The Diary Review

‘What a delightful sight it is, after a shower of rain, to see the dear Women tripping along and tucking their drapery round their lovely hi...

Today marks 250 years since the birth of Bernhard Henrik Crusell, the Finnish-Swedish clarinettist and composer whose travel journals and au...

‘I fall into bed exhausted. I dream that Jeanne Moreau wants to come out of the painting too, but for some reason I can’t do it for her. I k...

‘Long walk without a shot. Gun did not pull at a snipe. Shot 1 grouse not picked up till after lunch. Lunch. Midges very troublesome.’ So re...

‘Today is my birthday and it’s the first one I ever spent on a train. Arrived Chicago at 1pm. Had a three-hour layover then caught the 4pm t...

‘The 11th day, being Tuesday, we carried our instrument over the water to the Grand Signor’s Court, called the Seraglio, and there in his mo...

‘My [90th] birthday. [. . .] It is unusual, I believe, for persons of this age to retain possession of their faculties, or so much of them a...

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustavus Theodore von Holst, British composer of The Planets , one of the Western world’s ...

‘The pages are a challenge, and though often people think that writing a diary is unhealthy - as it certainly can be, when it confirms a ten...