The Kenneth Williams Diaries

Product Information

The book also boasts the first in-depth interview with Scottish comic Stanley Baxter about his lifelong friendship with Kenneth Williams, plus many never-before-seen photos from Williams' personal collection. Diary Of A Madman". Britishcomedy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013 . Retrieved 28 June 2014.

Kenneth was brilliant, gifted, and vulnerable. I felt guilty about his death because I knew that I was one (of several) of his friends who had given up on him. He was very demanding and we didn’t have the time or the patience for our old chum. One airmail letter sent to Italy by a depressed Williams after he dropped out of a holiday with them is typically revealing: "Living with someone always means a denial of self in SOME way and I suppose I have always known it was something I couldn't accomplish. So I've always stayed on the sidelines. Getting the pleasure vicariously. It's not wholly satisfactory, but then of course no lives are, and you know what I think about indiscriminate sex and promiscuous trade. I think it's the beginning of a long, long road to despair." Stevens, Christopher (2011). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. London: John Murray. pp.7–9. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5. Written by journalist Christopher Stevens, the new book - Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams - is the first authorised biography of the star, and the first to be allowed full access to the actor's estate, including five million words of diaries and many hundreds of letters. With such unprecedented access to authoritative material on Williams, the book is set to make a number of new claims.He was ready to lend tacit support to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality - he told me he had been to a couple of their meetings - but he wasn’t interested in ‘gay rights’, just ‘the allieviation of suffering’. ‘The sex urge is just an animal instinct,’ he used to say, ‘the bit left over in us from the apes. It is the human heart we should be concerned with, and its intense vulnerability.’

The Lyulph Stanley Boys' Central Council School". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 . Retrieved 9 June 2018. Kenneth Williams: The greatest diarist since Pepys?". The Daily Telegraph. 6 December 2015. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 28 June 2017. a b "Kenneth Williams | Home of British Films". Britmovie. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014 . Retrieved 28 June 2014. Their relationship was so close that it was really Kenneth's only long-lasting love affair – he adored Tom, and admired his education, but they were never physically intimate," says Stevens. "But as a threesome they partied, dined, promenaded, and raved it up in Tangier." Other fascinating revelations made in the book concern Williams' private life. It reports on the actor's long-lasting relationship with Tom Waine, who was an Oxford University student in the 1960s when they first met. Although their relationship does not appear to have been sexual - Waine's partner was a postman, Clive Dennis - Williams is said to have been deeply in love with Tom. The three formed somewhat of a love triangle, spending great amounts of time together, holidaying in Tangier, and becoming close to each other's families. Both Tom and Clive were interviewed extensively for Born Brilliant, and shared their own diaries, letters, and photographs.

About Me

index". johnmurray.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011 . Retrieved 22 September 2014. Williams, Kenneth (1993). Davies, Russell (ed.). The Kenneth Williams Diaries. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780007291922. Williams, Kenneth (1995). The Kenneth Williams letters. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-638092-4 . Retrieved 23 February 2023. Anyway, my mother was a Morgan, and my father was a Williams, so I suppose the ancestry can be said to be Welsh. But I don't like nationalism. The very IDEA of devolution is mad. I don't even like the sound of the Welsh language, and I think their insistence on retaining it is barmy. All those signs to be re-written! can you imagine? :243 Stevens's interviews with the two men, who have never sought publicity, have been a key element of his research. The varied extremes of their shared social life, from glamorous parties with famous names such as Rudolf Nureyev and Williams's good friend, the playwright Joe Orton, to quiet evenings of Scrabble at their north London home, have answered many questions about the private life of this lonely star. While Williams was clearly attracted to Waine, the friendship remained platonic. That he died a burden and a disappointment to himself is both sad and wrong, because here we are, thirty years after his death, and for many he seems as potent a presence as ever. The books, the tapes, the Carry Ons, we buy, we listen, we watch them still. That extraordinary voice continues to resonate, one of the most distinctive English sounds of our time.If you can do it (and it’s a tough one to imitate: Frankie Howerd is so much easier), there’s money to be earned in the voice-over market as a Kenneth Williams sound-alike. Ever since he died, actors (most of whom never knew him) have been appearing in stage shows and TV dramas impersonating him. ‘I’m a cult,’ he used to scream, ‘a cult, d’you hear?’ eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring. Well, yes, he sort of is.

Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1-848-54460-4. Over the years Williams wrote to the couple, who still live together, on around 150 occasions, and all his notes and letters have been preserved. BFI Screenonline: Williams, Kenneth (1926–1988) Biography". Screenonline.org.uk . Retrieved 30 June 2014.A new biography of comedy star Kenneth Williams to be released in October will make a number of new claims regarding the actor and his family. As erudite as he was rude, Kenneth Williams is now remembered as the author of a bleak and illuminating diary and not just for his saucy anecdotes and Carry On films. But as a new authorised biography reveals, the outrageous performer and raconteur had melancholy secrets that are only now emerging.

There are also several recordings of Round the Horne [57] and Just a Minute that include Williams. [58] Books [ edit ]Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. WILLIAMS, KENNETH (1926–1988)". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014 . Retrieved 4 May 2014. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Freeland, Michael (1993). Kenneth Williams: A Biography. Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. ISBN 978-0297812258.