In the original dust jacket. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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Critic Kenneth Tynan, the impresario who created “Oh Calcutta”, was also an eccentric and connoisseur of cuisine, wine, literature and women. His diaries record a judicious blend of aesthetics, theatre lore, love, marriage, sex and politics.

Review: Irreverent, indiscreet, wildly funny, sad, shocking and inspiring, the legendary diaries of Kenneth Tynan are above all compelling literature. For over three decades, on both sides of the Atlantic, Tynan was at the hot centre of the theatre and film worlds. He knew everybody; and everybody wanted to know him. His diaries – so resplendent with griefs and gossip – bear superb witness to the fame he courted and the price he paid for it. He was a notorious eccentric, a louche sophisticate: connoisseur of cuisine, wine, literature and women. Where else could you find such a judicious blend of aesthetics, theatre lore, love, marriage, sex and politics? These sizzling diaries will remind older readers of a man whose reputation as one of the greatest critics of the twentieth century is still unchallenged and introduce younger readers to an electrifying writer who simply could not be boring.

Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at The Observer, he praised John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave of British theatrical talent. In 1963 Tynan was appointed the new National Theatre Company’s literary manager.

An opponent of theatre censorship, he was one of the earliest people to say “fuck” on British television, during a live 1965 broadcast, despite a common misconception that he was the first. Later in life he settled in California, where he resumed his writing career.