House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries

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An abiding memory for me is his engaging encounter with a leaf sweeper which puts a smile on AB’s face for the rest of the day.

With Rupert now working from home my life is much easier, as I get regular cups of tea and a lovely hot lunch.I very much identified with his recollection of the loss of his conversational powers whilst trying to book a routine appointment after lockdown and having to hand the phone over to his partner, Rupert, who that bit younger and having kept up his conversational skills working from home on zoom, completed the task.

While Mr Bennett is never less than readable, this very slight volume is the length of a magazine article and really nothing more than an erudite version of anyone's lockdown experience. Until, that is, the horrible thought strikes him that it must look as if he is acknowledging the applause, perhaps even trying to generate it himself. TheDeorhord by Hana Videen is a fascinating collection of medieval creatures large and small, and a delightful dive into Old English. Felt like a contractual obligation was being fulfilled with this very slight and disjointed melange. It probably never occurred to the hollering neighbours that their joyful noise for the NHS might be misconstrued as directed at one elderly, slightly famous playwright.The film of The Lady in the Van starring Maggie Smith was released in 2015, sending Bennett's memoir of the same name to the top of the bestseller list for nine weeks. He made his first stage appearance with Beyond the Fringe and his latest play was The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. He recounts a telling anecdote from 1941 in which the whole family went on a Sunday fishing expedition in the country. I expected insights into the pandemic, the impact on his life, the community, nothing but cups of tea, a few chats with friends over the fence and being driven around.

Higher education and success hasn't ruined his knowledge and experience of how he, and the majority of us, grow up with all kinds of completely different experiences that shape our lives for ever after. Since our earliest beginnings, every documented society has gathered to perform elaborate rites and ceremonies - from mass worship to body modification - yet ritual poses a deep paradox: why do we give the utmost importance to otherwise pointless activities? Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. It’s a short read, but probably no shorter than any of his previous diaries over a 12 month period, in Writing Home, Untold Stories and Keeping On Keeping On, especially when he was under ‘house arrest’.

His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On , The Lady in the Van , A Question of Attribution , The Madness of King George Ill (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George ) and an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows . Our need for ritual is primordial, and embracing its logic can help us connect, find meaning and discover who we are. Alan Bennett's collection of prose, Untold Stories , won the PEN/Ackerley Prize for Autobiography, 2006.