Simon Gray (1936–2008) was a prolific British writer (author of 5 novels and 40 plays), best known for his satirical and self-ironic diaries.
The pages of these diaries are not arranged by days, but by themes: birthdays, holidays, calm, books... The author manages to condense in his sentences both sublime reflections and absurd gags. He enjoys railing against contemporary times, thus becoming a master of British humour. Obviously, the diary is also a personal confession, where the contradictions of adult life share the spotlight with memories of a childhood and adolescence marked by teachers’ abuse, school bullying, his grandfather’s beatings, his grandmother’s affection, paternal infidelities, his own adultery, the discovery of sexuality, and his flirtations with delinquency.