From celebrity gossip to Agatha Christie revelations, these are perfect page turners …
How To End A Story, Collected Diaries, Helen Garner, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
As winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2025, Helen Garner is highly regarded by her literary peers, including Colm Tóibin who describes this collection of diaries as a masterpiece. They detail Garner’s life as a fledging author in Melbourne to publishing her debut novel, Monkey Grip, while raising a young daughter in the 1970s. The diaries also document an all-consuming love affair in the 1980s and the disintegration of Garner’s marriage in the 1990s, all told with devastating honesty, matched with wit and an attention to mundane details.
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, John Curran, Harper Collins
This year marks a major milestone for Agatha Christie fans – it’s 50 years since her death in 1976 aged 85, and 100 years since the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Events in her honour include a new Mousetrap tour and British Library’s Read Christie 2026 challenge. There’s plenty of choice on what to read; Christie’s output was prolific – 66 crime novels, 20 plays, six romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories. After the death of her only child, Rosalind, 73 handwritten notebooks came to light, from single jots to lists, to full outlines of memorable plots and characters. Christie archivist and expert John Curran has unravelled these notebooks, which span 60 years, with revelations and details that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story.
The Secret Diary of Queen Camilla, Hilary Rose, Little, Brown
If you loved Ma’am Darling, 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown, you will enjoy this irreverent parody of the daily life of chain-smoking Queen Camilla. As in: “Dear Diary, Life’s been awfully busy since the Coronation. Those tiaras don’t choose themselves and managing Charles is a full time job when he’s giving it the full King at the drop of a hat. I’ve barely enough time to watch Bargain Hunt. Is it any wonder I have to smoke so much? Cheerio for now, Camilla.” Hilary Rose, who writes for The Times, takes us on overseas tours and back to a family Christmas and TV dinners, all populated with a cast of characters including a wily courtier, sidekick sister Annabel and assorted Jack Russell terriers. While entirely fictitious, it’s just the sort of diary that will appeal to Jilly Cooper fans and royalists alike.
Inside Vogue: A Diary of My 100th Year, Alexandra Shulman, Fig Tree
No fashion library is complete without this candid “fly-on-the-wall” diary by the former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman. In it, she documents the immense pressure she was under producing the 100th-anniversary issue (featuring the controversial cover of Catherine, Princess of Wales) and overseeing a complementary exhibition staged at the National Portrait Gallery. There’s plenty of fashion parties and gossip, especially about Kate Moss, as well as self-criticism.
Richard Burton Diaries 1939-1983, edited by Chris Williams, Yale University Press
A friend gifted me this hefty volume many years ago. I found it a fascinating insight into Burton’s insecurities and rollercoaster lifestyle. Obviously, his epic romance with Elizabeth Taylor looms large – with plenty of detail on the enormous diamonds, homes and private jet – as does his legendary drinking and storytelling. When visiting Gstaad, I recommend having a drink in The Olden hotel, which was one of the Burton-Taylor’s favourite haunts. There’s plenty of name dropping (Olivia de Havilland, John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier, John Huston and Dylan Thomas among others), but also stories about his family. Also read Roger Taylor’s Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Quercus Publishing. Eye popping!
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith, Little, Brown
“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink” is the first line of this timeless novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fading glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from writer’s block. However, all of their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love. She uses her diaries and journals as a form of solace and comfort. As JK Rowling so rightly noted, “This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I’ve ever met.”
