Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) in David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) — Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai

Alec Guinness letters and diaries sold to the British Library

10^th February, 2013 Date posted

Diaries and letters of the British theatre knight, Alec Guinness, have been acquired by the British Library

I really like Alec Guinness as an actor. His Ealing performances in particular really resonated with me growing up, leading to a life-long love of 1940s British cinema. What a shame, then, that from what I’ve read, Mr Guinness doesn’t seem to have been a terribly nice person.

Guinness’s 100 volumes of diaries, and almost 1,000 letters to family and friends, has been sold to the British Library for a reported £320,000. The Library hopes soon to put some of the new collection on display and to open up the archive to researchers.

British Library website: www.bl.uk.

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