Scans of a selection of diary entries covering the years 1977-1978 when JL was a 3rd year student at Sussex University. She was aged 22 and taking an English degree in the School of English and American Studies (Eng/Am). The entries cover incidents in daily student life such as reading, parties, socialising, house-sharing, writing a dissertation, and shopping.
JL was born in South London and was living in Brighton for the first time. She lived in Shaftesbury Road, although spent much of her time with friends at Broad Street. After leaving Brighton in 1978, she returned in 1989 with her two young daughters and still lives in the city (2008).
JL made the following comments about her diary when she looked back at it in 2007:
"My third year as a student was the one in which I realised I was supposed to read all those books and so began to feel able to write the essays and engage more in the academic side of the university. At the same time, I seemed to have a constant stream of people moving in and out of my days and a great capacity for drink. During the previous two years, I had been struggling to find my identity and separate from my familiar but dark life in London; in the 3rd year I hit my stride as a Brighton girl.
Brighton was a quieter place then - a town rather than a city. We drank in ordinary pubs in town - the student bars and clubs were to be found on campus. The Crypt (next to Falmer Bar) holds the best memories. Some of the places we went have been renamed or moved - the Top Rank Suite and the original Concorde, for example. The extent to which I mention music in the entries surprises me and reminds me that in your student days, music isn't incidental, as it is now, but the soundtrack of your life.
This project has enabled me to read these diaries with some objectivity for the first time - they previously made me squirm with embarrassment, but now I can read them with humour, seeing myself as a typical student of the time. Obviously, I wish my language had been more powerful and less clichéd, my insights deeper and descriptions more detailed...but I do now view the girl of 22 with her hippy lingo with some affection, despite her sometime carelessness of others and self-absorption. I would like to think I have advanced in insight and wisdom since these diary entries, but in reading them I've been shocked to find that I am much the same - I just know about consequences now, so make better- or safer- decisions."
7 scanned extracts from the diaries, plus edited transcripts of the scans.
All the digital scans are restricted. However, the transcripted material, which is an edited version of the scans created by Jane Lucas, is authorised for public use.
Digital copies of extracts of the diary have been donated to the East Sussex Record Office and are listed here; the original diaries remain with JL.
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