The Diary Review

‘I have always thought it would be unwholesome for me to attempt to write a diary. I’m sure it will make me think my life drab and strain af...

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Clarkson, a major figure in the anti-slavery movement of the late 1700s and early 1800...

‘This day news reached the town that three men had been murdered in Omata. With wilful imprudence, and in defiance of general remonstrances,...

Roland Barthes, one of France’s great 20th century thinkers, died thirty years ago today. Although not known as a diarist, he did occasional...

‘To breakfast, where was a canteloupe. Wretched, it being the season’s first.’ So began one of the most popular American columns of a centur...

‘The Minister of the Right praised the six-stringed koto. He became too merry, and made a great mistake, which sent a chill even to the onlo...

Today marks 260 years since the birth of the German astronomer, Caroline Herschel. A remarkable woman - in her 70s she was awarded a Gold Me...

England’s so-called Long Parliament was disbanded exactly three and half centuries ago this day. That year, 1660, proved to be the end of a ...

‘The year 2007 is over. . . I finally got some women.’ So confided Han Feng, a Chinese tobacco company official, to his personal diary. But,...

It is the bicentenary today of the birth of William Griffith, one of the most fanatical of 19th century botanical explorers. Although he die...

Turkish coup diary leads to top officers being charged - BBC , Financial Times Never before published diaries of Iris Murdoch - Short Books...

According to newspaper headlines this week, the original handwritten diary of Casanova, one of most infamous rakes in history, has just been...