The Smoking Diaries

When he turned 65, the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the days' events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, turbulently, digressively expressed. One of Britain's most amusing and original writers reflects on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disastersamp;mdash;a record of shame, adultery, friendship and love.

Few diarists have ever been so frank about themselves and even fewer so entertaining.