This is a masterpiece about a period that fascinates me - a time machine that transports the reader back to British politics and high society at the end of the 1930s, as Europe stands on the brink of a catastrophe that will destroy the very world it describes.

Page for page, name for name, there is no one better than Chips Channon at the particular blend of insight, snobbery and self-regard that is the hallmark of really great diarists . . . Chips knew everyone, went everywhere, and spared nothing. Of Philip Kindersley, first husband of Oonagh Guinness, he writes, 'A good-looking, almost dashing "Ya-hoo" . . . very common naked, which is such a test'. Of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, 'She is well bred, kind, gentle and slack . . . She is fundamentally lazy, very lazy and charming . . . She will never be a great Queen for she will never be up in time!' At nearly 1,000 pages, and with the broadest cast of characters, Chips is the clear winner!

Even more gripping than the first volume . . . [Channon's] record is of great value, not only for historical detail and literary flair, but because it shows why appeasement often feels right, and why it can be so dangerous.

Fascinating. Heffer's meticulous and generous footnotes mean that Channon's gossipy revelations are elevated into a serious work of history.

Mr Heffer has undertaken a painstaking appraisal of the original manuscript . . . He has erred on the side of inclusion, excising little and allowing Channon to speak for himself . . . Mr Heffer has produced a monumental second volume to match his first. Clearly he has enjoyed his work marshalling the original manuscript and anyone interested in the social and political life of Britain of the period should enjoy his effort.

For bon mots, nothing can beat Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries . . . Chips is a little monstrous but redeemingly self-aware. These are the uncensored, unvarnished thought of one of the 20th century's greatest diarists.

Channon was a rich, catty snob whose entertaining diaries are a portrait of a vanished epoch.

Posh bonking, snobbery, and waspish commentary these diaries are an unrivalled guide to the social and political life of Britain in the first half of the 20th century. The Tory MP Chips Channon was well connected and a thundering snob, but he also knew how to write.

I've been enjoying the guilty pleasure of browsing through the complete and unexpurgated edition of the Diaries of 'Chips' Channon . . . expertly edited by Simon Heffer. Like all really good diarists, Channon had a sharp eye for detail and an ability to turn a memorable phrase . . . his powers of observation were unrivalled.

In the Diaries of Henry 'Chips' Channon, edited with colossal thoroughness by Simon Heffer we have a disgracefully enjoyable contribution to modern social history.

Witty, bitchy and wildly entertaining.

A compellingly readable diarist who lived through extraordinary times and knew everybody.

One of our juiciest memoirs of the year . . . Volume II of the unexpurgated diaries of Conservative MP Henry 'Chips' Channon is every bit as gripping, jaw-droppingly snobbish, whiningly self-obsessed and disarmingly frank as Volume I . . . Never a dull day, never a dull sentence.

Waspish high campery.

Meticulous, witty and informative. The great strength of the diaries is Channon's position at the heart of government. A valuable source for historians of the period . . . I cannot wait for the next volume.

Writer and historian Simon Heffer gives us part two of this full, shamelessly frank work. And a remarkable labour of love it is. . .This remarkable book, bursting with gossip, sex scandals and royal barbs, is a brilliant portrait of champagne-fuelled London life on the eve of war and in its early years . . . Utterly compelling reading.

The greatest British diarist of the 20th century. A feast of weapons-grade above-stairs gossip. Now, finally, we are getting the full text, in all its bitchy, scintillating detail, thanks to the journalist and historian Simon Heffer, whose editing of this vast trove of material represents an astonishing achievement. Channon is a delightful guide, by turns frivolous and profound.

Wickedly entertaining . . . scrupulously edited and annotated by Simon Heffer. Genuinely shocking, and still revelatory.

Channon's chief virtue as a writer is his abiding awareness that dullness is the worst sin of all, and for this reason they're among the most glittering and enjoyable [diaries] ever written.

The diaries are fascinating and sometimes a key historical record. And the man could write.

Gripping reading . . . While countless of Chip's decent contemporaries and especially politicians are today forgotten, the diaries make him an indispensable source for anyone writing of this period.

Chips perfectly embodied the qualities vital to the task: a capacious ear for gossip, a neat turn of phrase, a waspish desire to tell all, and easy access to the highest social circles across Europe . . . Blending Woosterish antics with a Lady Bracknellesque capacity for acid comment. Replete with fascinating insights.

Better than any history or histories of these two decades . . . like a fusion of Debrett's and the Almanach de Gotha . . . Scrupulously scholarly . . . Simon Heffer has done a great service by revealing in this extraordinary new edition of the Channon diaries the decadence and complacency of the English political and upper classes.

The fascinating, unexpurgated interwar diaries of the Tory MP and social alpinist Henry "Chips" Channon, who met everyone who was anyone from Hitler to kings, the Pope and the Mitfords. Bonking, snobbery and bitchy remarks abound in this big beast of a book.

I did enjoy the Chips Channon diaries, the new first volume. My most pleasurable reading experiences are diaries and letters. History unfiltered, not refracted through a historian's imagination. The Chips Channon diaries bring alive a section of society in the 20s and 30s with great vividness.

Chips Channon wrote witheringly about everyone-except Hitler. But his diaries still make for strangely addictive reading . . . [Simon Heffer] has done a superb job.

These unabridged, risqué, waspish, snobbish, social-climbing diaries have been worth the wait . . . All credit to Simon Heffer for his masterly editing and annotation.

The diaries are indeed indispensable for anyone seriously interested in the political and social history of interwar Britain.

Brilliantly and painstakingly edited by Simon Heffer. The enlarged Channon diaries have rightly attracted a great deal of attention . . . they are more detailed and more frank, and maybe more honest, about the opinions and sexual escapades of some of the leading figures in British politics and high society in the years between the world wars.

It sounds perverse to say that Channon's snobberies and prejudices make the diaries, but the unabashed exposure of these failings gives you an oddly impressive picture of a person in the setting of his time - the picture, I mean, is absorbing, whatever the subject's shortcomings. And though this colossal self-portrait describes much that's misguided, vain, and idiotic, it prompts you too to imagine those perishable qualities that history and biography so often fail to capture: the charm, generosity, personal magnetism, and brilliance of conversation that must have explained and sustained Chips's progress, the "success after success" that the diaries record and celebrate.

One of the most talked about books of this year . . . compelling and significant.

Channon's jaw-dropping account, lovingly curated by the historian and former Mail writer Simon Heffer, is compelling.

Delicious, dangerous and utterly compulsive.

Dripping with bons mots, anecdote and scandal, [these] are addictive, even if they elicit repulsion as well as delight.

A momentous publishing event. Candid, unabashed, vivid and manifold. They will be prized for their powerful evocation of social milieux . . . Heffer's footnotes are always informative, just and accurate, often amusing, and can seldom be faulted.

An unadulterated masterpiece . . . A larder of quotable treats.

Scintillating wit, memorable descriptions and compelling gossip. Heffer has done a magnificent job. Riveting.

Whatever you think of him Channon ranks among the great diarists. He is at turns brilliant, witty, trivial and spiteful, with observations about some figures whose names have stood the test of time. Simon Heffer has done an excellent job as editor and his copious footnotes are often as entertaining as the diaries.

An inspired diarist. After devouring this volume readers will be salivating for the next.