraced Australian mannerisms. In my life I have been fortunate to have travelled a lot. It seems to me that wherever I go, I leave something of me behind and have come to understand that I prefer to be considered as a global person. But I will always have a deep love of being English, and everything associated with it. Many years ago, I’m now almost sixty nine years old, I came to understand that lines on a map are divisive and opportunistic. It’s great if you ended up in a country like North America, but unfair if you were born into a sandbox with precious few resources. How one or the other accidents of birth makes you superior or inferior eludes me. I love my English culture but I would be much happier being a global citizen along with everyone else. I’m sure many will think me naive, and perhaps they are right. Life’s journey is a fascinating thing and I consider myself to be fortunate indeed. Australia is my now my home and I love it deeply and feel fortunate to have been able to live here so long, but other parts of me reside elsewhere. To some extent I feel a little torn, perhaps shattered, but in a good way. Following a catastrophic car crash in 1982 I have begun to feel that the universe Is pulverising me back into molecules, stardust, and it alright because I know I belong there too. Who knew that decomposition could be so agreeable ! I am left with ongoing severe pain and we’re it not for that, how who I measure how exquisite my life is. I am grateful for my life and it experiences, it has taught me much but the cost was high. It has ever been thus.

[@clairegardner6211]

I’m so happy that we get another instalment of AB’s diary. I was so disappointed when we didn’t get the audio of 2020 back in January, so this was a lovely surprising gift. Thank you Mr Bennett. Keep safe & well!

[@lorainemcguire5795]

Alan Bennett always a joy to hear his voice

[@gretarobinson1142]

Alan Bennett never disappoints. Thank you!

[@ghughesarch]

300 years from now, this will be seen as being as important as Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year", or Pepys' "Diary".

[@AminTheMystic]

No it won't. You're on fucking KZbin. Everyone iz recording everything.

[@ghughesarch]

@@AminTheMystic *is*

[@AminTheMystic]

@@ghughesarch 's' used for other purposes using ahk.

[@ghughesarch]

@@AminTheMystic silly little person.

[@AminTheMystic]

@@ghughesarch lol! projection.

[@anniegardiner2212]

It’s so lovely to hearAB again - sanity is restored for a moment 🙏🏻

[@kellymaguire7912]

Could listen forever. Chin up , chuck.

[@carolineharwood6464]

Oh how I love how he describes his hands! 🥰

[@johnglenn30csardas]

Wonderful anecdote about the genesis of An Englishman Abroad! And spot on regarding the interlopers in Graham Greene’s writing. All the best to you, Mr. Bennett.

[@vincentedwards6749]

a wonderful kind soul with a humour as dry as the safe room on noah,s Ark. a gift to have lived in his life time thanks ALAN ,love and peace j Vincent Edwards

[@tinabaker4662]

Noah’s ark.

[@vincentedwards6749]

@@tinabaker4662 THANKS TINA I COULD NEVER SPELL LOVE AND PEACE VINCENT

[@TomTom-df9ph]

@@vincentedwards6749 well said Vincent. Pity poor Tina having to make the effort.

[@patsimmons3727]

As always, a joy to listen to. Such a wonderful man.

[@IAmTheGreatestEver]

Always grateful to access the treasure of AB.

[@jimhooper4252]

Thanks thanks and ever thanks ....dear Mr Bennet

[@jimhooper4252]

Mr Bennett !

[@geoffreythorsby151]

I am 3 months older than AB and whilst I don't envy his arthritis I do wish I had his memory. To have such recall and the ability to put it all into our everyday language is a gift beyond measure.

[@dougieb2159]

one word for this wonderful gentlemen: PRICELESS!!

[@lucretia3606]

I have such admiration for AB Fortunes of War excellent!!!!!

[@johnsimpson1387]

Thank you Alan, a joy as always x

[@stephencharlton2024]

Ah what a wonderful start to my Sunday

[@mickdevlin]

The sanest man in the world.

[@lifes2short1000]

Amazingly, it looks like I have stumbled on this on the day it appears to have been uploaded. I never cease to feel joy as well as some strange sense of relief when I read or hear A B talking. Despite me not knowing about some of the literary things he refers to, whatever he says about the stuff I know about just sounds right - "speaks to me", to borrow a Quaker expression. I've experienced this kind of response ever since, as an unsure, conflicted gay teenager living in a Yorkshire mining village I saw the broadcast of his "Me, I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf". PS And I've only just remembered - another coincidence - that the play-reading group I am in has just finished A Private Function.

[@patbnj]

What a comforting voice. What intelligence.

