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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...

Last modified on Sun 28 Feb 2021 10.28 EST When the diaries of an obscure politician called Sir Henry “Chips” Channon were first published in 1967, they caused a sensation, and not only among those whose names appeared in their index (“vile & spiteful & silly,” announced the novelist Nancy Mitford, speaking for the walking wounded). Channon, an upstart Chicagoan who’d unaccountably managed to marry the daughter of an exceedingly rich Anglo-Irish Earl, moved in vertiginously high circles. As a friend of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, he had enjoyed a ringside seat during the abdicat...

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 s...

Chips Channon’s uncensored diaries are addictive – and troubling 5/5 MP Chips Channon, photographed by Cecil Beaton Credit: Sothebys Nobody knows for ­certain why Henry Channon was called “Chips”. One theory is that as a young man he shared lodgings with a friend whose nickname was “Fish” – which is rather nice, as it’s hard to think of anyone less likely to have set foot in an ordinary fish and chip shop. For Chips Channon, the ultimate aristocrat manqué, was born with a reasonably sized silver spoon in his mouth, and thereafter worked hard on converting it into a soup ture...

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...