DIARY & ALISON

‘Gentry rather than aristocracy’ is how Ginny’s mother described their family, a nuanced distinction perhaps. Theirs was a life of colonial privilege lived out in Gujarat, their status already confirmed by Ginny’s debutante season in England. This had felt faintly anachronistic in the shifting social climate of 1960s London. A life directed by early marriage to a man of good stock was not for the searingly intelligent Ginny. She went on to work as a book editor living just off the swinging hub of London’s King’s Road. Her intellectual curiosity never faded and in her early 30s she took a correspondence course in English literature. In the summer of 1977 the Open University ran a week long summer school giving students an opportunity to meet each other and their professors. It was here that Ginny met Christopher. He was her tutor and Ginny, as a ‘mature student’ was six months his senior. This diary marks their first date in the week that they met. Five years later to the day their daughter Alison was born.

14 Oct 2012