The Diary Review

It is one thousand and eighty years since the death of Ki no Tsurayuki, a nobleman and poet renowned for his erudition and skills in Chinese...

‘[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...

‘This morning there comes a dispatch from Chattanooga stating that the enemy had taken Fort Donelson. Generals Pillow, Floyd, Buckner with t...

One Rev. John William Horsley was born 170 years ago today. Although not much remembered, he was a social reformer of great character - as m...

Adam Tas is remembered today not only as a key figure in early Cape Colony history but also as the author of what is often considered South ...

Thomas Hearne, Oxford scholar and librarian, died all of 290 years ago today. He is highly regarded for his editions of historical works whi...

‘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...

‘By golly, what a day! It is seldom that days which one has anticipated in imagination for weeks or months ever measure up to one’s expectat...

‘He explained his call to my astonishment that Beadle, Tatum, and I were to be the co-recipients of the Nobel prize in medicine this year. I...