Journal (January)

Each January 27^th I read some of Janet Campbell’s journals. Today she would have been 55. The early journals flow flowery, freely expressed, brim with post-university energy. The late journals are tiny-scripted, intensely shifting, packed with enough private codes and abbreviations to test Alan Turing. Egocentricity isn’t a criticism of diaries, but I notice how little I learn about everyone else peopling her pages. The insistent report that ‘I am here’ is offset by Janet’s perpetual quotation armoury: “I am riding the rollercoaster + not sure whether I am at the top or the bottom.” M[ark] K[ingsley] Himalayan Trinity (VII.II.04)