This rich collection is drawn from nine centuries of daily writings. Each day of the year has its page, revealing what some of our greatest writers have been doing, thinking or writing on that particular day, as well as some of the anniversaries of curious and arresting events connected with it - the day Don Juan lost his virginity, a man-powered plane crossed the Channel, the Battle of Hastings was fought. Its vast range of colourful characters and contributors includes kings and queens, presidents, loiterers in the corridors of power, avid diarists and compulsive correspondents. The Murray authors include Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Charles Darwin and Freya Stark; the names that dance down these pages capture the very spirit of a succession of ages. Filled with old friends and new acquaintances, like the best sort of party, this book catches them at their wittiest, wisest, most indiscreet and most compelling.