“I never travel without my diary. One should always have
something sensational to read in the train.” - Oscar Wilde
If you saw a diary lying open what would you do? Those
personal documents, often made impenetrable and more enticing by little gold
padlocks, tantalize us because they offer a private glimpse into an inner
world. The act of reading someone’s diary is the ultimate act of literary
invasion. And yet, go into a bookshop and the shelves will be full of diaries.
Diaries, though strangely performative, are meant to be for the writer’s eyes
only so we get a sense of rawness, of intimacy and that makes it compelling.
With this in mind it’s not surprising that authors turn to
the confessional form of the diary for their novels. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller offers a gripping insight into the
working of a character’s mind as obsession takes hold. Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle puts an adolescent
girl at the centre of the action, negotiating the onset of adulthood and first
love in the pages of her journal. Consider how much the nation took Bridget
Jones to their hearts after getting to know her through her diary entries. It
seems that diaries can hook a reader like nothing else.
How about the real thing? There are plenty of non-fiction
diaries to dig into. There is something so powerful about someone writing their
life and us getting to read it like it’s a letter to the future. Think of how
many people have been able to understand the realities of the Holocaust from
Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, or the sociohistorical riches we’ve been
able to garner from Samuel Pepys’ diary. What most fascinates me are the
diaries of our greatest writers. Virginia Woolf’s diaries can be dipped in and
out of for instant inspiration. I love the fact she saw her diary as a way of practising:
‘But what is more to the point is my belief that the habit of writing thus for
my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments.’ The diaries offer
an insight into the creative process that can help those of us writing today.
If you don’t keep a diary maybe it’s time to start. Read all about why here.
What are your favourite diaries, both fiction and non-fiction? Let me know in the comment section below…
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