journal

JOURNAL

In 1939, with the threat of war looming over Europe, Clifford Hall began to write the intimate journal which he was to carry on keeping fairly regularly for the rest of his life, with the exception of a few breaks here and there, some of which were as long as several months' duration when he appears to have been either too busy, too happy, or too depressed to keep it up. However, there is some evidence that he had attempted to start keeping a journal earlier than this - at least in the preceding year of 1938. But only some fragments survive which indicate this in a notebook from which most of the pages have been removed. It seems most unlikely that these lost pages were destroyed by anyone other than the artist himself, although it remains a mystery as to why he should have done such a thing.

We are publishing his journal online in its entirety, with extensive notes, in eighteen serialized parts.

Part 1: 1938

The three surviving entries from what appears to have been an earlier attempt to start keeping a regular journal, plus six letters to his wife Marion, written while Clifford was in Paris.

Part 2: 1939-42 'Blitz'

WW2 breaks out; Clifford Hall gives us a graphic account of life in London during the Blitz. Also, as Clifford wrote a great many letters to Marion during this period, many of which add greatly to the overall narrative, these have been included along with some other correspondence.

Part 3: 1943-47 The war drags on, comes to an end, and difficult times follow.

Part 4: 1948-49

Part 5: 1950-51

Part 6: 1952-53

Part 7: 1954

Part 8: 1955-56

Part 9: 1957

Part 10: 1958-59

Part 11: 1960-61

Part 12: 1962

Part 13: 1963-64

Part 14: 1965-66

Part 15: 1967

Part 16: 1968-69

Part 17: 1970-71

Part 18: 1972-73