Uploaded March 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
As a diarist himself since the age of twelve, your correspondent can perhaps be forgiven for harbouring a deep affection for diaries - and, more particularly, for the diarists behind them.
The 20th century has greatly enhanced the canon, though not, perhaps, from the American point of view. The Brits, however, have excelled at this commendably therapeutic practise; and, whether intended for private consumption or public, have greatly enriched their readers.
On the social front, "Chips" Channon, Cecil Beaton and that ineffable old snob, James Lees-Milne, head a celebrated pack; but on the political, particularly during times of war when it was officially illegal to keep a diary, those of Duff Cooper, Sir Harold Nicolson and Sir John Colville remain endlessly fascinating.
But the piece de resistance is surely those of Victor Klemperer, Professor of Romance Languages in Dresden, whose astonishing record of daily life before, during and after World War II - a 3-volume magnum opus, impeccably translated - provides an inside view of what it was like to be a German Jew in Nazi Germany.
"I Shall Bear Witness", "To the Bitter End" and "The Lesser Evil" are monuments to the human soul and classics of their kind.
More video book reviews at thisoldHoarehouse.com
As a diarist himself since the age of twelve, your correspondent can perhaps be forgiven for harbouring a deep affection for diaries - and, more particularly, for the diarists behind them.
The 20th century has greatly enhanced the canon, though not, perhaps, from the American point of view. The Brits, however, have excelled at this commendably therapeutic practise; and, whether intended for private consumption or public, have greatly enriched their readers.
On the social front, "Chips" Channon, Cecil Beaton and that ineffable old snob, James Lees-Milne, head a celebrated pack; but on the political, particularly during times of war when it was officially illegal to keep a diary, those of Duff Cooper, Sir Harold Nicolson and Sir John Colville remain endlessly fascinating.
But the piece de resistance is surely those of Victor Klemperer, Professor of Romance Languages in Dresden, whose astonishing record of daily life before, during and after World War II - a 3-volume magnum opus, impeccably translated - provides an inside view of what it was like to be a German Jew in Nazi Germany.
"I Shall Bear Witness", "To the Bitter End" and "The Lesser Evil" are monuments to the human soul and classics of their kind.
More video book reviews at thisoldHoarehouse.com
