MY DARLING DIARY - Volume Three by Ingrid Jacoby
In her third diary we follow Ingrid Jacoby’s life through the first half of the 1950s from the age of 23 to 26 years.
Still in Oxford and now working for Rosenthals’ Antiquarian Booksellers, she records relationships between all her work
colleagues whilst finding a particularly deep attachment to Erica Spender, a
worldly woman who sees in Ingrid something of her own spirit.
The intimacies and eccentricities of a number of boyfriends are brought to life
throughout the entries and the names of Markus, WB, Alan, Jonathan, Antony,
Peter and Michael weave in and out, coming and going, as either good or bad
sexual encounters ensue or promises of more stable relationships occur.
At times Ingrid is sent into depression, will nothing work for her? She remembers, at the age of 12, being transported via Kindertransport from Vienna
to Falmouth with her sister Lieselotte, discovering that her mother was lost
forever after dying in a German concentration camp and subsequently being
unable to properly find a close relationship with her father and his new wife.
Holidays back to Austria and Falmouth help to build awareness and
understanding, although still leave a sense of estrangement.
Finally though, there is a relationship that brings stability and reason to
Ingrid. She meets and falls deeply in love with Stan, and as the pages of this
third diary come to a close we know that her heart and life have become secure.
Ingrid Jacoby
At the age of 12 Ingrid Jacoby left her home and parents in Nazi-occupied Vienna
via a movement called Kindertransport. She arrived in Falmouth, Cornwall and
spent the years through to 1944 at school there. After leaving school she
worked in various libraries and bookshops. In 1968 she became a mature student
and qualified as a teacher three years later. She studied at Sheffield
University and went on to teach modern languages.
She has always kept a diary, continuing through to the present day, and has
been featured in this connection on BBC Radio 4
’s Message to Myself and Woman’s Hour as well as other radio programmes.
