I was looking forward to this as the concept seemed new to me and intriguing. The subject was similarly appealing – Rickman has always interested me.
As I began the book, I immediately became concerned that it was not going to be a good one. Diary entries in shorthand with name drops all over the place, some doubtless impressive but the majority obscure (at least to me) and often events discussed without any context. To my mind, that’s on the guy who edited it. More notes on the films or projects he was working on at the time would have been helpful.
However, as I read on, I got used to the structure and felt myself sinking into Rickman’s life. It begins in the mid 90s and so I found myself thinking about what I was doing in the moments he describes and how totally separate my life was from his. Once you get into it, it really becomes quite immersive and rather emotional considering some of the names he writes about are no longer with us.
The end became one of foreboding anticipation and sure enough it left me feeling quite emotional. Biographical accounts spanning a life-time can certainly cause one to look inwardly (Any Human Heart) and throughout the course of these diaries, I experienced a similar sort of reflection.