The Year of the Diary

New year, new beginnings – and one of my favourite forms of fresh start is a brand new diary.

For most of my life, I have kept a diary, jotting down the most memorable events of the day. Then in 2010, I swapped to blogging about once a week as my preferred vehicle for musing about my life.

But at the beginning of 2024, feeling the years were rushing by faster than ever, I decided to resume hand-writing an account of each day as it happened. I reasoned that writing a daily “done” list would make me feel better about never completing my always over-ambitious to-do list.

I rarely read previous entries, but towards the end of the year, I noticed, glancing back, that nearly every day began “Another busy day…”

This discovery banished my fear that I wasn’t  making the most of my allotted span. It also licensed me to grant myself more much-needed rest time.

Keeping a diary has always been good for mental health, whenever and whatever you choose to write in it.

Especially in an age when hand-writing is being increasingly replaced by typing on keyboards, there are physical rewards in writing in a special book by hand – the soothing rhythm of forming the words, the flow of the ink, the silky feel of the paper.

There’s a sense of accomplishment as you fill the book with a unique and personal record of your existence. It’s life-affirming.

As a diarist, you’re in excellent company. Real and fictitious diaries have a special place in our culture, from Samuel Pepys and Anne Frank to The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield, Adrian Mole and Bridget Jones.

Think you don’t have time to write a diary? Bear in mind that even Queen Victoria found space in her life for a daily diary habit. She kept a diary from 1832 to ten days before her death in 1901. She even wrote in Urdu for a while, to practise the lessons she was taking from her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Her example is making me rethink my daily Duolingo habit, although I’d need to expand my vocabulary to write a Latin diary – and master more than the present tense.

There are other ways to keep diaries, from illustrator Chris Riddell’s daily cartoon to my friend Linda Alvis’s photographic record of her travels, later translated into paintings and finally into written travelogue.

The “temperature blanket” is another record I’m planning to keep in 2025, knitting a nightly row in a colour determined by the day’s weather.

However you plan to keep track of your new year, I wish you a peaceful, healthy and fulfilling 2025.

This post was written for the January 2025 edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News. 

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IN OTHER NEWS

Looking Back on 2024

What did I achieve in 2024?

Writing

• Published two new novels – the ninth Sophie Sayers cosy mystery, Driven to Murder, launched on 26th January, and the first in a new trilogy, Death at the Old Curiosity Shop
• Wrote a third novel ready for launch on 3rd March 2025: Death at the Village Chess Club, the second in my new trilogy
• Taught my ten-week Simply Self Publish course twice for Jericho Writers, running April-June and October-December (find out about the 2025 courses here) 
• Spoke at many different events including Troubador’s Self Publishing Conference and Jericho Writers’ London Festival of Writing
• Ran two events for the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, one with the theme of A Sense of Place in September at the parish church of St Mary’s Hawkesbury, and the other  a Christmas Special in December in the village hall
• Took stalls at local events including the Hawkesbury Village Show and the Hawkesbury At Play Christmas Shopping Evening
• Judged the Young Writer competition at the local secondary school
• Managed to post on my blog most weeks, although my newsletter to my Readers’ Club subscribers was a bit sporadic – sorry about that!

Reading

• 

  Read widely and voraciously. I won’t share the number of books I read – it’s not a numbers game – but here are some of my favourites this year:

  • The 11th Inkblot by J Hermann Kleiger
  • The Cry of a Bird by Dorothy Iglesias
  • The Quiet American by Graham Greene
  • A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
  • The White Umbrella by Brian Sewell
  • The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen
  • Under the Bridge by Anne Bishop
  • The Box of Death by R Marsden
  • For the Love of Mark Twain by Kalyn Gensic
  • Arden by G D Harper
  • The History of Medicine in 12 Objects by Dr Carol Cooper
  • Lake of Widows by Liza Perrat
  • To Love and Serve by Mary Flood
  • One Day in Provence by Lorna Fergusson
  • Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley by Patrick Marnhan

Travel 

• Visited Copenhagen with my daughter (21), also taking advantage of the local train network to travel further within Denmark and also to Sweden
• Made several trips ot Aberystwyth, where my daughter is in her final undergraduate year
• Visited various family members in London, Sussex and Suffolk

Personal 

• Continued to be very active in village life, singing in the Hawkesbury Choir and bell ringing with the Hawkesbury Ringers
  
• Was confirmed by the Bishop of Tewkesbury in St Catherine’s Chapel, Westonbirt School
• Took a course and was commissioned as a Lay Worship Leader at St John the Evangelist’s Church in Charfield
• Joined the PCC (Parochial Church Council) for my parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Hawkesbury
• Was appointed secretary of the Friends of St Mary’s, after being on the committee for several years

Looking Forward to 2025

What are my plans for 2025?

Writing

• On January 1st, I’ll be doing the final proofread of Death at the Village Chess Club
• On January 9th, my publisher, Boldwood Books will reveal the lovely new cover (I can’t wait to share it with you!)
• 31st March is my publisher’s deadline for the third Cotswold Curiosity Shop mystery, which will be set at Christmas and launched early autumn 2025
• Also in January, I’ll be writing a murder mystery play for the Hawkesbury Drama Group (not the first play I’ve written, but the longest – I’ve previously written two skits for the Hawkesbury Youth Group, “The Simpsons Go to the Hawkesbury Show”, and another based on the comedy series Friends, of which I can’t remember the title!) Rehearsals start in February, and the show will be staged on Saturday 26th April – and also possibly on Friday 25th April, as they’ve asked me to write two different endings so they can do two performances!
• Other writing projects are still under wraps, but I’m pleased to have been asked to write “Golden Girls” novels for Boldwood Books, ie upbeat, fun stories about ladies of a certain age
• There’ll be two Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival events, in September and December. More details to be announced soon.
• I’ll teach my ten-week Simply Self Publish course twice for Jericho Writers, running April-June and October-December (find out about the 2025 courses here) 
• I’ll be speaking at no more than one event per month, so that I can focus most of my time on my writing commitments – so book now if you want me! There is always an up-to-date list of my speaking engagements in the sidebar of this website.
• I’m planning to post every Friday on my blog, or as close to it as I can, and to send my free Readers’ Club newsletter monthly. (Join my Readers’ Club here if you haven’t already.)

Reading

• To continue to read widely, combining favourite authors with new-to-me discoveries, including work by the students of my Simply Self Publish course.
• My first read of the new year is a handsome retro reproduction edition of Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie, after finishing reading Lucy Worsley’s biography Agatha Christie, a Christmas gift from my nephew and his family

Travel

• I’m planning to combine further trips around the UK catching up with friends and family around the country, including London, Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, and Scotland
• My annual trip with my daughter is likely to be either to Scandinavia or Madeira – we’re still deciding
• There may be at least one writing retreat coming up – I’m always open to suggestions!

Personal 

• I’m planning to organise regular dates with my family (I’m lucky to have both parents and brother and sister living within easy reach) so that I can manage my work schedule more effectively
• I’m going to leading some of the services at St Mary’s Hawkesbury – I’ve already helped lead two in the run-up to Christmas, and I really enjoyed them
• While fulfilling my commitments to the PCC and the Friends of St Mary’s, I don’t plan to be inveigled onto any more local committees!
• Take more walks with my siblings and with friends to get me away from my desk for health reasons

All in all, I’m hoping for a busy, productive and enjoyable 2025, with a healthy balance of writing, reading, travel, and time with family, friends and community.

What are you key achievements of 2024 and your goals for 2025? I’d love to hear about your plans too!