Only silver linings…………
Every cloud has a silver lining...even December's damp clouds mean we have an excuse to get SUPER cosy. This is a wonderful example of paratexts in a sailing diary from the 1950s.
Remarkable
This wonderful collection of diaries is quite remarkable - a real gift! Diaries of Meg Hendry The diaries date from 1903-1917. They are three thick notebooks, in which the diarist has embroidered sayings, photographs, and dates. The diaries are made up of irregular entries in a number of formats, ranging from the diarist's poetry, the poetry of others, newspaper clippings, observations, and lists of books read. At the beginning of the volume for 1908-1917 the diarist lists each New Year's Day's weather each year from 1908-1917. The diarist notes the location for each poem and in each reflects on a [...]
British Library Event 2019 Spring
Please click here for more information on our 2019 event at the British Library.
Indeed, who doesn’t?
June21st 'What young lady, travelling for the first time on the continent, does not write a 'Diary'? …Forth steps from its case the morocco-bound diary, regularly ruled and paged, with its patent Bramah lock and key' Anna Brownell Jameson, Diary of an Ennuyée, 21 June 1836
An entry a day keeps the doctor away
June 22nd 'I did evydently receive the ague, and layd down.’ John Dee, The Private Diary of Dr, Dee, 22 June 1588
Love, love (or just boys?)
Diarist: Anonymous Diary Dated: 1978 and 1979 ‘30 July 1978: Our last day. Lo and I stayed at pool all day enjoyed it. Others went to beach party. We to disco at end got kisses from Billy + Hans WOW! Blush.’ MEMORANDA 1979 Boys January Blonde 5th former who I see at lunch time. Thomas, cycles to school. Lives near. February Dominic Butler (from Latchfords party!) Jewish boy. Simon F... March Simon F.... Dominic Butler lives at Bridgecroft, 70a Kent Road, Harrogate. Tel 69846 Thomas April Dominic Butler…. […] August Dutch boy looks like Guy from monkeys Humphrey Dutch boy [...]
All about the almanac (part 2)
.....By the late sixteenth century, European almanacs became very popular; as a category they outsold the Bible. These volumes, like their Babylonian predecessor, contained information on the moon, stars and sun, but also included agricultural and ecclesiastical calendars, dates of fairs and markets, prognostications, political commentary, advices for life and health, recipes, weather forecasts, harvest predictions and medical notes. Like Bibles, almanacs were often used to record personal information such as domestic accounts, births, marriages and deaths. Many almanacs were published interleaved with blank pages for owners to make entries. Satirical almanacs even had spoof-diary notes printed in the text. [...]
Back to Bolivia for November (nearly 200 years ago)
Diarist: James Bennetts Williams Diary Dated: 1883-87 As we discovered last month, the diarist recounts his emigration from Cornwall to Bolivia to work in the silver mines; his move followed the decline of Cornish tin-mining in the second half of the nineteenth century. ‘Thursday 8 November 1883: […] 4 or 5 of the men went on shore yesterday without leave & stayed all night & when they came on board in the morning they were drunk & soon got their discharge. I hear some of them have joined the Chilian [sic] Navy. Went to bed about 8 p.m.’
All about the almanac….
Around 1400 BC, Babylonian astronomers inscribed clay tablets with dated charts containing information on the movements of the moon, stars and sun. These charts are an early precursor to the appointment diary which continues to print information on lunar and solar movements. Such movements linked astronomy to divining the future, and so later printed almanacs came to include horoscopes, astronomical data, religious and agricultural calendars, and medical tips. Almanac meaning ‘calendar’ appears in Latin in the twelfth century. One possible – and charming - etymology is the Arabic ‘al-munak’, or making a camel kneel; this term for a halt may [...]