Kilvert's Diary, 1870-79 (Penguin)

Product Information

Kilvert is so lovely and enjoys his life to crying at the beauty of it - all the pretty children he loves and the trees and fields he loves and his funny welsh parishioners who tell him such great stories. The first entry in Kilvert's diaries in which he records his naked bathing was for 4 September 1872, at Weston-super-Mare. The series is/was a set of beautifully filmed short episodes, reflecting Kilvert's often brief diary entries. The church is very much integrated in the community - Kilvert, though a solid Anglican, is generally fair to Catholics and nonconformists, though I suspect wouldn't be very accommodating to sceptics or atheist, and he shows the Church world as varied in character and virtue as any other. In the newspapers this morning we saw the account of the Royal yacht the Alberta with the Queen on board going from Osborne to Portsmouth running down, cutting in two and sinking Mr.

A country clergyman born in 1840, Kilvert spent much of his time visiting parishioners, walking the lanes and fields of Herefordshire and writing in his diary. It is hard to judge his partly paedophile proclivities from a current perspective - the dubious sentiments of older men for younger girls seem to have been more accepted then - if not acted on - though his belief that those subjected to his attentions always adored and felt comfortable with him, was not necessarily right.Some of his actions and thoughts seemed a little suspicious and if he had been around now the guy would be locked up. There on 1 January 1870 he started a diary from which it appears that he basked in his life within the Welsh countryside, often writing several pages describing his surroundings and the parishioners that he visited. You know that weird, poignant vibe you get from old photos—all those smiling people, so interesting and life-like, and all so dead, dead, dead? This newly edited selection, based on the work of his editor William Plomer, offers all the variety of Kilvert’s delightful prose, and includes his descriptions of travels to places such as Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Liverpool, London and Worcester and his encounters with interesting people of his era, whether known only in their community or nationwide.

The nature writing is very strong, as are the descriptions of rural life and the memories of the elderly parishioners he visits, some of whom remember back into the previous century. A private and personal account of life in a remote Welsh village which somehow or another seems to reach out from this obscurity to touch and recognise our modern lives. The first entry in the published version starts on 18 January, so we do not know if he gave a reason for starting to keep a diary on that particular date.It’s tragic that so many of the diaries were destroyed - so many stories are left unfinished and that is frustrating.

I had no idea the late Victorians played such wild games of croquet (up to six games taking place on one lawn at once), and also I am a bit aggrieved that archery is never offered to me as a standard party activity. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. Full of passionate delight in the natural world and the glory of the changing seasons, his diaries are as generous, spontaneous and vivacious as Kilvert himself.This was a book I’d been planning to read for several years as some of my relatives are mentioned in it- my great grandfather was born in and grew up at Bridge House, Bredwardine and his mother was in service at Moccas Park.