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Alan Rickman’s 27 diaries will be published as one book

By November 23, 2020March 25th, 2022New Releases, News

25 years worth of diaries written by the late Alan Rickman are to be published.

The 27 handwritten volumes are full of “witty, gossipy and utterly candid” thoughts about his lengthy career as an actor and national treasure. The newly successful Rickman began writing a diary in the early 1990s with the intention they would be published. Back then Rickman was known for his stage work but became a household name for his work in movies as villain Hans Gruber in 1988’s Die Hard, and as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, among others. His diaries will walk fans through his time on set for various movies of which he was a part such as Galaxy Quest, the Harry Potter franchise, Sense and Sensibility, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Love, Actually. He wrote all the way up to his death in 2016, at the age of 69.

Publisher Canongate will publish The Diaries of Alan Rickman in autumn 2022.

“I’m delighted that Canongate will be publishing Alan’s diaries, and couldn’t have wished for a finer appointment of editor than Alan Taylor,” said Rima Horton, Rickman’s widow. “The diaries reveal not just Alan Rickman the actor, but the real Alan – his sense of humour, his sharp observation, his craftsmanship and his devotion to the arts.”

Editor Alan Taylor told the media that Rickman’s diaries were “anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid, they make compulsive reading and offer a peerless insight into the daily life of a remarkable actor who was as beloved in the US as he surely was in the UK.”

The diaries contain Rickman’s innermost thoughts on anything that interested him- acting (his own and by others), theatre he attended, actors he saw or worked with, and his political affiliation as a lifelong, card-carrying Labour party member. There is, of course, a huge insight into his time on set with the cast and crew of the Harry Potter movie franchise, where he worked for around a decade.

“More than anything though, the diaries reveal the real Alan Rickman, funny, passionate, occasionally provocative, and give fresh insight into his art,” Canongate said. “He wrote his diaries as if chatting with a close friend. They provide pitch-perfect vignettes: short, pithy paragraphs painting big pictures, and offering intriguing insights into himself, his peers and the world around him. They are intimate, perceptive and very funny.”

UPDATE:

The cover art has not yet been released, but we do have a release date. The Rickman Diaries will be published on 18th October 2022 and you can PRE-ORDER now by clicking here.

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