[@divaden47]

Such a great author. My favourite watch Alan Bennett at the BBC and Talking Heads...the original ones not the remakes which weren't great and a waste of time, in my miserable opinion, but glad that Mr Bennett liked them and badly needed funds were raised. :)

[@wendychandler8304]

Dear Mr. Bennett - dear Alan, within a few phrases you have written my physical condition and sorrow; 'Arturitis', reduced mobility and dependence on pain relief. One pharmacist years ago addressed a crowded shop "Where's the gentleman with a bowel complaint?". Many thanks for years of writing and consolation; now I can't read. Wendy.

[@RedcoatsReturn]

The rich genius and brilliant sarcastic humor of the legendary Alan Bennett, the sole survivor of the Beyond The Fringe team of the equally talented Englishman…Moore, Cook and Miller…all gone now…and…what a loss it will be…when…the time comes 😔

[@jamescole5646]

This is what I need! Absolutely amazing, thank you!

[@bluetoad2001]

what a great voice. a brilliant speaker i just listened to Libraries😎👍✅☮️✌️

[@chrissmith8526]

An amazing man wonderful upload many thanks

[@geoffjoffy]

Thanks for uploading.

[@tedar3986]

Wow ❤️❤️❤️ AB! Tysm! Blessings all, Nashville, TN ✌️🙏🏼✝️

[@ghughesarch]

I wonder what the part in Dinnerladies was? (perhaps Duncan Preston's dad, eventually played by Eric Sykes)

[@solcutta3661]

A revisit of talking heads is a exciting prospect..I need Google this..I have the DVD of the 2 originals that has a extra disc of Bennet monologues not unlike this.

[@abigailwilliams6782]

This is good and very funny in some parts

[@brummagemjoe6111]

Why hasn't Alan Bennett received the OM. It's hard to imagine any Brit more deserving.

[@galaxytrio]

A tattoo of Mr. Bennett "also makes for an amusing conversation during intercourse" which suggests "the intercourse might be less than fervent, my name in itself something of a detumescent". OMG. Hilarious!

[@Rosabella33]

Superb!

[@iestynovich]

Oh, thank you!

[@rudyaskitmarley5374]

Wonderful surprise

[@LizzieMc]

Love this guy 💕

[@nickwyatt9498]

Talking of Graham Greene and his vanity... "his frequent rare interviews". Ouch!

[@t.p.mckenna]

Consumption was definitely the scourge of my father's family in Cavan, Ireland. His great grandmother, Sarah Clinton died at the age of 37, shortly after giving birth to her tenth child. So, probably as much exhaustion, as the TB. His father's uncle, Fr. Peter, died of it. Then it afflicted those ten children taking his uncle Nicholas at 16, his Uncle T.P., for whom he was partly named, at 26 in the Argentine where he had sought medical exile, and again his aunt Margaret, aged 30. Later, uncles Justin and Ulick would die about 50 from heart attacks. His aunt Angela, whom he regarded as a his true mother in a complicated two-sides-of-the-one-street setup, successfully survived all the ailments of the time, and lived to be almost 78. Unfortunately, on the way to the post office for her pension, she got to the traffic lights on the fast moving road, thinking they were still in her favour. They'd actually changed just as she stepped and driver making a quick get away, and with the low lying winter sun in his eyes, never saw her and she was run down. Forgive me. I add all that not to make everyone depressed, but AB has me in reflective mood.

[@pegasus9280]

And so we go on.........

[@YOYOKE64]

Just bought writing home .

[@58christiansful]

Always very entertaining and incredibly listenable - but he sounds very frail now. Will there be a 2023 diary?

[@avamaria21]

The grass is emptier now.

[@garthhunt7238]

Talking Heads wouldn’t be much without the actor’s talents; just words on a page, really.

[@stuarthastie6374]

An Englishman abroard cannot be a true story in regards measuring a bespoke suit. Perhaps she sent Guy a couple of shirts. Alan should have done some research.

[@xmaseveeve5259]

TOO QUIET.

[@davidreed9671]

Sad to hear him becoming a miserable old curmudgeon

[@rosemariemann1719]

Many people become a bit (?) grumpy as they age.... Alan's painful and mobility- limiting Arthritis would be enough to make anyone grumpy. I know, because I have it, and it is very dispiriting as it advances relentlessly through the joints, greatly reducing even the meagre quality of life you had before.... 😢💔🇬🇧🌎🤔💕🌿🇬🇧

[@AL_THOMAS_777]

@@rosemariemann1719 🙌 👏 🙏 🤝 👍 such a nice comment . . . and so WELL put . . . "Ageing is NOTHING for cowards, dear Al !" (a nice old lady recently to me )

[@matthewdevereux1288]

I grew up in Guildford. @devereuxmatthew

[@matthewdevereux1288]

And went to the Grammar School...