I found my diaries from 1961 and 1962 in my Mum's huge trunk of treasures and thought they would be boring ("Dull day, nothing happened") but they are actually full of nuggets - I discover I first read 1984 by Orwell at Charterhouse on Jan 26/27th 1961 and pronounced it "fantastic".

Never underestimate diaries! At best they do give a great snapshot of the times. I've kept diaries and journals on and off over the years and it's always fascinating reading them back years later. The memory only remembers so much, so when one is confronted by daily accounts, it really does bring back how we once were.

and remember what Mae West said :

"keep a diary and one day it will keep you !"

But she's DEAD darling (said in Bette Davis voice).

I discover in January 1961 Johnny Edge broke my glasses and cut my eye when he opened a door just as I was walking through it at Daviesites in Charterhouse, Godalming - 48 years ago.

So exactly 48 years ago I had bruised eyes.

I don't think this was the sort of stuff Mae was talking about..it wil have to be a bit more rivetting !

Sorry Veritas and this won't improve things but...

amazed by how much I swam, even in winter, at Charterhouse (I didn't remember the covered pool being open in winter), often I was the only boy swimming; poor old Reg Dean - now well dead and gone - must have hated me; one day I was there for two hours (water freezing cold) and "the only boy there".

In the holidays I was often in London at Raymond's Revue Bar (naked ladies - not allowed to move - stripping off one layer at a time behind the curtain) - I was 15... and The Establishment (my membership card signed personally by Peter Cook and Nicolas Luard).

All this from 1961. I'm enjoying reading this although nobody else will care.

..now that's more like it:cheer: