KENNY ON

Bill Holland explains why he brought Carry On star Kenneth Williams back to literary life

- Bill Holland

When it comes to famous diarists, Britain can lay claim to an eclectic body of talent. The godfather of the genre is Samuel Pepys, the cheeseburying MP who furnished us with a unique chronicle of Restoration era London.

But the greatest British diarist is, in my humble opinion, the incomparable Kenneth Williams. The actor, comedian and raconteur, noted for his bountiful radio and screen performances, assiduously kept a diary from the age of 14 until his death, aged 62, in 1988, the 43 volumes he left behind being edited and published five years later. The resulting bestseller is a wholly engrossing read, where the complex character of this quite remarkable man, along with his acidic cleverness and forthright attitudes, shine out from every page.

As a youngster I was irresistibly drawn to this peculiar misfit – predominantly for the gags, but also for the eccentricities. By my teens, I was seeking out books and documentaries to learn all I could about this curious little chap and found that there was much more to him than met the eye.