Diaries & Diarists
An interlude dedicated to diaries, both fictional and real, and their use by authors from Samuel Pepys to Helen Fielding as a brilliant vehicle for storytelling. Explore a selection of diarists who have altered perceptions, encouraged thought, recorded social change or have simply made us laugh.
William Boyd
Any Human Heart
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Rupert Vansittart
Reads Any Human Heart
Watch
Charity Wakefield
Reads Any Human Heart
Sue Townsend
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and ¾
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Stephen Mangan
On Sue Townsend and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and ¾
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Louise Jameson
Reads The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and ¾
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
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Andi Osho
Reads The Color Purple
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David Detmer
On Jean-Paul Sartre
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David Detmer
On Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea
Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones' Diary Film Adaptation
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Gemma Jones
Reads Bridget Jones's Diary
Mark Twain
Eve's Diary
Eve's Diary
First Edition
©
The Great Plague (1665-1666)
Events in Pepys' Diaries
Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl
©
Watch
Otto Frank On Anne Frank's Diary
© Jewish Theological Seminary of America, USA, 1967 / from the collection of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam
Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Scott's Diary
©
Scott Polar Research Institute
On Scott Reaching the Pole
©
Nelson Mandela
Conversations with Myself
Watch
Nelson Mandela, Conversations with Myself
Book Extract
©
Alan Bennett
Diaries
©
Watch
Alan Bennett
Reads His Diary for 2022
©
Virginia Woolf
A Writer's Diary
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Michael Cunningham
On Discovering Virginia Woolf
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Michael Cunningham
On Virginia Woolf's Diaries and Autobiography in Her Work
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David Detmer On Antoine Roquentin
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David Detmer On Jean-Paul Sartre's Relevance Today
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Michael Cunningham On the Genius of Mrs. Dalloway
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Michael Cunningham On Virginia Woolf's Hopefulness
©
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Virginia Woolf, Craftsmanship, Words Fail Me
Books we explored
