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Diaries were always popular presents from our Aunties, who were always at a loss as to what to buy us boys. But after 365 days there used to be as much written in it, as when it was bought!
I have never kept a Diary!
However, I have read and enjoyed other peoples, and one in particular was that one written by Edith Holden. “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.”
Edith Holden was born in 1871 in Church Road, Moseley, just a street away from the nursing home where I was born some seventy odd years later. Birmingham had not expanded to the size it is today and places like Moseley and Acocks Green were then, villages in the countryside. It was this surrounding area that inspired her to write her Country Diary.
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What I liked very much about it was her beautifully handwriting and charming illustrations.
Yesterday on Kath's blog, amongst the many comments I came across a reference to a ‘Commonplace Book’.
What could this be?
Is it the same type of thing that I have been keeping all these years? .....My “Journal”.
(All the photos here, will enlarge if you click on them)
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Quite a few years ago I found this old accounts ledger. It was only a couple of quid and so I bought it to use as a sort of ‘literal scrapbook‘ rather than a picture scrapbook or diary.
It gets updated with bits of family history, family recipes, interesting tales, amusing ditties and rhymes……in fact an eclectic mix of goodies. Of course not a patch on Edith's excellent work.
It is all written in pencil I'm afraid.....no spell checkers in those days!
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On the left is a recipe for 'Macaroni with Cheese'. That is my Mothers handwriting but it is written on a note-pad with my Great Grandmothers address on the top. They were exchanges recipes no doubt some eighty years ago.
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I watched e TV programme recently presented by Richard. E. Grant. In it he spoke of and met a great many modern diarists including Kenneth Williams.
ReplyDeleteDiary's are great if you are able to update them regularly (a bit like blogging) but they are also very revealing too. You have to bear in mind that the life your are keeping a record of may be yours but if you have family they too may be implicated or hurt, shocked or offended by the things you write.
Wish I could keep a diary; one like Pepys!
I'm so pleased you showed this Uncle B, it is very interesting. A bit like the scrapbooks I kept when I was growing up. Last night on TV they showed a visit to Bournville and explained that the railway and the canal ran parallel, for the milk deviveries. They showed the lovely leafy setting of all the houses and explained that they were all different and that there was and still is not, a pub. Very topical, we were most interested.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the famous Edith Holden, a wonderfu woman. We do have some of the greats in the area.
ReplyDeleteWish I could make out the recipes and foody bits.
ReplyDeleteYes i made/got those Uncle B...exually several collected over the many years...i too made them in a scrappy way with pictures and images...stories of the country's i lived in....recipes of the food they cooked there..a.s.o..everything is in them what was of interest to me and still is...wrote not every day but at least 4 times a week..more out of lonelyness and missing my family..i lived for almost two years in the Spanish Sahara ( El Aaiún) of all places and i was glad to have a journal with me at that time...and the more "privat"stories i wrote in shorthand with my own twist..doubt if anyone can ever read that...hope i still can...wish i had the handwriting skills of E.Holden..beautiful...
ReplyDeletegreetings Francien.
I love to read old writings like that, they bring history to life :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely! One of your best posts Bernard and there've been a few!
ReplyDeleteI love Edith Holden's Country Diary, but yours is very moving with your mother's recipe, and bits and pieces of your past. I lived in different, unusual places (like Baffin Island with the Inuits, and James Bay, with the Crees) and I've kept some sort of Notebooks, dried flowers, a bit of the Native vocabulary in our daily conversations, and picturesque activities under the Midnight Sun. I hope the grandchildren will appreciate Granny's Scrapbooks.
ReplyDeleteCJ: Now Kenneth Williams diaries I would love to read. I was a great fan of his. I enjoyed the TV series they did on his life. My rule of thumb is 'If you can't say anything good about someone, say nothing at all'. Especially family.....but excluding politicians!
ReplyDeleteKath: I saw that program too on iPlayer last night. Of course it was only a glimpse of the most popular views. If went back I would be taking photos of all the hidden and secret places where we played as children. I went to that school with the carillon on top. Subject of another post.
True Valerie, I believe JRR Tolkien lived in that area too.
Foody, you had to click on the picture to enlarge it to full screen.
Hi Francien. I started writing these snippets down, because I could never find them in my hundreds of books, when I wanted them. Also, I have no children to pass family tales/stories on to. You never know, my nephews and nieces may wonder what old Uncle Bernard got up to as a lad?
I'm reminiscing.
Cherie: Local history I find far more interesting than the history from other parts. As there is so much history written, I find you have to be selective. Local wins hands down!
Thank you Liz, I expect to have bad days as well. High standards are difficult to maintain.
Hi Claudia: I'm sure your grandchildren will. Several people have said to me "Oh I wish I'd asked my parents or grandparents about 'such & such'." Things need to get passed on within the family.
I have started writing on the back of photos, who the people are as future generations may not recognise them. The date is also very useful. Your notebooks sound far more interesting than mine.
Thank you all for your comments.
Cheers.....(Unc) B.
I say, that person writes well. Exquisitely expressed, that bit about the panama hat.
ReplyDeleteSticky back plastic indeed!
"The English summer has changed". That sounds very topical.
The order in which things go into the mac cheese looks different from how I do it but maybe that method is common in those parts.
Thanks for enlarging the pics. Most enlightening.
Hi Foody, glad you came back and enlarged it. Well, it is my hand-writing but I don't know who wrote the bit about the Panama. Years ago if I saw something interesting, I would copy it out. This was in the days before home computing. When at work I could get a photocopy, but they got lost. This is when I started writing it all out in one book.
ReplyDeleteThat old ledger is full of bits 'n bobs like that.
Cheers.... Bernard