In the original dustsheet. Green cloth binding with silver title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

           A good edition worthy of the best private library

AINTO POLITICS begins in 1973 with Clark¿s selection as Tory candidate for Nancy Astor¿s old seat in Plymouth (rival candidates included future Conservative luminaries Michael Howard and Norman Fowler). Alan Clark describes his election to the Commons in the 1974 general election; his years as a backbencher coincide with Edward Heath as PM, his downfall and the arrival of Margaret Thatcher. This volume ends with the inside story of the Falklands War. In his private life Alan and his wife Jane and their two young sons take over Saltwood Castle, previously the home of his father Kenneth (Civilisation) Clark. His enthusiasm for the estate, skiing, fast cars and girls are never far away.

Review: This is quite simply one of my favourite books. Although I am interested in politics I don’t think you would have to be to enjoy the book. The diaries are honest and so obviously not written with the intention of being published. Just reading the words of someone with a command of the English language is a joy. It would not have mattered what Clark’s career was, reading his diaries on any career would have the reader gripped. I can pick the book up anytime and re-read any page and smile at his views on life, love and those around him. I think he is a one off, he would think of me as ‘one of the ugly common people’ but I knew what he meant! All the other Diaries are good too, but this is the best.

Clark appearing on Opinions in 1993

Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher’s governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade and Defence. He became a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1991.

He was the author of several books of military history, including his controversial work The Donkeys (1961), which inspired the musical satire Oh, What a Lovely War!

Clark became known for his flamboyance, wit, irreverence and keen support of animal rights. Norman Lamont called him “the most politically incorrect, outspoken, iconoclastic and reckless politician of our times”. His three-volume Alan Clark Diaries contains a candid account of political life under Thatcher and a moving description of the weeks preceding his death, which he continued to write until he could no longer focus on the page.