The Faber Book of Diaries

by Simon Brett

Selections from hundreds of English diaries describe births, deaths, loves, illnesses, joys, challenges, failures, and successes

Genres: Diary, Biography, Reference, Memoir, Nonfiction, History

498 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1987

About the author

Simon Brett, OBE, FRSL is a prolific British writer of whodunnits.

He is the son of a Chartered Surveyor and was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class honours degree in English.

He then joined the BBC as a trainee and worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television, where his work included 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Frank Muir Goes Into ...'.

After his spells with the media he began devoting most of his time to writing from the late 1970s and is well known for his various series of crime novels.

He is married with three children and lives in Burpham, near Arundel, West Sussex, England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good companion to have by you through the year. Does it incentivise to keep a diary or the reverse? A very diverse selection. Many regulars eg Virginia Woolf, Noel Coward, Queen Victoria, Boswell, Byron, Pepys of course and many more. Amazing what gets recorded – Elias Ashmole's preoccupations with his stools, Boswell's dose of the clap and how he came by it. Byron observes that we're more likely to lie to ourselves in our diaries than we do to each other.

Funny, sad, all human emotions and indiscretions on display here. Some real gems. I loved reading Joan Wyndham's entries in particular; Barbara Pym too. Rather a lot of contributions from the clergy through the ages, aside from the stalwarts Woodforde and Kilvert.

The last entry in this volume is Noel Coward's (31 December 1969)

“ I perceive now, 31 December, that there has been no entry since 7 September. With my usual watchful eye on posterity, I can only suggest to any wretched future biographer that he gets my daily engagement book and from that fills in anything he can find and good luck to him, poor bugger. Personally I have neither the will nor the strength to attempt the task”.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this over the course of the year, one month at a time. Interesting to pick up when I was between books, or had a few minutes to kill.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW DEDICATED TO NIK KANE, A NEW GOODREADS LIBRARIAN

This book was incorrectly recorded as:
"THE FABER BOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY IN VERSE".

I THEN ASKED:
Why has this book has been given the Incorrect Title??
Why hasn't it been corrected???
Why has someone created this book manually ???
Are Goodreads Librarians failing in their duties??

Less than 24 hours later, Nik, on his First Day as a Goodreads librarian,as his second FIX-IT of the Day fixed This One !!!
Hence my Dedication above...and see Nik's Message below.

THE REVIEW:
It always amuses me when I tell people I have pried into a friend's diary...the consequent Outrage and Condemnation are pathetic!!(Pooh on Youuu I think !)

Generally diaries must be the MOST boring documents ever produced.They should be banned!!!If you think you'll find a revelation, deep dark secret, whatever fantasy you have created...SORRY!!!you have zilch chance of finding it!!!!
Perhaps...
which is why one...pries, n'est-ce pas?

I later found that this 'friend' used his diary, among other devious methods, to destroy others. He would leave it carelessly on the kitchen table in a Holiday House of mutual friends just after writing up a poison-pen entry. He counted on the Old Taboo against reading such documents. Someone was always tempted and the next thing...an Eruption or a Hidden Hurt to eat away at the Heart ...but no one would/could admit from whence it had originated.
The diary would quietly disappear into his armoury.
He calculatingly destroyed many friendships.

These diary entries from 500 years of mostly British Life stopped one reviewer here after page 5, he claiming he's not interested in hearing about anyone's rotten...OR marvellous day, for that matter.
Such a lack of curiosity and empathy!!!
Which usually means a lack of a pulse in ANY part of the body.
I hope he's not married...divorced?...yes.

The day the Bastille fell and the French Revolution started, Louis 16th, who had spent the day hunting, wrote in his diary:
"14th July. Nothing."

Sadly, this UN-British entry fails the Entry Test for inclusion in this Wonderful Collection.

However just read this one for 30th June,1914 :

"There has been another assassination, this time of the heir of the Austrian Emperor. I do not quite know how it affects the political situation."

These two entries are only significant because of WHAT WAS NOT WRITTEN! AND because of WHAT THE READER KNOWS!!

OOPs!!!So YOU,dear Reader have been PRYING too !!!!
Feeling guilty ?? Enter Expletives and Justifications in the box supplied !!!

