It would be hard to overstate the charm of this wilfully eccentric little diary, with its musings on - to open it at random - a trip to the local farm shop, the novels of John Updike, the possibility of keeping an alpaca as a pet. Guinness writes about the things which preoccupy an 80-year-old - the weather, the National Lottery, visits to the doctor - with such verve and style that it makes you want to cheer as he invests his comforting, comfortable world of visits to the theatre and CDs after dinner with an irresistible, anarchic wit. There is also the considerable bonus of an elegant, if irascible, introduction by John le Carre. One of the best reads of the year.
