Dear diaries

I am a compulsive diarist and have been since I was 16. My daughter fantasises that even as a mad old lady in the attic I will still be tapping out my diary. I have to do it. If I don’t, I feel almost ill, as if I am only half living. Do I want my diaries published? Yes, I do, though I did not write them for that purpose. I am 66 and, due to the sheer number of words, they would fill 20 volumes. I feel that if they are not read, my life as a writer will have been wasted.

The diarists with whom I most empathise were also compulsive, though I admire those who deliberately chronicle an important period of history. Victor Klemperer, a professor of languages who was the son of a rabbi but had an Aryan wife and remained in Dresden throughout the war, wrote I Shall Bear Witness, a diary that records the daily restrictions and persecution suffered by Jews.