There has never been another American interloper quite like Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon, who married a Guinness heiress and became both an MP and the darling of London society.
But perhaps even Channon would have been astonished that his Diaries — now published in unexpurgated form for the first time — would inspire frenzied debate more than eight decades after he wrote them.
One entry — for November 19, 1936 — is generating particular excitement. This now records not just that 'tiaras nodded [and] diamonds sparkled' at the dinner party Channon and his wife held for Edward VIII at their house in London's Belgravia, but also the King's startlingly modern turn of phrase when, after dinner, he announced that he needed to relieve himself.