When I Die ...

By Tim Holman

For anyone who has been serious about keeping diaries, it's worth considering what will happen to them when you, their writer, has died.

For online diaries, there isn't much you can do. They will exist for a while in a cyberspace graveyard until one day their website isn't renewed, or simply disappears for some reason. (It can happen.)

But for physical, paper diaries there are a few more options. One's descendants or friends might proactively retrieve them, possibly to read or at least preserve them for posterity. On the other hand, they might not. So it's worth stipulating in your Will what you wish to happen. Give your next-of-kin a choice: keep the diaries if they wish, or hand them over to a third party for long-term preservation.

In Britain, a splendid body called The Great Diary Project exists for this very purpose. The Project is based at the Bishopsgate Institute, close to Liverpool Street in London and describes its mission thus: "Once a diary is no longer 'contemporary' its message can have value and interest for many other readers who come after."

Further details can be found at https://www.thegreatdiaryproject.co.uk/

I think that's what I'll do with my own diaries. Some of them are quite thin, bland and uninteresting. Others are rather more juicy; I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but I think they're worth preserving for a while.

OK, so where did I put my Last Will & Testament? It's time for an update!