Diaries

[amateur51]

I love diaries and family memoirs. Vita Sackville-West, the Sitwells, Alan Clarke [!]. I own a lightweight but interesting wartime diary written by Godfrey Winn just after WW2. He was primarily a magazine writer when I was young but he manages, with his diary of his time in the Merchant Navy, to paint a vivid picture of the times we lived through. Lots more I have read but can't remember

Oh salymap, you've made my morning!

That combination of 'Godfrey Winn' (oh Winifred Godd as he was often referred to in the 50s/60s) and 'Merchant Navy' has given me the giggles

[salymap]

Dear am51, you are SO predictable. I've been around a long time and would have taken bets on your reaction. But as well as being gay, GW could write, believe it or not, and the Scrapbook of Victory was a good read.

Do forget your hangups for a bit, pretty please. sal PS Otter is no more.

[amateur51]

Dear am51, you are SO predictable. I've been around a long time and would have taken bets on your reaction. But as well as being gay, GW could write, believe it or not, and the Scrapbook of Victory was a good read.

Do forget your hangups for a bit, pretty please. sal PS Otter is no more.

If I forgot my 'hangups', there wouldn't be much else left, saly

"Otter is no more" - what can she mean??

[salymap]

Course there is a lot left. Try it for a day.We all love you [aah] Otter is no more. Work it out. xx

[Chris Newman]

I love diaries and family memoirs. Vita Sackville-West, the Sitwells, Alan Clarke [!].

Hi, salymap,
I was referring to this Alan Clark. The rapscallion and fancier of Maggie T's legs:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dhPlKdsrL._SL500_AA300_.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diaries-Alan-Clark/dp/0297813528&usg=__ZtoZ4zzEdi4sAE8RV7ERnKQrQYI=&h=300&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=OBnz6eRwnoCwAM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=137&ei=x0HWTfTXDcSk8QOp4sDXCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalan%2Bclark%2Bdiaries%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2RNWN_en%26biw%3D1136%26bih%3D594%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=316&vpy=229&dur=5384&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=202&ty=100&sqi=2&page=1&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0

[Mandryka]

Godfrey Winn, Beverly Nichols, two familiar names from wartime/postwar journalism. Beverly Nichols' anti-war book Cry Havoc, written in 1937, had a big effect on me as a teenager in the 1950s.

To get back to the topic....I enjoy Parson Woodforde's Diary of a Country Parson, from the second half of the 18thC.

Beverley Nichols' A Case Of Human Bondage: The Tragic Marriage of Somerset Maugham may be the funniest book I've ever read; it's certainly the campest.

[salymap]

Hi, salymap,
I was referring to this Alan Clark. The rapscallion and fancier of Maggie T's legs:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...1t:429,r:8,s:0

Hi Chris, so was I. I can never remember whether that Clark[e] has an 'e' or not. Son of 'Civilization' Clark innit?

[Flosshilde]

Never read [Kilvert's Diaries]. Weren't they dramatised on television many years ago? Always struck me as unlikely to be racy.

The Rev. Kilvert lived in the middle of the 19th century, before the heavy pall of Victorian prudery had descended on the nation. In my memory of reading selections from his diaries he certainly had an eye for the ladies, & there is one entry where he describes his difficulties with the 'new-fangled' bathing costume (men had customarily swum naked) which resulted in it getting tangled round his legs & him rolling - painfully - on the shingle beach in the surf. I think that his discomforture was complete when he realised that he had a female audience.

Another diary I've read & enjoyed was that of Denton Welch (1915 - 1948), who wrote a number of autobiographical novels. I remember one particular entry about him seeing soldiers (or agricultural workers?) without shirts, & his comment about the contrast between the sunburnt faces & arms & the 'fondant skin'.

[amateur51]

The Rev. Kilvert lived in the middle of the 19th century, before the heavy pall of Victorian prudery had descended on the nation. In my memory of reading selections from his diaries he certainly had an eye for the ladies, & there is one entry where he describes his difficulties with the 'new-fangled' bathing costume (men had customarily swum naked) which resulted in it getting tangled round his legs & him rolling - painfully - on the shingle beach in the surf. I think that his discomforture was complete when he realised that he had a female audience.

Another diary I've read & enjoyed was that of Denton Welch (1915 - 1948), who wrote a number of autobiographical novels. I remember one particular entry about him seeing soldiers (or agricultural workers?) without shirts, & his comment about the contrast between the sunburnt faces & arms & the 'fondant skin'.

Oh I didn't know that Welch had written a diary, Flossie - 'fondant skin' eh? - give me a macchiato anytime, me

[Anna]

Unfortunately I cannot at the moment find my copy of Kilvert's Diaries bit there are indeed some very funny episodes in them. What we read is course only a very small section of them as his niece destroyed a lot and I believe when it was edited a lot also went the same way, whether destroyed or just lost I do not know.

Another diary of a clergyman is Paupers and Pig Killers, the diary of William Holland 1799-1818, he was a Somerset Parson and it is no rustic idyll. He is scathing about Methodists and Catholics, was in correspondence with the Duke of Somerset about quasi-scientific matters, rude about his friends,
but basically it's a fascinating read about the hardships of life prior to the Industrial Revolution. I think it was serialised on R4 but I didin't hear it.

Not exactly a diary but I have picked up (again for 50p) Bruce Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare which is compiled from his notebooks, diaries and letters. I'm really looking foward to reading this as I am a great fan of Bruce Chatwin's writings.

[amateur51]

Unfortunately I cannot at the moment find my copy of Kilvert's Diaries bit there are indeed some very funny episodes in them. What we read is course only a very small section of them as his niece destroyed a lot and I believe when it was edited a lot also went the same way, whether destroyed or just lost I do not know.

Another diary of a clergyman is Paupers and Pig Killers, the diary of William Holland 1799-1818, he was a Somerset Parson and it is no rustic idyll. He is scathing about Methodists and Catholics, was in correspondence with the Duke of Somerset about quasi-scientific matters, rude about his friends,
but basically it's a fascinating read about the hardships of life prior to the Industrial Revolution. I think it was serialised on R4 but I didin't hear it.

Not exactly a diary but I have picked up (again for 50p) Bruce Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare which is compiled from his notebooks, diaries and letters. I'm really looking foward to reading this as I am a great fan of Bruce Chatwin's writings.

As a great fan, I'm sure that you are aware the Bruce Chatwin was also one of the great fantasists, Anna

[Anna]

As a great fan, I'm sure that you are aware the Bruce Chatwin was also one of the great fantasists, Anna

Of course I am, Ams! And I do know, that although married, he was actively Gay! I do love his On the Black Hill because like Kilvert I know the places mentioned so very well.

[Flosshilde]

Oh I didn't know that Welch had written a diary, Flossie - 'fondant skin' eh? - give me a macchiato anytime, me

There was an edition published in 1952, & then a fuller (I assume) edition published in 1984 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Journals-Den...5911251&sr=1-2

You might have read my review of it in the old Gay News

He refers in several entries to a doll's house that he restored. You can see it at the Bethnal Green V&A -

http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/dolls_houses/denton_welch/index.html

[Anna]

Re Denton Welch who, I confess I had never heard of but who sounds very interesting, a google brings up this by Alan Bennett in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/feb/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview23

[Flosshilde]

Thanks Anna - just what one would expect from Alan Bennett - sensitive & full of insight.