25 Apr. Saturday.
On my return to Exeter, I discovered that Kate had bought bread and cheese and other essentials for me. She had used my house as an office and had been visited by a scraggy old tom cat who took up residence on the dining room table by Kate's laptop. It reappeared a couple of times in the garden over the following week, trying to gain admission once. I chased it out and it seems to have got the message that it was not wanted. The next weeks will be a journal of the main events of my life in Exeter until Sieglinde and I meet up again. The travel blogs I started with Jill in 2005 seem to have morphed into a life blog and will probably contain more about book history than Jill allowed me to insert into our travels with Modestine.
I am chairman of Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. This is not as grand as it sounds. DCNQ is an historical journal that has appeared twice a year since 1900. It has gone through difficult times of late, so much so that the editor John Draisey has even had to include contributions from me, but he reported today that he feels that there are "small signs of green shoots of recovery appearing". Let us hope.
27 April. Monday.
I visited Jill's sister Julie in Topsham to find workmen from DNH construction busily repairing the wall which had been damaged by a hit-and-run car around 06:30 on 17 February. They made an excellent job of it and Julie only had to pay the £200 excess. Payement was delayed because it was some time before I discovered that they had sent the invoice to Jill's email address, which I rarely look at.
28 April. Tuesday. My sister Jill arrived in Exeter from the Lake District for a one-week stay at the Rougemont Hotel during which she will visit friends in Torquay.
29 April. Wednesday. Kate drove Jill and me to Exmouth and we strolled along an almost deserted beach.
1 May. Friday. This morning I said goodbye to Darcy in the Common Beaver coffee bar in Magdalen Road where she works. We had met shortly after Jill's death when she too had just lost her partner. My words seemed to help her and my subsequent visits were accompanied with hugs and sometimes surreptitious croissants. She later met another partner and now she was going off with him in an antiquated khaki-coloured box of a camper van to see the world. Sieglinde would tease me about my young tattooed friend with her attached bits of ironmongery. I went on to meet Jill in the Chapter Coffee House in the centre of town, a rather more sober encounter, but enlivened by a visit to The Royal Albert Museum to catch the final days of the Grayson Perry exhibition "Aspects of myself". The large embroidered wall hangings were wonderful and we were both caught up in the life of the fictional Essex woman Julie Cope which they depicted.
2 May. Saturday.
Great aunt Jill simply had to meet up with Pippa and Sennen and this we did at Franco Manca, the Italian restaurant in Queen Street. Grandad was just as enthusiastically greeted as their great aunt.
3 May. Sunday.
Topsham antiquarian book fair was held in Matthew Hall and Jill went to Topsham with me. I bought very little this time, only Escapades of an American youngster by Mary Hasell Borwick with illustrations by Percy Heard. It was a local item, printed in Barnstaple by Sydney Harper and Sons in 1910. It seems to be quite a rare item with copies recorded only in the British Library, the Bodleian, Cambridge and the National Library of Scotland. Intrigued, I did some digging and have written about it in Devon bibliography: Westcountry Studies newsletter, issue 41, June 2026.
4 May. Monday.
Sieglinde had decided to go ahead with an operation and was offered slots on 11 or 18 May - no waiting lists in Berlin. She decided that 11 was too soon and booked herself in for 18 May.
6 May. Wednesday.
I met Darren Marsh in the Chapter Coffee House to discuss the history of The Noble Meadow, a plot of land on the south side of Magdalen Road in the parishes of St Leonard and Heavitree. We had just received Chains of title Victoria Park Road & Victoria Terrace, Exeter : a compilation of Title Deeds from the Noble Meadow & Marlands Estates, compiled in March 2026 by David Radstone. It was linked to Darren's researches into Exeter architect John Hayward (1807–1891) designer of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and many other Exeter buildings. The Noble Meadow estate figures little in my book on Magdalen Road as most of the occupants were private residents. I had remembered A. Wheaton as a resident but did not confirm that he was the printer and publisher that I have been researching for some time, so I was pleased to add more detail to my website on Magdalen Road: Exetereme blogging: Magdalen Road Exeter. 5. South side east.
7 May. Thursday.
There were local elections for the city council. I had a postal vote, not knowing where I would be on election day, and I was later relieved to hear that Exeter's overall majority had been dented, thankfully not to the benefit of Reform but in favour of the Green Party.
Following the illness of the compiler, I had offered to take over the compilation of the monthly bulletin of Exeter Civic Society, and, again not knowing where I would be in the middle of the month, I sent of an early draft for the May issue today. Looking ahead, I also booked a room for two at Trickeys at Tolgus Tin in Redruth in the hope that Sieglinde would be able to accompany me.
8 May. Friday.
This evening I watched the celebration of David Attenborough's 100th birthday in the Albert Hall with Sieglinde on Whatsapp. A moving tribute to a remarkable man, a real National Treasure.
9-15 May.
The week was largely filled with work on my presentation in Redruth on 10 June. Presentations are strictly limited to twenty minutes, but I had been amassing a large quantity of information and decided that I would print out the contents of each of the Powerpoint slides and use them as a basis for a web page.
