History Main / CompromisingMemoirs

[[folder:Film]]

** Another example from Wodehouse are the memoirs of the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, younger brother of the Earl of Emsworth, which contains many salacious details from the youth of several pillars of society, some of whom were members of the notorious Pelican Club. Threatening to publish said memoirs is sometimes used in an attempt to blackmail one of the Threepwood sisters who is opposed to one of her children marrying beneath his or her station, until [[spoiler: the manuscript is finally eaten by the Empress (Lord Emsworth's prize-winning pig)]]

* Literature/CiaphasCain's unofficial memoirs are classified and available only to inquisitors. They don't want everyone to find out that many of the [[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!'s]] more famous actions were motivated by cowardice ([[UnreliableNarrator according to him, anyway]]). Cain's ''official'' memoirs are apparently propaganda and nonsense.
* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' novels by Creator/CharlesStross have a FramingDevice of being Bob Howard's memoirs. They come with disclaimers indicating that they are classified under the Official Secrets Act as well as code word classified under the titles InUniverse. In ''The Apocalypse Codex'', the characters talk about the dreadful situation the world would need to be in for the memoirs to be made public.

* In the ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'' novella "A Talkative Dead Man", a courtier's memoirs are published posthumously, which reveal that he was part of a secret society led by the King himself, intended to check the post-war power of the Order of the Seven-Leaf. While this revelation causes a large political storm, it is his confession to routine breaches of the Order's BanOnMagic, which his co-conspirators had then covered up, that sends Echo's populace into a frenzy of wanton magical experimentation, which threatens to unravel reality itself.

* In ''Series/YesPrimeMinister'', the former Prime Minister writes his memoirs and Hacker tries to bar the parts that make him look bad from publication.
** The crisis is resolved the next episode by the sudden death by heart attack of the former PM; this turns a disaster (the former PM's memoirs) into an opportunity (Hacker has an excuse to hold a big funeral and get some diplomatic business done). It also pleases Hacker immensely; for a moment after receiving the news, Hacker [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing breaks out into one of the sincerest, happiest grins you'll ever see]].
** Make what you will of the fact that at least one tie-in book takes the form of a sort of [[ScrapbookStory Scrapbook]] {{Novelisation}} of the first two seasons, in which Hacker's own journal features heavily.
** Much less humorous is the Memoir of Sir John Halstead, which heavily implicates Humphrey in covering up for Halstead's espionage for the Soviets. As it transpired, Humphrey was not guilty of anything other indifference towards his friend's conduct, but there was a real chance Hacker would have to have had him imprisoned before the truth came out.

* An episode of ''Series/ThePersuaders'' was about a memoirs book from an ex-spy.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "[[Recap/MonkS4E14MrMonkAndTheAstronaut Mr. Monk and the Astronaut]]", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that Steve Wagner had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, Wagner once beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs (she wasn't going to give names but he didn't take chances).
* In the ''Series/ItTakesAThief1968'' episode "Lay of the Land", Al Mundy is assigned to steal the memoirs of a duchess who [[ReallyGetsAround really got around]] [[IWasQuiteALooker in her day]], just in case one of her prominent lovers let slip any state secrets. Subverted when it turns out that her memoirs are actually rather tame; she was going to have them published posthumously, and in the meantime spreading rumors about their scandalous contents helped drum up publicity (and increase her advance). Discovering this, foreign agents hold her niece hostage and force her to write in a few new chapters to make Western powers look bad.

* In ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' former baseball star Chico Escuela wrote a tell-all called ''Bad Stuff 'Bout the Mets'' ("Tom Seaver - he once borrow Chico's soap and no give it back"). This comes back to bite him when he decides to try a comeback.
* The compromising memoirs Colonel Nivin is planning to publish provide the motive for his murder in the ''Series/ElleryQueen'' episode "The Adventure of Colonel Nivin's Memoirs".

