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Review
‘Endlessly absorbing… all the letters can be read and reread with such pleasure… scintillating’
A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement
‘His superb instinct for comedy is revealed time and again’
Jonathan Coe, Spectator
‘Fascinating… the camp fire crackles merrily’
George Melly, Sunday Times
‘A big dipper, full of acid drops and high rises, and it doesn’t matter where you start or finish - that’s the joy of it… rarely have I read a collection of letters of such broad scope in terms of their content and the diversity of their recipients’
Barry Cryer, Mail on Sunday
Product Description
Following the bestselling publication of THE KENNETH WILLIAMS DIARIES, the devastating self-portrait of one of our most loved and complex performers is completed with this marvellous selection of his letters.
This is a wonderful treasure trove of correspondence with all manner of people, including Alec Guinness, Maggie Smith, Joe Orton, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and the Stokers’ Mess of HMS Leverton. Kenneth Williams took letters very seriously, and he was always disgusted by a morning that failed to provide him with some material to pore over.
Letters called forth the performer in Williams in a way that his diaries never did: many of them are virtual comic monologues, and in general they suggest more strongly than the diaries the likeable and constructive side of a man who remains, nevertheless, as outrageous and ‘difficult’ as ever.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kenneth was a prolific letter writer, and a great one too. He could talk about endless subjects (religion, homosexuality, acting etc) and make them all sound interesting. Some of the people he communicated with were famous (such as Richard Burton and Stanley Baxter), others were just 'ordinary' people from all around the world.
As you can probably gather from the text above, The Kenneth Williams Letters book is a very varied but interesting read. It's a shame that Kenneth never saw the effect his letters and diary books have had on the public since his tragic death in 1988. He would have been justifiably proud of their success and influence on people in the 21st century, such as me!!
Kenneth took a great deal of care and consideration into these letters, so I hope you will firstly buy this book (and his diaries too) and secondly take in everything he says. Well, almost everything!
Russell Davies edited both the diary and letters books, and he has done a great job on both.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great follow-up to the Diaries but I recommend that you read the Diaries before reading the Letters if you want to know the background to events.
Very good all the same
Very good all the same
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read the Kenneth Williams diaries some time in the late 1990s I was very interested to finally read his letters. I agree with reviewers who say that they are a necessary corrective to the diaries, which tended to express all of Williams' bile and unhappiness with himself and those around him and none of his abundant humour and charm. That said, there is an obvious continuity between the diaries and the letters - I heartily commiserate with those friends of Williams' who were long-suffering and who he more often than not eventually cut out of his life for no apparent reason. But one can also see why they persisted - as he could be hilariously funny, generous, wise, caring, when he was in the right humour. He was a self-loathing gay man who could not come to terms with his natural physical urges and this seems to be at the heart of his deepest troubles. But he was also a gifted actor and racconteur and I clearly remember the first time I saw him in 'Carry On Cleo' being absolutely delighted by his outrageous voice and personality. He is the person I remember best from those films. I would highly recommend these letters as a unique insight into a brilliant and troubled mind. But be sure to read the recently published biography of Williams as well, which manages to explain his contradictory life and personality and a talent that achieved so much but left so much unfulfilled potential at his death in 1988.
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