I started reading my grandmother’s diary, written in Kenya in 1958. It’s providing a fascinating insight into the life my father lived working on a farm, and has certainly shed light on aspects of his behaviour and our relationship. I’m enjoying it very much.
It’s written in quite a terse style, but still manages to convey a rich narrative of the difficulties of life running a farm in Kenya. {A brief digression: WordPress is recommending I tag this post with both “Barack Obama” and “Vampire Diaries.” I think they need their suggestion algorithm checked} Presumably my writing verbosity is inherited from my mother’s genetic stock.
Feeling inspired, I’ve decided to do some diary writing of my own — on the Internets!
Dismayed with the instantaneous gratification of all things digital these days, intrigued by looking back into the past of my grandmother’s diary-world, and just to be generally difficult, I’m introducing a twist. Time-delayed publication! It will be just like I’m not doing anything at all for 5 years.
The Waffle Group 
We are so glad you are enjoying your grandmother’s diaries Neil. Jared copied them out some years ago, putting them on disc and sending a copy to each of Bobby’s brothers.Your parents had this printed and bound. Yor grandparents were supposed to save up for so many years in order to buy a farm in Kenya. Bobby had been to Egerton Agricultural College, and was managing a farm when his parents and young Michael turned up. His father had left his job unexpectedly. This meant that not only was very little money saved, Bobby was suddenly responsible for these three family members. This meant that there wasn’t the money to buy a good farm, hence all the struggles described in the diary. Bobby has kept a diary since we moved to Mapperley Park in 1986, when the children were little. I admire his dedication, because he has written something almost every day. Not being sure of a date, our neighbour once asked him to look something up in connection with an insurance claim. Sure enough the weather had been stormy and she could go ahead with her claim!
Elizabeth
I’ve had the electronic diaries for a while but didn’t think much of reading them on computer screen and couldn’t be bothered to print them out myself.
Got myself an e-reader for Christmas and loaded them up. I’m sure my dad will also be chuffed I’m finally reading them.
We owe Bobby and you a visit, and now that both Angie and I are employed we might actually be able to afford it. Hopefully will see you this year!
A fascinating family history you have there, Mr Robinson.