The Pursuit of Laughter, By Diana Mosley

"Clever, good company, always ready with a sarcastic witticism." The life and soul of the party being described is Dr Joseph Goebbels.

Equally startling is Diana's suggestion that her Fascist husband Oswald should have been offered war work in 1940 instead of going to gaol: "If traditional English values had prevailed instead of those of a banana republic then Kit (her nickname for Mosley) would have accepted work offered him".

Some may be enraged by blasé opinions in this scrapbook of reviews, articles and diary snippets, but the overall impression is one of blinkered aristocratic hauteur rather than malignity.