AM ref GDP/1 was born in Stockport on 3 January 1937. We hold her diaries for the years between 1952 and 1958. At the beginning of this run of diaries, she was living with her parents is Eskdale, Cumbria and going to boarding school in nearby Seascale. After leaving school, she did clerical work in Edinburgh, where she was still living when she made the final entry in her diary on her 21st birthday. Her diaries contain a detailed and vivid account of this formative period of her life. The entries are fairly lengthy, and were often written up several days at a time. Although there are a few gaps towards the end of the run, the diary was nonetheless kept up quite faithfully across the six volumes we hold. AM regularly comments on political and sporting events and on the books she reads and the films and plays she sees. She chronicles her family life and her relationships with her friends and boyfriends.
Excerpt
31 July 1955
M [a friend] came round to see me this morning to tell me everything D [a former potential boyfriend] had poured out to her. The nerve of him – he has the cheek to state now that he should have stuck by me – but I knew all the social graces, was poised, self-confident and a conversationalist who could speak to anyone about anything – and it was N’s [D’s new girlfriend] utter ignorance that appealed to him! Darn me! That silly conceited boy will want to marry a woman who will grace his drawing-room – no more! Anyway he is taking M out tonight + to-morrow. I told R [the diarist’s boyfriend] all about it when he phoned + he was as surprised as I. R came round at seven and to be honest, I was to [sic] happy to see him again to bother to meet P [the diarist’s housemate]. Strange how restrained one can be when someone has only been away for a couple of days. Fortunately for us P was a dear and went to bed at ten and all came right between us. I always feel it’s an effort for us to tear apart + he missed the last tram home.
Diarist: AM
Born: 1937
Gender: female
Vol. 1 (1952, age 14-15)
Condition: fair, spine a little bent, front cover coming away, items taped in
Dimensions: 200mm x 125mm x 25mm
Letts desk diary No. 11X inlcluding adverts
Subjects: Prayers; family; relationships; social life; friends; shopping; leisure; theatre; cinema; grandmother’s health; coming of television; working in parents’ inn; Calder Girls’ School; boarding school; rationing; church; teachers; death of George VI and accession of Elizabeth II; mother’s health; Hockey; concerts; music; sport; exams; Rugby; horse racing; Grand National; gambling; religion; school play; Foot and Mouth disease outbreak; Tennis; poetry (Keats and Shelley); School Certificate; the Derby; war memorials; holidays; motor accidents; St. Leger; concern over state of parents’ marriage; university application; employment; Hallowe’en; Jazz; expeditions to climb Everest; letters; pregnancy of teenage friend; writing poetry; Lacrosse; Christmas; New Year.
Locations: Eskdale, Cumbria; Manchester; Barrow-in-Furness; Seascale, Cumbria; Whitehaven, Cumbria; Carlisle; Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire.
Includes:
– Photographs
– Drawings
– Ephemera
– Cuttings from St. Trinian’s Cartoons
– List of boys’ names and opinions of them
– List of books read
– List of films seen
– Exam results
– Running accounts
– Poetry
Vol. 2 (1953, age 15-16)
Condition: spine bent, front cover torn and coming away, items taped in
Dimensions: 195mm x 120mm x 35mm
Collins One Day Royal Diary No. 53
Subjects: New Year; poetry; relationships; social life; religion; friendship; prayers; church; leisure; family; letters; attempts to publish poetry; applying for jobs; sport; boarding school; Calder Girls’ School; journalism; Rugby; hanging of Derek Bentley; end of sweet rationing; Lacrosse; expedition to climb Everest; Football; concerts; death of Stalin; street crime; science lab accidents; exams; death of Queen Mary; school plays; Grand National; horse racing; gambling; cinema; attitudes to Jews; worries over mother’s health; death in the mountains of a guest at parents’ inn; shopping; School Certificate; smoking; television; coronation of Elizabeth II; ascent of Everest; the Derby; leaving school; poetry course; friends’ wedding; alcohol; publishing poetry; end of relationship with boyfriend; exam results; arguments with parents; Edinburgh Festival; theatre; holiday to Scotland; lost climber; holiday to London; attempts to become a journalist; State Opening of Parliament; working as clerical assistant at old school; visit from Edmund Hillary; drama society; radio; Christmas; friends’ national service.
Locations: Eskdale, Cumbria; Seascale, Cumbria; Manchester; Leeds; Morley, West Yorkshire; Whitehaven, Cumbria; Edinburgh; Glasgow; London.
