When I started keeping a diary in 1969 there were no smart phones, no internet, no high-speed trains and no dating sites. Pythons were still just snakes and no human being had ever stepped on the moon. I sat down at my kitchen table, took out a biro, wrote down ‘Thursday April 17th’ and underlined it. I can remember thinking how seriously pleased I would be if I could keep it up for a month, let alone a whole year.

But just a few days ago I picked up my pen, wrote ‘Thursday June 6th 2024’ and underlined it.

Yes, 55 years later, I still write my diary, in long-hand, on most mornings (Never at night. After a few glasses of wine I can’t read my handwriting). It’s become a part of my daily life, like brushing my teeth – though sometimes not as exciting – and I can now go back all those years and relive the highs, the lows, the embarrassments, the things I’d rather have forgotten, and the things that make me laugh out loud. And, of course, the diaries are full of reminders of good times with good friends I’ve lost. Over the last year, since Helen’s death, I’ve found it very reassuring that there is a record of our life together, which I can dip into, and which nearly always offers comfort.

In September I shall be on stage again sharing the eleven years between 1999 and 2009 with my favourite kind of audience – fellow human beings under the same roof.

The show, like the book, is called There and Back, because I travelled a lot in those eleven years. But there was just as much going on in my life at home, so if you do come along, and I hope you will, be prepared for laughter, a few tears, many surprises and some startling honesty!

See you there!

Click here for tour dates and venues.