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The cast line up for the grand finale. Photograph: Iain Ferguson, alba.photos.

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...

Chips Channon eating ice-cream with Tallulah Bankhead in 1926 Credit: Channon Family Archive From the moment he came to Europe in late 1917 as a volunteer for the American Red Cross, based in Paris, Chips Channon had entrées to high society and through it to the cream of the literary and artistic world across the continent. The bolded text in the following entries indicates information that has never been seen before and gives a flavour of the range and celebrity of the sort of people he knew. However, one character, little known today, was the Anglican priest-turned-Roman Catholic Montague...