*A Notable Woman*

The descriptive subtitle is The romantic journals of Jean Lucey Pratt.  She was a British woman who started keeping a journal in 1925 at the age of fifteen, and continued until her death in 1986.  Usually books like this bore me after fifty pages (or less), but this one I am finding consistently entertaining.  Here is one bit from her cruise ship voyage at age 23:

My physical needs as a normal woman are badly wanting fulfillment.  I’ve got to somehow make them understand that I have no anchor; that an ordinary and full-sexed woman must centre her interests on one man, otherwise she must inevitably go to pieces.

I’ve learnt a lot from this voyage, and one thing from Nev which is forceful and important — that platonic friendships are impossible.  To show my trust in my little boyfriends I left my door unbolted; although they had drunk too much, I knew I could trust them.  But I’ve bolted it again.

She lost her virginity eight years later, at age 31:

When he had played with me in the French manner (too long I think) to work me up to the Crisis, the Big Moment Passionate and so on, I left him to make my preparations and then lay back on the bed and said in a sepulchral voice, “Now I’m ready for the worst!”  Well, it was damned painful, though I didn’t know it was going to be.

I have quite recovered from my pain in the stomach and am in a rare good humour, have been all day.  It is such a relief to feel one is no longer completely ignorant.

Here is one good review of the book, with a photo of the diarist as well.  Here is another review.