All these PRIVATE diaries - lost, hidden, preserved, written in codes, some openly published...have ALL lived their Separate Lives.
Many, such as Byron's final ones, fail to make the grade because they were destroyed, burnt, ...to save reputations, prevent hurt, stop scandal.
Boswell's, despite their bawdiness, their sexual frankness...(why not!! No one was ever supposed to read these...REALLY !!?)...were preserved, despite their 'immoralities', because the 'ladies' knew their literary worth if only because they told of Dr Samuel Johnson and His Circle.
And how did the 'lady' ancestors know how disgusting they were??........................ Pried of course!!!

Some days have a particular "THEME"...
9th June has three entries from 1797, 1914 and 1938.
Here it is words...the art, the sound and the lack of words:

1797 and Thomas Green discusses "the art of the ventriloquist"...it's a wonderful dissection...even has a book reference.

Then Vera Britten in 1914, soon to be involved in the carnage of World War I due to the sudden death of a very unlikeable heir to the Austrian Throne, also deals with words, the way in which they are said:

"To hear a man's voice say 'you' in a tone which he uses to no one else on earth, is in itself a gigantic temptation to make him go on saying it like that & to go on listening. It is wrong of me to think of such things, still worse to take pleasure in them, but then I am not good, & in spite of high purposes, only a very human girl. Still, that's no excuse."

And finally, in 1938, a man who uses words to regret how the sheet of paper on which he hopes to write GREAT THINGS remains forever blank:

"How many nights have I sat alone in my room listening to the laughter in the streets, looking furtively at my watch to see if I could get up and go to bed. All those nights in my stuffy little room in Paris, in my room at Oxford with the clock of Tom Tower striking nostalgia on the night air, at school with the movements and the muffled voices of the boys in the corridors, and at home at the table which faced the window looking out on the lawn with the single oak tree. And always this piece of staring, white paper in front of me with the few and feeble words strung across it. These wasted nights are most remarkable.
Nothing could be more stubborn than my devotion, nothing more stupid than my persistence. After all, I have written nothing - I will write nothing. Twenty years have not been enough to convince me of my lack of talent."

Mon Dieu, I just want to grab Charles Ritchie and shake him, and reassure him - "But just read your last marvellous paragraph.It brings tears to my eyes this, your little history of brave persistence in so many times and places which your pen so simply conjures up for me. Don't stop. The magic of your words are there,
just let them flow and let us judge them.Don't ever stop."
BUT it's all too late. Over and gone. Separated by Time and Space, we only have the words and the spirit of the man. Oh!!! ours to pry and appreciate and inject them with new life...n'est-ce pas?

Of Bloody Course !!!!!

(Some Research has assured me
that Mr. Ritchie persisted and published.)

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual in books like these one could dispute why he/she is in but that other one not...?
But then, if you want to read Evelyn, or Pepys, just go and get them, right?
This one has some very minor writers/diarists in it, and that's what gives it its flavour as well.
A perfect starting point for anyone who'd want to read diaries and wouldn't know where to start (er...Pepys, Boswell?!)

[Martin Olesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. Even the most mundane entries give some insight into the diarist and his or her surroundings. Best of all, I was introduced to previously unknown authors of interest and that led me to read their published diaries and other works by them and about them.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book. It's fun to flip through and look at various people's thoughts about the day.

Today:

"January 5, 1821.

Rose late -- dull and drooping -- the weather dripping and dense. Snow on the ground, and sirocco above in the sky, like yesterday. Roads up to the horse's belly, so that riding (at least for pleasure) is not very feasible. Read the conclusion, for the fiftieth time (I have read all W. Scott's novels at least fifty times), of the third series of Tales of my Landlord -- grand work -- Scotch.

Fielding, as well as great English poet -- wonderful man! I long to get drunk with him...

Clock strikes -- going out to make love. Somewhat perilous, but not disagreeable....

--Lord Byron."

[Linds Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm enamored with this book! I read that days' entries each night before I go to sleep..there's a great mix of the humorous, the profound, the sorrowful, and the plain silly! Also a nice, varied selection of diarists, from the well known (Viginia Woolf, Samuel Pepys) to the never-before-seen. Breaks my heart that this one's out-of-print!

[Michael P.]

This may be an excellent collection, but I find no interest in reading about someone's bad day, or even their good day. Dropped this book on page 5.

[Patricia Dietz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely wide variety of diaries from men and women from different time periods and backgrounds. Very interesting reading.