Monday 29th September 1980

…what a significant day it has been today! I saw Miss Thomas, as arranged and we talked and then I got onto my history and then, with will-power of a force I very rarely have to summon, told her I am homosexual. At first, I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I faltered after asking for strict confidence and asked if she had any idea what I was going to say. She said it was very important if you had someone you knew would be like ‘the Bank ...

Wednesday 7th January 1998 (London)

…Last night was excellent. I was very conscious of keeping my concentration after the debacle of the previous night, and it went smoothly from start to finish. Very satisfactory show. I wasn’t going to use Rockin’ In Rhythm at the start but Dominic talked me into it. I just didn’t get worked up about it. They kept talking loudly while it played and then I entered to total hush. I could tell before I went on th...

Tuesday 2nd April 1996 11.05am (Edinburgh)

 Every day I get up and think ‘Why?’ I look at the flat and I see a tip: coffee cups, glasses and plates strewn about; ashtrays, Rizlas and god knows what. And as for my lungs. I was lying there in bed last night convinced I could feel the beginnings of lung cancer. Well, we’re all going to die of cancer eventually, I suppose, many of us sooner than we expect. The death rate will surely go down in – no, I mean the a...

Further to my email tussle earlier this year with Deborah Orr, then of The Independent, on the subject of the G20 police attacks (which somehow ended up, to my mingled dismay and delight in Private Eye's Street of Shame) I find myself in a less-candid but equally revealing exchange with a journalist f...

London

I have just finished the latest draft of my new show about Samuel Johnson, the Edinburgh version of the show. The first three shows have been improvised around a loose structure and each has drawn on different aspects of Johnson’s life and work depending on how the audiences have responded and according to the dictates of my whim. The first two shows, at the Johnson House Museum in Gough Square were aimed at an audience one assumed knew something about Jo...

One of the most distressing aspects of the police brutality at the G20 protests on April 1st was the way the mass media portrayed the event.

In case you did not see it, here is footage which shows very clearly how peaceful protesters, as well as passers-by, office workers and tou...

I have long been of the opinion that the best way to neutralise your enemies is to make friends with them. World Peace would break out tomorrow if only everyone followed my advice but, since this is the first time I have given it, they might be forgiven for carrying on with their battles for now.

I know how difficult it is though, because I am as guilty as anyone of harbouring resentments and bearing grudges, usually against foes I have never even met and whose main crime is to be mo...

QUENTIN CRISP ARTICLE FOR GAY SCOTLAND
BY DAVID BENSON, 1996

If you are ever lucky enough to find yourself on the island of Manhattan and, having climbed the World Trade Center, and descended the subway, you are still hungry for an unforgettable experience, take the New York phonebook, turn to 'C' for Crisp, Quentin, and give him a ...

First published on myspace 10th April 2007

My Life With Dame Edna
There's something I really need to talk to you about: I have a Barry Humphries complex. It is all tied up with my own life-long urge to entertain on stage and it manifests itself in the form of vivid dreams. I usually suffer these dreams when I am planning some new show of my own or am otherw...

Blog first published on myspace 3rd May 2007

How we got the last photos from inside Kenneth William's flat


Marlborough House, Osnaburgh Street in April 1988 after Kenneth's death

Did you know they are about to knock down Kenneth Williams' last flat? The one on Osnaburgh Street that he moved into on 3rd August 1972 and di...