In November 2020 he notices that the Queen, nearly 10 years his senior, is able to walk backwards when laying a wreath at the Cenotaph. This radical essay explores patriarchy and capitalism’s impact on beauty ideals, and inspires us to embrace our own disobedient bodies. Discover your next non-fiction read and brilliant book gifts in the Profile newsletter, and find books to help you live well with Souvenir Press. Alan Bennett is a renowned playwright and essayist, a succession of whose plays have been staged at the Royal National Theatre and whose screenplay for The Madness of King George was nominated for an Academy Award. Where this tortured restraint does not reach, though, is into Bennett’s ethical worldview which remain as richly communitarian as ever.

Christmas is just around the corner, but DON’T PANIC: we’re here to provide you with the ultimate festive gifting inspiration, and remind you that books are certainly the easiest presents to wrap…! The news that the cast and crew of the new Talking Heads series have agreed to take only a nominal fee and donate the profits to the NHS gives him a rare rush of pleasure in a world dominated by the bleak economics of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Felt like a contractual obligation was being fulfilled with this very slight and disjointed melange. Okay obviously it’s Allan Bennet so knew what was coming ,however I thought it would be far longer in content than it was .The History Boys won Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier awards, as well as the South Bank Award.

As my Mrs often says, 'if only it were longer' - Only 44 actual (smallish) pages of musings, I've read thicker takeaway menu's, however, none offering anything as delicious as what Mr Bennett serves up here. It’s a short read, but probably no shorter than any of his previous diaries over a 12 month period, in Writing Home, Untold Stories and Keeping On Keeping On, especially when he was under ‘house arrest’.If Bennett’s speech can be jumbled, his writing remains as deft and seamless as ever, especially when dealing with that most numinous of subjects, his childhood in working-class Leeds. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Bought today and have no idea when this was published but it feels just like sitting with Alan Bennett for a chat. The book is his personal diary of his time during the lockdown, and he seems to have survived it splendidly.

Boris Johnson’s nightly addresses during the Pandemic are “ pretty pointless… a poor orator and speaker generally… the plainness of Keir Starmer a relief. While Mr Bennett is never less than readable, this very slight volume is the length of a magazine article and really nothing more than an erudite version of anyone's lockdown experience. The book is a lovely small hardback with a great cover and pretty inside cover pages, but I just felt I wanted it to be longer.TheNotebook by Roland Allen is a gorgeously illustrated cultural history of the humble notebook, from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers. Although I love Alan Bennett’s diaries I’m not entirely sure that this was deserving of a publication on its own.