A man's diary, Margaret Willy observes, 'is the language of his most private self.' The diaries of John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys are two of the most famous examples of this language in English prose. The contrasted styles of each befits the man: Evelyn's dignified, pious, a true reflection of his private as of his public life; Pepys's garrulous, colloquial, racy, as he relives the emotions and experiences of that day, a perfect mirror of the inner man divested of his public mask.

Margaret Willy (1894-1971), who also contributed Three Metaphysical Poets to this series, was the author of Life was Their Cry (1950), which includes studies of Chaucer, Traherne, Fielding and Browning, and two volumes of poems, The Invisible Sun (1946) and Every Star a Tongue (1951). Willy lectured at the City Literary Institute and at Goldsmith College, and was the editor of the journal English.