The team at Eye Library share some of their favourite diaries, letters and journals by famous faces! Browse our staff picks and pick up a copy from your local library.
Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations or explore more of the National Year of Reading campaign.
The Python Years: 1969-1979
Michael Palin
Michael Palin’s diaries begin when he was newly married and struggling to make a name for himself in the world of television comedy. But Monty Python was just around the corner . . .
This engaging volume is a window into the world of Monty Python, from the group’s early cult success to the global superstardom that followed. Amongst tales from the making of The Holy Grail and Life of Brian are stories of the three-day week and the various trials of a peripatetic life, told with Michael’s trademark warmth and good humour.
The Motorcycle Diaries
Ernesto Che Guevara
At the age of twenty-three, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado set out from their native Argentina to explore their continent, with only a single 1939 Norton motorcycle to carry them, nicknamed La Poderosa (‘the powerful one’).
They travelled not to visit the usual tourist attractions, but to meet ordinary people and understand Latin American life.
In amidst the tales of youthful adventures – of women, wine, thrilling escapes and the power of friendship – the young Che also learns first-hand about poverty, philosophy and philosophy and forms himself into the man who would become the world’s most famous and admired revolutionary and freedom fighter.
The Andy Warhol Diaries
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol kept these diaries faithfully from November 1976 right up to his final week, in February 1987.
Written at the height of his fame and success, Warhol records the fun of an Academy Awards party, nights out at Studio 54, trips between London, Paris and New York, and surprisingly even the money he spent each day, down to the cent.
With appearances from and references to everyone who was anyone, from Jim Morrison, Martina Navratilova and Calvin Klein to Shirley Bassey, Estee Lauder and Muhammad Ali, these diaries are the most glamorous, witty and revealing writings of the twentieth century.
Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh
Few artists’ letters are as self-revelatory as Vincent van Gogh’s, and this selection, spanning his artistic career, sheds light on every facet of the life and work of this complex and tortured man.
Engaging candidly and movingly with his religious struggles, his ill-fated search for love, his attacks of mental illness and his relation with his brother Theo, the letters contradict the popular myth of van Gogh as an anti-social madman and a martyr to art, showing instead a man of great emotional and spiritual depths.
Above all, they stand as an intense personal narrative of artistic development and a unique account of the process of creation.
Keeping On Keeping On
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett’s third collection of prose ‘Keeping On Keeping On’ follows in the footsteps of the phenomenally successfully ‘Writing Home’ and ‘Untold Stories’, each published ten years apart.
The latest collection contains Bennett’s peerless diaries 2005 to 2015, reflecting on a decade that saw four premieres at the National Theatre, a West End double-bill transfer, and the films of ‘The History Boys’ and ‘The Lady in the Van’.
Journals: Captain Scott’s Last Expedition
Robert Falcon Scott
In January 1912, Captain Scott reached the South Pole, only to find that he had been beaten by Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition. Scott and his companions now faced an 850-mile march to safety – all perished on the return journey.
A few months later, a search party found Scott’s body, and the journals which told this tragic story.
Captain Scott’s harrowing account of his expedition to the South Pole in 1910-12 was first published in 1913. In his journals, Scott records his party’s optimistic departure from New Zealand, the hazardous voyage of the Terra Nova to Antarctica, and the trek with ponies and dogs across the ice to the Pole.
This new edition publishes for the first time a complete list of the changes made to Scott’s original text before publication.
Tomar emprestado Journals: Captain Scott’s Last Expedition →
Kurt Cobain: Journals
Kurt Cobain
The first publication of Kurt Cobain’s diaries, which were found after his death in 1994.
Genuinely moving, provocative and candid, and surprisingly funny, pieces of writing which, as a whole, provide a unique account of the rise and fall of a great popular artist and icon.
Diary of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Ian Hunter
The ultimate backstage pass to a bygone era of rock magic.
First published in 1974, Ian Hunter’s Diary of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star is a vivid, unfiltered chronicle of Mott the Hoople’s 1972 US tour. Hailed by Q as “perhaps the greatest rock book ever” and celebrated by The Guardian as “a timeless snapshot of a rock musician’s life and a glorious period piece,” this iconic work captures the raw energy, chaos, and charm of life on the road in the Seventies.
Part memoir, part cultural time capsule, Hunter’s diary is brutally honest and irresistibly engaging—a touchstone in the genre of rock writing. Ian Hunter, the charismatic lead singer of Mott the Hoople, has carved a legendary career spanning over five decades, both with the band and as a solo artist. No longer touring but still recording, Hunter proves that the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is as enduring as ever.
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