The Diary of Iris Vaughan by Iris Vaughan

ISBN: 9780620292504

Stormberg Publishers, 15 January 2003

Paperback, 144 pages

The Diary of Iris Vaughan was written at the time of the Boer War by a young girl in the Eastern Cape, after her father gave her one of his magistrate's notebooks so that she could write the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in it, instead of being rude to his guests. It is an enchanting account of colonial life a century ago, bristling with the inquiring innocence of youth and exposing absurdities of the adult world. Iris Vaughan's Diary was 'discovered' in the mid-twentieth century by Outspan, a South African literary magazine edited by Charles Barry. When Barry received the manuscript from Mrs Niland (Iris Vaughan's married name), he considered it either a clever hoax or a major literary find. He decided to publish it in instalments, and describes the response as follows: 'Letters poured in from delighted readers. And in these letters was the confirmation we were seeking. People from all over Southern Africa, who had not seen Iris Vaughan since childhood, remembered vividly the events she described. They also remembered that she spent much of her time writing a Diary.' It was indeed a major literary find, and was subsequently published in book form by successive publishers in 1958 and 1969, proving in both cases to be a bestseller that was regularly reprinted - truly a South African classic. The Diary retains all the spelling mistakes contained in the original handwritten manuscript ("sore dust," "Victoria Horspital"), and is nothing less than a delight. It is direct, insightful and, above all, wonderfully amusing. Iris Vaughan gives a brilliant account of her family life in various small towns of the Eastern Cape, the arrival in town of Boer guerrilla forces, and re-occupation by the British columns. Despite its South African setting, The Diary of Iris Vaughan is universal in its appeal - the honesty, the unwitting humour, and the naive but insightful perception of the adult world by a ten-year-old girl know no geographical boundaries - and the publication of this book in the UK will delight and amuse a wider reading public and a whole new generation of readers.