Diaries are among our most precious items of heritage. People in all walks of life have confided and often still confide their thoughts and experiences to the written page, and the result is a unique record of what happens to an individual over months, or even years, as seen through their eyes. No other kind of document offers such a wealth of information about daily life and the ups and downs of human existence. Diaries have been written in this country for about 500 years. Really early examples are rare. In Japan the tradition started in the late sixth century.

The Project's idea is to collect as many diaries as possible from now on for long-term preservation at the Bishopsgate Institute's archive. In the future they will be a precious indication of what life, in our own time, was really like.