Includes:
– Photographs
– Drawings
– Ephemera
– Press cuttings
– Programme for Edinburgh International Festival
– Calder Girls’ School Annual Magazine 1952-1953
– Poetry
– Letters
– Running accounts
– List of films seen
– Exam results
– Christmas card list
Vol. 3 (1954, age 16-17)
Condition: fair, spine slightly bent, some ink marks, items taped in
Dimensions: 195mm x 120mm x 35mm
Collins One Day Royal Diary No. 53
Subjects: New Year; family; friends; social life; letters; birthday presents; shopping; clothes; cinema; poetry; Hockey; train travel; card games; leisure; reading; relationships; religion; prayers; worries about not attending church; friends’ National Service; employment prospects; planned trip to Zurich; trip to London; applying for a passport; theatre; dancing; music; Rugby; dental work; drama; disappearence of Ernest Hemingway in Uganda; Swiss work permit; journey to Zurich by air; Zurich; home sickness; secretarial work in Zurich; journalism; German lessons; college; St, David’s Day; St. Patrick’s Day; plans for trip to Paris; holiday romance; views re. marriage; money; difficulty in receiving British readio broadcasts; smoking; alcohol; shortage of money; church; religion; Easter; Paris; Catholic church; Paris Metro; tourism in Paris; Versailles; college in Edinburgh; searching for accommodation; course in shorthand, typing, and book-keeping; television; visit to friend’s family in Perth; visit to St. Andrews; babysitting; eating out; cesspool overflow; exams; tranquilisers; reading; Indo-China War; TV coverage of Ascot; visit to Dundee; working in parents’ inn during Summer; power cut during thunderstorm; journalism course; arguments with parents; nightclubs; mother’s health; floodng in Cumbria; attitudes to sex; Christmas; presents; shooting (sport).
Locations: Eskdale, Cumbria; Whitehaven, Cumbria; Nottingham; London; Zurich; Paris; Edinburgh; Perth; Dundee.
Includes:
– Photographs
– Poetry
– Ephemera
– Prayers
– Theatre programmes
– Newspaper clippings
– Sports results
– Tickets
– Menus
– Telegrams
– Lists of items to take to Zurich
– List of gifts given
– List of days out in 1953
Vol. 4 (1955, age 17-18)
Condition: torn and water-damaged, some damage to spine, some items stuck in with tape.
Dimensions: 325mm x 200mm x 25mm.
Letts Desk Diary No. 21Z, including advertising.
Subjects: family; friends; television; radio; sport; New Year; letters; relationships; birthday; trip to Manchester; train travel; eating out; theatre; shopping; clothes; college; cinema; social life; shorthand; alcohol; searching for accommodation; exams; Rugby; falling-out with landladies in Edinburgh; job interview; secretarial work; new flat; watching Rugby at Murrayfield; religion; church; baby-sitting; music; Valentine’s Day; books; reading; poetry; money; nuclear weapons; cars; tax; watching ice hockey at Murrayfield; dancing; Easter; parents’ inn; driving; the Budget; ballet; end of relationship with boyfriend; finances; late-night prank phone call from anonymous man; diary writing; General Election; mother’s health; working in accountant’s office; friends’ national service; watching Tennis; trips to the seaside; holiday; gender and relationships; listening to Proms on the radio; gardening; shooting (sport); Edinburgh Festival; views on pre-marital sex; minor road accidents; mental health; visiting mother in hospital; work at parents’ inn; friend’s wedding; dismissal of colleague; acting as hostess at boss’s party; opinions on marriage; situation in Egypt; relationship of Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend; friend’s deferment from National Service; attitudes to married women working; publication of poetry; cooking; going to ball; Christmas.
Locations: Eskdale, Cumbria; Manchester; Edinburgh.
Includes:
– Photographs
– ‘Greetings telegram’
– Ephemera
– Leaflet advertising parents’ inn
– New Year card
– Newspaper clippings
– Programmes for Rugby matches
– Theatre programmes
– Programme for ice hockey match
– Order of service for friends’ wedding
– Prgramme for Scottish National Orechestra season
– Programme for Edinburgh festival
– Ratings of men
Cataloguer’s comments: these diaries include a fairly length entry almost every day and take in a wide range of subjects relating both to the diarist’s immediate surroundings and to the wider world. It is clear that the entries were often not made every day, but were written up several at a time from notes made at the top of each day’s pages. In earlier years they usually fill the page every day. They begin whilst she is at boarding school and cover a period when she moved away from home to secretarial training and then to her first job. They cover her relationships with her parents, her friends, and her boyfriends in some detail. They also include references to her ambitions to become a journalist and to publish poetry. The diarist’s personality comes through strongly in many of the entries.