September 1939

Today's the day ...................... to engage

We found this book today while we were sorting through things in my parents' house.

It's a rather elaborate diary that was given to my mother in 1939 - when she would have been 19 years old - by one of her friends. In 1939, she was a student at Glasgow University studying French and German.

It was called an Adventures Chivalrous Engagement Diary and each month was illustrated by a quote from a different author - in this case, Robert Louis Stevenson - written in a decorative script. She obviously used it to jot down what was happening in her life and her neat, distinctive handwriting is very familiar to me.

Her entry on Sunday, 3rd September is rather chilling. It marks something that would become an altogether different sort of engagement ................