Edith Appleton WWI Diaries

[wilfb]

Hi.

You will have gathered from the title that Edith Appleton was a WWI nurse. The diaries she kept of her experiences are in the possession of her living relatives. They are about to be broadcast on radio (starting tomorrow) and may well be published in book form.

One of Edith's relatives, Dick Robinson, has asked his contacts - of whom we are one - to publicise the state of play. A pleasure...

Here is the content of Dick's email:-

Please excuse this round-robin email but I thought you would be interested to know that extracts from Edie's WW1 diaries, written while she was nursing close to the front lines in France, are to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week.

The three programmes last about 14 minutes each and are at 15:30 GMT on Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November on BBC Radio 4.  At present I don't have any information about repeats or broadcasts on, for example, the World Service.  Here's the BBC's Afternoon Readings website which mentions the first episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nqbl3.

This message will be going to all quarters of the globe and I realise that not all of you will have access to Radio 4 at the right time.  But, with the wonders of modern technology, I'm guessing that you may know of ways to access the programmes anyway.  finding that, I'm expecting to get a disc with the readings on them at some point and I will add that to Edie's website (www.edithappleton.org.uk) as soon as I have it.

In case you haven't already seen it, I've written a brief account of my trip to Brighton to listen to the recording of the diary.  It's here: http://www.edithappleton.org.uk/Pier/recording.asp.

You might also be interested to hear that there is the possibility of the diaries being published in book form.  Despite the positive initial responses of more than one publishing house, dealing with publishers, particularly in the present economic climate, is a nightmare.  So, watch this space....but don't hold your breath!

I know I probably shouldn't have, but I've shown the circulation list for this message in the 'To' box above.  So, if you can think of anyone else who I've left out but might be interested, please forward this message and if you have somewhere to publicise information about the programmes – please do.

Whatever would Edie have thought, I wonder, about all this excitement about four volumes of her handwritten diaries which sat unread in a drawer for over 90 years.  There's one phrase from her entry for 14 July 1918 which might fit the bill:  "The dirty dog(s)!"

With best wishes

Dick (Robinson)

Garden Cottage, High Street, Blockley, Gloucestershire GL56 9HF

+44 1386 700613

dick@gardencottage.org.uk

Edie's website was put together by Dick Robinson, Jill Stainforth and Piers Stainforth. Edie was our great aunt and we all remember staying with her at Buddlebrook in the Isle of Wight in the late 1940s and the 1950s.

[backman]

 Very thought provoking reading of this ladies diaries.I look forward to the other episodes and would love to see these in print.

[wilfb]

Hi Peter.

I missed it! We had to keep an appointment and didn't get back in time...

I wonder about the content?  Perhaps we can get copies or permission to carry the broadcasts right here from the site. Would it be worth that do you think. There are of course two more broadcasts to go. I will ask though and put the info here as soon as it is to hand.

Will.

[backman]

Both episodes are available for a week after broadcast through BBC i player  ; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nqbbq