Diaries: In Power - Tapa blanda

The first volume of Alan Clark's diaries, covering two Parliaments during which he served under Margaret Thatcher - until her ousting in a coup which Clark observed closely from the inside - and then under John Major, constitute the most outspoken and revealing account of British political life ever written. Cabinet colleagues, royalty, ambassadors, civil servants and foreign dignitaries are all subjected to Clark's vivid and often wittily acerbic pen, as he candidly records the daily struggle for ascendancy within the corridors of power.

Alan Clark, MP for Plymouth between 1974 and 1992 and Kensington and Chelsea between 1997 and 1999, was Minister of Trade and Minister of State. He was married with two sons and lived at Saltwood Castle, Kent. He died in 1999.