Diary – 14 October 2006

‘History in the making can be most exhausting.’ When I first read these words — by Noël Coward — I immediately assumed they applied to the writing of it. Having just finished a long book about the loves of Louis XIV, I thought I knew all about that exhaustion. So much for solipsism. Noël Coward was actually recording in his diary for 3 September 1945 his feelings at the end of a long war with ‘the world in physical and spiritual chaos’. I read the entry in a wonderful book, The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor, with multiple extracts for every day of the year — no bathroom is complete without it. The most sympathetic entry comes from Lady Cynthia Asquith for 14 October 1915. She heard that there were Zeppelins about but experienced ‘not the faintest tremor. I longed and longed for more to happen …My only words were “something for my diary”.’