Diaries Of Henry “Chips” Channon: 1938-1943
Channon, a Chicagoan, went to France during the First World War to drive ambulances. He didn’t much like ambulances, but he enjoyed helping out at the embassy and loved meeting lots of important people. They told him to go to Oxford to meet important people after the War. He did. His roommate was Paul of Yugoslavia.
Channon begins this second volume of his diaries at the Foreign Office, where he works tirelessly for appeasement. Once Churchill settles in, Chips is out; all he has left to do is hang out with all London society. He has elaborate lunch and dinner parties, nearly every day. He was immensely rich.
He was gay, and that shapes his view of people, but isn’t very reflective. He was a ghastly anti-semite, but as the years pass it begins to dawn on him that anti-semitism is not quite the thing. He reads, but he doesn't talk about it. It’s a fascinating document, even if Chips sometimes stays too long.