Secret Voices – A Year of Women’s Diaries Edited by Sarah Gristwood – a beautiful book containing multitudes

Secret Voices Edited by Sarah Gristwood

This is not a book to read cover to cover – unless you are very organised! The subtitle sets out why – “A Year of Women’s Diaries”. It is actually just that, for each date in the year (a leap year at that), a selection of extracts from diaries written by women. They may be long (though each one is extremely well edited to convey the sense without padding) or really brief “Rapture without end” – 4^th January.

I was really fortunate to attend a Book Festival event in which Sarah Gristwood spoke about this book and was so impressed with the knowledge that she shared. This is a book that obviously means a lot to her, as representing women’s thoughts and feelings over centuries (the earliest entries are from the 1600s) which were often privately expressed, though some, as from Virgina Woolf, with an eye to possible publication at some point. Not that all the authors represented here are predictable; for every Anne Frank extract there is one from an unknown woman like farmer’s wife Mary Hardy 1733 – 1809. Others may have appeared in print from such sources as Persephone books, as in the case of wartime diarists Etty Hillesum and Vere Hodgson. Lady Bird Johnson witnessed the assassination of Kennedy, and Nella Last was a Mass Observation Archive diarist whose writings emerged in Victoria Wood’s “Housewife 49” and were published to great success. Fanny Kemble was known as an actress, but also writes as an abolitionist wife to a slave owning planter. On every page there is a woman’s name I recognise, but there may well be others like Charlotte Forten, an American woman who lived 1838 – 1914, and writes of the wrongs she experienced as a black woman living in Philadelphia before the Civil War. There are women from Britain, America, and other countries, situations and eras. At over one hundred individual diarists, there is sure to be someone of interest on every date.

Sarah spoke of the excitement of discovering diaries that had not previously been well known, some representing miraculous survivals, others well known. Whereas when she previously had tackled the subject of women’s diaries many years ago, she had been limited to copies in libraries and archives that were geographically accessible, now the internet has transformed accessibility in many cases. Even so, the earliest diaries are only existence now in any form because their writers were literate, had access to writing materials, time and energy to write, and have had their writings preserved by family or friends. Some, like Anne Lister, famously chose to write in code because of their (at the time) controversial life styles, whereas others, like Anne Frank, were constrained by other factors but still produced writings of great beauty and depth. Sarah pointed out that some diaries were kept throughout long lives, where others may only cover a relatively short time because of life changes, marriages and child birth. Some were severely edited, like the later diaries of Queen Victoria, whereas others were allowed free reign and preserved proudly in their entirety.

Women’s diaries are valuable because they reflect an honest picture of women’s lives in all their realities, as well as reflecting something of the lives of those around them. They differ generally from men’s writings as they are so often private, as opposed to featuring great events, battles, or Parliamentary debates. This collection does give a reflection of the secret, private lives of women often meeting challenges, but also with the joys and pleasures of their lives.

Sarah did say that she was not responsible for the contents of this book, but it is in her inspired choice of extracts and their ordering that she has been so skilful. Apart from a considered Foreword which sets out some of the nature of the book and her work on it, she has also provided very short biographies of each diarist which allows for further investigation of each woman, her life and times. This is a book which contains the beginnings of so much further study, or rabbit holes, presented in manageable chunks. It is also a beautiful object as a hardback book complete with marker ribbon and glorious printing and layout. It is a wonderful read that can be dipped into on a daily basis or consumed in larger periods. It would make an excellent gift or a present to oneself for anyone interested in the thoughts of women over many centuries.