James Lees-Milne in this volume of his diaries opined that a great diarist ought to go nowhere and know no one. Of course, L-M transcended this dictum and merrily did just the opposite, to the infinite benefit of the reader. Any one L-M diary should be seen as an episode in a long-running non-fiction saga, with real people as characters, and a plot line dictated by the uncertainty of life itself. In this installment, L-M is as just as acutely insighful, but more compassionate than in his earlier diaries, perhaps because of the suffering and loss he himself experiences. His descriptions of the countryside are as masterful and evocative as ever. The vignettes he records are always fascinating and often hilariously revealing. Crisply edited by Michael Bloch. The footnotes are helpful, but often leave out subtexts which only those who know will understand.