I recently read Volume 6 of Frances Partridge’s Diaries. 
My choice of this book was prompted by the mention of these diaries on a couple of other blogs which I read regularly. When the name came up in discussion I suddenly remembered that I in fact had Vol. 1 of the Diaries and had read it some time ago and thought very highly of it. Volume 1 was called A Pacifist’s War and covered the period 1939-45. Well, practically the same day as reading the references to the diaries I was browsing in one of our favourite 2nd hand book stores and lo and behold there was Vol. 6 of the Diaries. Of course I had to buy it.
As I read this volume I wasn’t too sure I liked it and I was kind of plodding through it. I felt maybe I should have read the earlier volumes 2-5 before tackling vol. 6. Nevertheless I persevered and was richly rewarded. The final 20 pages or so had many pearls of wisdom. And then I looked up Frances Partridge on the internet and found that she lived to age 103 and had only died quite recently in 2004. A fascinating person. And she only started publishing her diaries when she was age 78. I feel especially inspired by this as one of the reasons for doing this blog is to “publish” some of the things I have written in the past – and plan to write in the future. And I’m starting early, compared with Frances Partridge.
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