The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor (Canongate Books, £9.99)

IN the world of words here is a feast of observation through the centuries.

We have Samuel Pepys' account of being nasty to his wife and regretting it, in a Restoration sort of way; John Evelyn being upset by cruelty to a horse; and Joseph Goebbel's ruminations on the Reich that would last a thousand years.

Then there's Virginia Woolf rambling on in her trademark, impenetrable way; John Wesley relating incidents on the road; and Kenneth Williams with a ready riposte to a postmistresses' rude comments.

However, my favourite was Wolverhampton MP Enoch Powell's belief that "to write a diary every day is like returning to one's own vomit."

Hannen Swaffer would have known exactly what he meant.

John Phillpott