I have added this page because it is not so much about me, but more about me wishing to pass on tips to budding diary writers.
I became keen on writing at about the age of seven or eight in the 1940s long before the advent of the word processor. At St James’ Junior School (1943-47) we were positively encouraged to write what were known as ‘free compositions’. These were usually short pieces of prose on a topic, or a selection of topics, written on the blackboard by Teacher. (They were blackboards in those days, not chalkboards!) Grammar, spelling, punctuation and handwriting all had to be of the highest standard otherwise marks would be deducted. In some ways the actual writing was the most difficult part of the exercise.
There were no such things as ball-point pens; pencils were for drawing and were not permitted to be used for writing sentences. Fountain pens were not allowed, although hardly any children had one, because they were deemed to lead to bad writing habits! Steel nibs, filled messily every few letters from ink pots, were the only tools permitted for writing. During World War 2 blotting paper, needed to soak up little accidents, was unobtainable. Little accidents happened either when the business end of the pen nib became crossed or broken due to too great a downward pressure being exerted on the page, or because excess ink had not been allowed to drain off the nib back into the inkwell before starting to write. It was absolutely amazing how much ink could be transferred to fingers and clothing within minutes of starting a writing task.
Being appointed Ink Monitor for the day and having to visit every desk at the start of the morning filling up the individual inkwells was by far the messiest of all jobs. Pencils were not entirely accident-free or healthy either. We often used a particular type of pencil called 'copying-ink pencils'. They were also sometimes called indelible ink pencils because writing written with them was virtually impossible to erase. These pencils produced purple letters, and smudges, on the paper. Small children, and even adults, had the bad habit of sucking the business end of pencils when I was very young. I'm not sure why we did it - probably as an aid to thinking! If you sucked a copying-ink pencil you soon had horrible purple stains over your mouth and face and all the fingers that came into contact with the soggy end. Inevitably fingers transferred the smudges to the paper and clothing. It was all very messy and undoubtedly unhygienic but not, apparently, toxic. The worst part was that the purple stains were extremely difficult to remove.
I always enjoyed the writing of ‘compositions’ and I was good at it. I created my first work of fiction, about 3,000 words long, when I was about 11 years old. I signed up for my first, and only, professional writing course at age 19 but never persevered beyond the first two lessons because by then grammar, spelling, punctuation and style seemed second nature to me and I could not be bothered writing academic exercises for the tutors. The Regent Institute promised a return of all fees for uncompleted or unsuccessful courses but I never held them to that.
My first articles for the media were published at about age 22, although we did not know the word media in those days. My very first diary came as part of my 1947 Christmas presents. I can’t remember whether I asked for one or whether my parents made an inspired choice. Anyway, it was a Letts ‘School Boys Diary’. When my parents realised that the diary was a success, they bought me one for the next four years until I was no longer a ‘schoolboy’. They were beautifully bound leatherette-covered pocket books which contained all manner of facts and figures deemed to be useful for schoolboys. The 1948 edition, for example, provided several pages of tiny print giving copious advice on careers. There were nine pages of Latin irregular verbs, eight more for French verbs, and two for German strong verbs.
The world maps at the end of the diary had great swathes of red indicating British colonies and possessions. Five pages were devoted to sporting records: athletics, badminton, men’s and women’s cricket, hockey, lawn and table tennis, rowing and squash, but curiously no mention of football or either code of rugby. A section on ‘useful factors’ devoted four whole lines of tiny print to the expansion of (a³ + b³ + c³ -3abc) but I cannot for the life of me ever remember needing that. Then there were lists of the Seven Cardinal Virtues and of the Seven Mortal Sins. There was a rather odd section on using coins as weights. For example: a silver three-penny piece, which was only rarely found in one’s small change even in the 1940s, apparently weighed 21.8 grains; three pennies or five halfpennies weighed exactly one ounce Avoirdupois, which was in turn the equivalent of 437.5 grains. No schoolboy of the late 1940s could afford not to have that sort of information at their fingertips.
Go to a page of hints for young diary writers