Exclusive: Inside the uncensored diaries of Britain s most scandalous MP
He loathed Churchill, admired Hitler and thought Wallis Simpson should have been Queen. So who exactly was Sir Henry Chips Channon?
20 February 2021 • 6:00am
More than 60 years after his death, Sir Henry Chips Channon s diaries are being published uncensored for the first time. The serialisation starts in tomorrow s Telegraph
Credit: Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, Sotheby s London / Getty Images
When the diaries of Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon, the Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea and friend and confidant of the titled, rich and famous, first appeared in 1967, they scandalised London society and created a national sensation. Malcolm Muggeridge, a leading television pundit and writer, said in his review that Channon appeared ‘grovellingly sycophantic and snobbish’, pointing to the America-born diarist’s desire to ingratiate himself with the smartest people in England.