Editorial Practice

Summary

Denis Argent was a good writer. His prose is clear, precise, and largely free of errors, and his handwriting is reasonably legible. While, then, there is little to correct or to puzzle over, his diary and almost all other Mass-Observation diaries were written in some degree of haste and were not intended for publication, and thus some editorial interventions are essential. Our alterations have been mainly in the following respects: (1) revisions of punctuation, in the interest of clarity and consistency; (2) paragraphing – we have generally presented his writing in longer paragraphs than those he composed; and (3) the standardization of usage regarding capitals, numerals, dates, acronyms, titles, and the like. These are all technical changes that do not bear on the substance of the text.

The main editorial interventions concern the deletion of material. Between September 1941 and May 1942, Denis Argent wrote considerably more in his diary than is reproduced here. The material deleted is, broadly, of two types: first, Denis's comments on and critiques of both cultural topics – books, magazines, newspapers, music, and films in particular – and political ideas and developments, notably the conduct of the war and national politics; and second, day-to-day military routine while he was billeted in Bedfordshire, much of it boring, repetitious, and inconsequential. These deletions are especially significant in Part Three, which covers the longest period of time (some five months). By contrast, there are considerably fewer deletions in Parts Two and Four, and only a handful of deletions in Part One (this initial section of the diary is marked by a sense of the novelty of arriving in Bedfordshire and his excitement with his new posting). Each of these three parts presents his diary writing for a relatively brief period of time – that is, for between four and six weeks. The division of the diary into these four parts is entirely a function of editorial judgement. When substantial portions of the diary have not been selected for publication, we have usually summarized their character and noted the main occurrences reported during those days (some of them during leaves spent outside Bedfordshire).

In choosing what to publish, we have been particularly concerned to include all the testimony from the diary that pertains to places, people, events, and activities in Bedfordshire during the third year of the war.