When he turned sixty-five the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the days events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them honestly turbulently digressively expressed. The smoking diaries is the result in which one of Britains most amusing & original writers reflects on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing) alcohol (stopped) several triumphs & many more disasters shame adultery friendship & love. Few diarists have been as frank about themselves & even fewer as entertaining.