* The first season of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' focuses on the relationship between Bojack and his ghostwriter, Diane. Diane's draft of the memoir is much more revealing than Bojack is comfortable with, exposing and exploring his many flaws. Bojack wants her to rewrite it, but when Diane [[spoiler: leaks the first few chapters online and gets an overwhelmingly positive response, Bojack relents and lets the memoir be published.]]

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* In the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, the Duke's BlackSheep brother leaves him his very unexpurgated unpublished memoirs to use as he sees fit. They start off as a {{MacGuffin}}, as they have no use unless and until proven truthful; by the end of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', they are found sufficiently reliable to become useful, and thus a PlotDevice.

** As President Bartlett is just about to leave office, there's a train crash and two state governors squabble about who has to deal with it. Bartlett calls one of them and threatens that he's about to earn a paragraph in his soon-to-be-written memoirs. The governor immediately backs down.

* A subversion of this trope is the basis for the IdiotPlot in ''Film/BurnAfterReading''. A self-important disgruntled CIA agent plans to release his memoirs, which are nothing like as scandalous to the agency as he believes. But then a bunch of other people mistake the memoirs for valuable "spy shit" and try to sell it to the Russians.

* Very briefly used on ''Series/TheWestWing''. As President Bartlett is just about to leave office, there's a train crash and two state governors squabble about who has to deal with it. Bartlett calls one of them and threatens that he's about to earn a paragraph in his soon to be written memoirs. The governor immediately backs down.

This trope covers memoirs as a plot device, not a framing device; that is, examples should be where the Compromising Memoirs are the subject of the plot, not just examples ''of'' Compromising Memoirs. For this reason (and also for reasons of [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment cautious editing judgment and avoiding unnecessary arguments]]), avoid including RealLife examples. However, there can be some overlap between the two; for instance, an example involving a character's Compromising Memoirs which includes in-universe excerpts from them is acceptable.

** Another example from Wodehouse are the memoirs of the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, younger brother of the Earl of Emsworth, which contains many salacious details from the youth of several pillars of society, some of whom were members of the notorious Pelican Club. Threatening to publish said memoirs is sometimes used in an attempt to blackmail one of the Threepwood sisters who is opposed to one of her children marrying beneath his or her station, until [[spoiler: the manuscript is finally eaten by the Empress (Lord Emsworth prize-winning pig)]]
* The ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" begins with Watson saying that if the person who tried to get at his case-notes does it again, he will reveal [[NoodleIncident the whole story of]] "[[NoodleImplements the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant]]" to the public. Several other stories have mentioned in the foreword that Watson deliberately delayed publishing them until after the death of the principals of the case so that they could not be harmed by any possible scandal. One other story featured a woman trying to get a hold of a deceased ex-lover's memoirs so that she could destroy anything that referenced her.

In fiction such a document is often something that others would wish was not written. It often contains details that others wish lay forgotten, such as past scandals or a dodgy deal that no one found out about. As such there is often a plot revolving around stopping/protecting the Memoirs.

* The ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" begins with Watson saying that if the person who tried to get at his case-notes does it again, he will reveal [[NoodleIncident the whole story of]] "[[NoodleImplements the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant]]" to the public. Several other stories have mention in the foreword that Watson deliberately delayed publishing them until after the death of the principals of the case so that they could not be harmed by any possible scandal. One other story featured a woman trying to get a hold of a deceased ex-lover's memoirs so that she could destroy anything that referenced her.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "[[Recap/MonkS4E14MrMonkAndTheAstronaut Mr. Monk and the Astronaut]]", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that Steve Wagner had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, Wagner once beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs (she wasn't going to give names but he didn't took chances).

* In ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' former baseball star Chico Escuela wrote a tell-all called ''Bad Stuff 'Bout the Mets'' ("Tom Seaver - he once borrow Chico's soap and no give it back"). This comes back to bite him when he decides to tries a comeback.