An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists is haphazard, with too many lacklustre items among those that sparkle. In prison, on a long shipboard journey, trekking through desert places, or in an uneventful old age, the diarist confirms a sense of self by putting down on paper whatever marks one day as different from the last.
Some diarists celebrate themselves by recording moments of action or passion.
Others are primarily observers, whose daily entries create interest from life's surprises and oddities. For poets and novelists the diary is often a place to store a phrase or sketch a character, filling a lucky dip for future writing out of today's unsorted experience. The title of Irene and Alan Taylor's anthology, The Assassin's Cloak , comes from William Soutar, a little-known Scottish poet whose diaries are well represented here. That's true for some, but many diaries are written to be read and published. In politicians's diaries, assassins ride into print uncloaked.