This collection of writings contains a variety of offerings from a master storyteller.
The title piece, Untold Stories, gives an account of Bennett’s early life and in particular his relationships with his parents. It is followed by Written on the Body, which takes the story forward to his time at university and into the Army to do his National Service. Both these pieces are surprisingly revealing and are coloured by the realisation of his sexual orientation.
The middle of the book is devoted to diary extracts covering 1996 to 2004, commenting variously on items in the national news and events in his professional life (with impressive name-dropping), supplemented by random observations on places visited, sights seen, and conversations overheard.
The rest of the writings include essays on the theatre and plays, radio and TV work, art and architecture, finishing off with accounts of some personal tribulations.
Irrespective of the subject matter, the prose is always spot on, the perspective is invariably off-centre, and the opinions given are subtle and understated to devastating effect.
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