This is the final issue of The British Diarist. When I launched it, eight issues ago, I was encouraged by considerable initial interest.....It has been a great pleasure putting the issues together....I would like to think that there is a niche for such a magazine, but it may be that it will be left to someone with greater resources than myself to realise it. I cannot but admit that there is some justice in a criticism which I have heard a number of times in one form or another, that I have been trying to conduct a nineteenth century magazine in the twenty-first century.

To the contributors, especially to Professor Barry Baldwin, I would like to express my great thanks. It has been an inspiration to work with them. John Saumarez Smith of Heywood Hill's Bookshop in Curzon Street, Mayfair has been a great supporter and I would recommend his bookshop as highly compatible to anyone who has enjoyed the content of this magazine. We have adequate numbers of the eight issues, which we will go on selling to anyone interested. We also have bound copies of Vol. I and very shortly we will have some copies of Vol.II. The index to the second volume, when it is produced, can be had upon demand. I don't like to leave loose ends untied. As a secondhand bookseller, I shall continue to deal in British diaries, but I shall miss the opportunity to share my discoveries in the field.

The small piece on page 270 concerns a modest Bristol diary which caused a small flurry in the national press in December. The speed with which the reporters, led by my cousin Simon de Bruxelles, uncovered a host of facts about the diarist shows what can be done if sufficient modern resources are devoted to a search. The articles by Anthony Richards and Tamsin Mosse here also bear on this matter of the worth of even insignificant diaries.

There is quite a lot of unfinished business, which might have been fun. I hardly pecked at the London Record Society's list of Unpublished London Diaries (2003) although I shall continue my researches in it. Nothing much seems to have come of the proposed National Diary Repository, but it was an interesting idea. I shall keep in touch with Irving Finkel at the British Museum. I have been on the verge of visiting the Rev. Trevor Beeson, who wrote two fascinating church diaries some years ago, but my good intentions remain unfulfilled. There were also seams still to be mined in the Parson Woodforde Society's journals, but I am grateful for the articles we have had from them. I eventually intended to reprint Michael Powell's major article on 'The Diary of Edward Harrold of Manchester', but it made it into a series of papers called Light on the Book Trade first. When I first surfaced with this idea, I received a sample copy of the splendid diary of Henrietta Halliwell-Phillipps, but I have never managed to discover if it is still available, so it still sits on my desk. The poet Alun Lewis's Journals are just about to be published, but too late for me. I have added one or two notes elsewhere of books we heard about but never managed to get for review: others may at least note their existence.

I have had a lot of fun with this subject and pleasure from the various correspondence the British Diarist has attracted. I remain convinced by occasional flurries of interest in diaries in the press that there is a great untapped facsination with them out there. I am sorry that this issue is late and rather thin, but work in connection with my bookshop has had to take priority. I trust you will find something to interest you in it.

PAUL MINET

A few words from Volume 1, Number 1, Issue 1

CIRCULATION
It will be published at the beginning of May, August, November and February. Four issues will make up a volume, with an index which will cover all diaries noted, both in the text and in advertisements. We also hope to offer a binding service to those interested. I have tried to keep the subscription simple: it will be £15 per annum in the UK and £20 abroad, both inclusive of postage (further details). I hope to get it into one or two bookshops and these will be noted in our pages, but it is early days yet.

ARTICLES, CONTENT, & EDITORIAL PHILOSOPHY
We will be paying for contributions, albeit modestly, but do please contact me before getting to work. We will need to approve subject matter in advance and even then acceptance will, of course, be subject to view of copy. We welcome notifications of projects, small publications and other relevant matters for our 'Notes' column. A word about the major restriction I have placed on the content. We will be noting, reviewing, writing articles about and selling books by diarists who were born in the British Isles. For our purposes this includes Ireland because, until relatively recently, these islands were a political entity. The diarists can be serving overseas, or emigrating, or travelling anywhere, but they must have originated here. First generation Australians, for instance, are in and second generation out. This restriction is not done for any chauvinistic reason but simply for practical reasons. It is better to do one area well than try to cover the whole world, which I would find impractical. My definition of the word 'diary' is broadly restricted to day by day entries where possible, although where a book has clearly been prepared directly from day by day entries we might be a little flexible. Autobiography completely rewritten does not seem to me to fit the bill. I will be trying to reprint one interesting diary in connection with each issue. You will find the first one on page 31 and, just to encourage people, I have added a modest promotional offer in connection with the book and the first year's subscription. I suspect this will not normally happen. I welcome suggestions as to diaries that merit reprinting, preferably out of copyright or, if that is relevant, where the copyright owner wishes the book to come back into print. If we succeed in attracting more material and, even more cogently, some advertising, the size of the magazine will increase. I have myself kept a diary for years, as do several people I know.

This issue has a fairly strong Woodfordian flavour, but that is just at the beginning because I have received encouragement from the members of the Parson Woodforde Society. I want to hear about any similar societies as soon as possible (but they must be diarists). We will be covering the classic diaries by Pepys, Evelyn, Kilvert etc. as time goes on, but our field is the whole British diary scene, published or unpublished. Many county societies have published local diaries which may be of wider interest. There may well be theses out there which deserve wider notice. Let's hear of them! I look forward to a long association with the readers of this new magazine.