When Alan Rickman died in 2016, he apparently left behind a vast archive of handwritten diaries, specifically 27 volumes compromising 25 years of his life, and now The Guardian says that publisher Canongate has acquired the rights to his diaries and will be compiling them into a book. Titled The Diaries Of Alan Rickman, which is an appropriate title, the book will be edited by Alan Taylor of the Scottish Review of Books and will apparently include everything from Rickman’s “thoughts on acting to insights on friendships and politics,” along with potentially reviews of plays he saw and behind-the-scenes Harry Potter stories. We know his journals included that stuff, but we don’t know what will make it into the book. There were 27 volumes, after all.
Before anyone objects to the idea of a dead man’s private thoughts being published for the world to see, though, Rickman supposedly intended to publish these someday himself. He started writing them in the early ‘90s as his acting career was taking off, thanks to stuff like Die Hard, and it sounds like he simply had the foresight to think “I’m going to become a beloved actor someday and people will to hear my take on stuff”—but, of course, he’s dead now and can’t say that for himself, so who knows. Either way, The Diaries Of Alan Rickman will be published in 2022.