Chips' channon cause of death

Channon family
Paul channon
Henry channon

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'An utterly addictive glimpse of London high society and politics in the 40s and 50s.' Robert Harris

'An instant classic . . . quite simply the greatest social and political diaries of the 20th century.' Daily Telegraph

'Rich, exuberant, copious and shatteringly honest.' Spectator

'A scurrilous read. Fascinating. Gripping!' Alan Titchmarsh

'Chips writes with such vividness that one feels one is living each day in his exalted company.' The Oldie
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The political career of Conservative MP Henry ‘Chips’ Channon (1897–1958) was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Witty, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and knew everyone.

This third and final volume begins as the Second World war is turning in the Allies’ favour. It closes with Chips slowly descending into poor health but striving to remain socially active. En route, we see him assiduously record the tribulations of both Labour and Conservative governments in parliament, gossip about the private lives of the great and the good, and

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Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) : 1918-38 by Chips Channon (Paperback)

ISBN: 9781529159318

Born in Chicago in 1897, ‘Chips’ Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite.

Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. Whether describing the antics of London society in the interwar years, or the growing scandal surrounding his close friends Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the abdication crisis, or the mood in the House of Commons in the lead up to the Munich crisis, his sense of drama and his eye for the telling detail are unmatched. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life.

A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, sixty years after Chips’s death, can an extensive text be share

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Spartacus Educational

Primary Sources

(1) Henry 'Chips' Channon,diary entry (5th April, 1935)

A full, exhausting day. We had a luncheon party here, and the plot was to do a 'politesse' to Mrs Simpson. She is a jolly, plain, intelligent, quiet, unpretentious and unprepossessing little woman, but as I wrote to Paul of Yugoslavia today, she has already the air of a personage who walks into a room as though she almost expected to be curtsied to. At least, she wouldn't be too surprised. She has complete power over the Prince of Wales, who is trying to launch her socially.

(2) Henry 'Chips' Channon, diary entry (30th July, 1935)

I am bored by this Italian-Abyssinian dispute, and really I fail to see why we should interfere. Though, of course, the League of Nations will stand or fall by it. But I am a little uneasy that the destinies of countless of millions should be in the exquisite hands of Anthony Eden, for whom I have affection, even admiration - but not blind respect. Why should England fight Italy over Abyssinia, when most of our far flung Empir