Diaries: 1939-1972, Frances Partridge

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, ISBN 0297646664, 9780297646662, 715 pages

Frances Partridge, who died a few weeks short of her 104th birthday in 2004, kept diaries throughout her whole life, and reading them propels you into a parallel universe from which there is no escape until they have all been devoured.

She was acquainted with the entire Bloomsbury Group, but she knew almost everyone else who played a leading role in British writing, music, theatre, dance, cinema and painting throughout the 20th century, and her diaries lead the reader into what feels like an intimate acquaintance with them all.

The diaries continued for thirty years after the last published volume so we addicts are waiting for more (quite soon, please).

Listen to Frances Partridge on the BBC Women's Hour

December, 2009