The Diary Review

Today marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of Ramakrishna, the Bengali temple priest and religious teacher whose influence on modern Hin...

The English writer Rudyard Kipling, who died 80 years ago today, left behind a treasure of much-loved stories and poems, such as The Jungle ...

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the tragic death of the British mountain climber, Alison Hargreaves. Having scaled Everest without the a...

‘[Suu Kyi] came back after a hot trek in the sun to some village or other smelling strongly of cheap scent. It’s usual for enthusiastic ladi...

‘I will endeavour humbly but firmly, to acquire or achieve’ the following: practise yoga; acquire good knowledge; become a member of the Bri...

‘His Excellency’s brother was, accompanied by some gentlemen, to visit the Baile of Venice, whom he found very badly housed at the foot of a...

‘Today was a day of brain fever. I have decided to write a full length drama on Kalidas, before starting on the novel. Shall set about it to...

Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese explorer, died all of half a millennium ago today. Although he did not leave behind a diary of his own,...

‘We sighted two or three hundred yaks drinking in the river, and I wounded three. It was a glorious sight to see the whole herd dashing acro...

A few days ago, it was Reinhold Messner’s 90th birthday, and today it is the centenary of the birth of Messner’s hero, Hermann Buhl - both c...