Like many others in 1930s Britain, Henry Channon was terrified of communism and thought Hitler was the one man who could save Europe from Stalin.
At the time, Winston Churchill was one of only a few British politicians who thought Hitler posed a threat. Channon, in common with many other MPs, felt Churchill was dangerous and that his obsession with Germany would lead inevitably to war.
In 1936, Chips and his wife Honor were guests of the Nazi regime at the Berlin Olympic Games. His record of that trip is as naive as it is shocking, both in his undisguised admiration of Hitler and in his account of a visit to a Nazi labour camp, where he reported cheerful inmates looking healthy and well-fed.
When they were first published in 1967, the diaries of MP Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon enthralled and appalled the nation in equal measure. Malicious and delicious, the diaries skewered some of the grandest names in society and politics.
What no one realised was that the diaries had been heavily censored. Now they are being published for the first time in their full, outrageous glory.
The American-born Chips, as he was known, settled in Britain after graduating from Oxford and became a social climber on a grand scale, becoming friendly with the future Edward VIII the then Prince of Wales in 1920.
Chips (pictured) was bisexual and had numerous sexual liaisons with both men and women. Our second extract features some of those, together with his fabulously indiscreet observations about London society
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor are pictured above in 1937, after his abdication
When they were first published in 1967, the diaries of MP Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon enthralled and appalled the nation in equal measure.
Malicious and delicious, the diaries skewered some of the grandest names in society and politics.
What no one realised was that the diaries had been heavily censored. Now, they are being published for the first time in their full, outrageous glory.
American-born Chips, as he was known, settled in Britain after graduating from Oxford and became a social climber on a grand scale, becoming friendly with the future Edward VIII the then Prince of Wales in 1920.