I’ve kept a precious journal since 1959 – my wife
is longing to dump it all in a skip
Keeping a diary is a bit of burden. Not this one, of course. My diary in The Oldie is (I like to think) just me chatting to old friends about this, that and the other. Speaking of which, you might like to know that 2026, as well as marking the birthdays of David Attenborough, Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe and Winnie-the-Pooh, is also the centenary of the first appearance in print of the word ‘nookie’, meaning ‘a bit of the other’. The diary of mine that is a burden is the journal that I have been keeping on an almost daily basis since the beginning of 1959. Maintaining it is a heavy obligation but, having started it so long ago, I feel I have to keep going. Mine, sadly, is not a well-organised diary, kept in matching volumes, one for each year – like the manuscript diaries, now lodged in the...
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