House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries

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Our need for ritual is primordial, and embracing its logic can help us connect, find meaning and discover who we are. Bennett’s House Arrest, covering the Lockdown and Vaccination years, is little more than an Epilogue at a mere 49 pages – a bit longer than a Talking Heads monologue. He made his first stage appearance with Beyond the Fringe and his latest play was The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. Sadly, not much insight from these entries into how the pandemic affected him or much on his views of the effects of the various measures on friends, neighbours and the general population - which I expected when originally obtaining this book.

So, my 4* rating reflects how good these 45 pages of musings were but don't reflect my disappointment! House Arrest - Pandemic Diaries' (2022) - is a very lovely, although very short (coming in at less than 50 pages) collection taken from Alan Bennett's diaries of the time. The entries begin on 24 February 2020, with the diarist chipper about the unlikelihood of the new virus in Milan having much effect on London living, and chunter on to the autumn of 2021 when the crisis appears to be in the rearview mirror (we know, although he does not, that Omicron is lurking in the wings).

Generally, I worship at the altar of Alan Bennett but this very slight volume was a big disappointment.

His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of King George Ill (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George) and an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Disappointed overall compared to much of the author's other work, which I have generally enjoyed - 4/10. The fact that Her Majesty could probably not manage this today is a reminder of how swiftly treacherous advanced old age can be. Using words such as 'lovely' and 'charming' here to describe'House Arrest', could make Bennett's book sound trite or suggest that it somehow lacks depth, but it is neither of the things and as with everything from Alan Bennett - well worth your time. He makes his ideas and success sound like mere chance, or perhaps through being with the right people at them right time.The book is his personal diary of his time during the lockdown, and he seems to have survived it splendidly.

I spent a pleasant half hour reading this but it's not as jaunty as his diaries have been in the past and the constraints of the pandemic and ageing mean that much of his reflection now relates to past rather than present encounters.

His 2009 play, The Habit of Art , received glowing reviews and was broadcast live the following year by National Theatre Live. HMQ pictured in the paper at an investiture wearing gloves, presumably as a precaution against Coronavirus. Christmas is just around the corner, but DON’T PANIC: we’re here to provide you with the ultimate festive gifting inspiration, and remind you that books are certainly the easiest presents to wrap…! On Broadway, The History Boys won five New York Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics' Circle Awards, a New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Play, a New York Drama League Award and six Tonys including Best Play.

Our national treasure at work during the pandemic – sharing his everyday thoughts, alongside his increasing physical infirmities, in his own inimitable way.

Where this tortured restraint does not reach, though, is into Bennett’s ethical worldview which remain as richly communitarian as ever. Discover your next non-fiction read and brilliant book gifts in the Profile newsletter, and find books to help you live well with Souvenir Press. Bought today and have no idea when this was published but it feels just like sitting with Alan Bennett for a chat. I hope they're not the thin end of a precautionary wedge lest Her Majesty end up swathed in protective get-up such as is worn at the average crime scene. While Mr Bennett is never less than readable, this very slight volume is the length of a magazine article and really nothing more than an erudite version of anyone's lockdown experience.