The Girl In and Out Of Love - Oxford 1944-1950‪ ‬

Following Ingrid Jacoby’s first published diary, which dealt with her wartime arrival in Britain under the Kindertransport movement at the age of 12 and subsequent life through to 1944, Ingrid Jacoby’s second My Darling Diary records her life from late in 1944 through to 1950. 

During these years Ingrid lives in Oxford, where she works at the Central Library for a while and then at Parker’s Bookshop. Throughout her encounters with those in charge and with various colleagues and friends, her diary reflects the deep thoughts and feelings of a girl’s coming of age in Britain during the 1940s. 


It is the honesty and frankness of Ingrid’s diary that entices the reader to read on; whether it is her unprovoked lecherous encounter with the famed singer Richard Tauber or her own feelings of love for various men who wend in and out of her life, we know that the sentiments are real, being told directly to us as the diary takes on a persona of its own.


There are times of loneliness, times of desire, sexual experiences with ‘WB’ her married boss at the bookshop and with boyfriends, all interwoven with feelings of inadequacy, doubt, and the myriad of emotions attached to any young woman from any age. However, this is Ingrid’s story, and in so being is also completely original, enticing and compelling to read.