I was also drawing up, in connection with Exeter Civic Society, a response to the City Council's draft "Exeter Cultural Strategy" and its "City Centre Strategy", both linked in my mind with the need for a centrally located Heritage Hub, to bring together a tourists' and residents' information centre, a booking office for events, a local heritage library and gallery, research and educational spaces and a meeting room.
13 May. Wednesday. I finally sorted out with Lily at Topsham Bookshop my accounts for the very few of my publications that she had managed to sell over the past years.
14 May. Thursday. I was forced to back out of the backgammon evening in Rewe as I was soaked in the only downpour of rain that we had for some time. Annoyingly, once I returned home and dried off the sun came out, but too late to catch the bus out to Rewe.
16 May, Saturday. Uffculme History Group unveiled a plaque to archaeologist C. A. Ralegh Radford (1900-1998) at his house in Uffculme. He was one of the best-known archaeologists of his generation, and was a leading figure in the archaeological societies of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter. From 1949 to 1998 he lived in Uffculme, Devon, and was a notable local character there. I had met him at Committee meetings of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society and he was President when I gave a talk on the history of the Society's library at their AGM. In recognition he took me to lunch the the Royal Clarence Hotel. I was amused that the Great Man made sure he got his pensioner's discount when he paid the bill. Hilary Neville had advised on the plaque and took me to the event in her car.
18 May. Monday. Sieglinde's operation took place this morning. There was a brief video call from her in the early evening when she was still a little woozy from the anaesthetic but she was cheerful and free from pain.
20 May. Tuesday. It was Julie’s birthday, and Kate drove me to Topsham so that we could celebrate it in the Nancy Potter community centre before she went off to play billiards or scrabble in the Tuesday Club.
22 May. Friday. Sieglinde was brought home by ambulance. We had decided that it would be better if she tried to get by on her own until I booked a ticket which I hoped would tie in with an 80th birthday party in Croydon on 30 May. She had good friends and neighbours who would help her, and we agreed that my additional presence would probably not be helpful. So I booked a hotel in London and a flight out from London City Airport on 1 June.
23 May. Saturday. Sieglinde had to call on her helpful neighbours when she found herself locked out of her apartment. Valentino from our friendly nearby restaurant the Aperitivo managed to rescue her.
25 May. Monday. I finally managed to sort out my account with the Museum bookshop which had become confused with sale or return arrangements. It was agreed that I will bring in ten copies of The story of the book in Exeter and Devon with an invoice for 10x£10 and 4x£6, total £124, and take away 6 copies of the Magdalen Road book which we agreed was of rather niche interest. I told the manager that it would probably take some time before I could bring them in as I would be travelling.
26 May. Tuesday. Today we managed to assemble in the Phoenix art centre a quorum of the Trustees of Kent Kingdon’s Bequest for the Royal Albert Museum and Free Library, a grant-making charity which, as its name suggests, was established in 1889. I have for many years been chairman of this charity and the AGM, normally held on or immediately after the founder's birthday, was long overdue. There had been a long struggle with the bank to amend signatories for the trust and to our great delight we actually managed to sort it all out just before I was due to go once more on my travels.
30 May. Saturday. Coping with an increaingly uncooperative laptop, I managed to send my initial personal response to Exeter City Council's draft Cultural and City Centre strategies to Exeter Civic Society who are drafting their own responses. Those interested can see my submission in the Westcountry Studies newsletter, issue 41, June 2026. I also sent the Society an early draft of their June bulletin. The vegetables were watered in the evening and I was all set for the off.
31 May. Sunday.
I was packed and up betimes to make my way to Berlin, but on the way I wanted to attend the 80th birthday party of Sheron, married to Colin, a school friend from Colfe's Grammar School days back in the early 1960s. Trains got me from Exeter to Croydon shortly after mid-day. It was a wonderful event held in their daughter Jane's garden, which backs onto Sheron and Colin's.
1 June, Mon.
I left the hotel early for a nostalgic walk through London. From Southampton Row I passed through the peaceful Inns of Court to Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, where I had coffee and croissant with commuters near the Saint Bride Printing Library. I was surprised at numbers of cyclists crossing Blackfriars Bridge. I lingered in the area that was once the heart of the book trade in London. Off Ave Maria Lane I admired Stationers’ Hall, The Stationers' Company from the date of its charter in 1557 regulated printing and publishing until the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1696 when its jurisdiction was largely limited to the City of London. I had never actually researched or even visited it, but I knew the Archivist Robin Myers and had worked with published transcripts of its registers.
Nearby was Paternoster Row, situated just north of St Paul's Churchyard. It was a street once lined with booksellers and publishers. I had ascertained the occupants of each street and alley in the area in the late 18th century. It had been destroyed in World War 2 and none of this remains.
I was approaching was is now designated the Guildhall Cultural Centre which includes the Guildhall Art Gallery, the Guildhall Library and the London Centre.
The present Guildhall Library was opened in Aldemanbury in 1974. It had already lost the City Business Library in 1970 and since I left at then end of 1976 it also lost most of the departments of prints, maps and manuscripts to the London Metropolitan Archives. Since 2023 it has formed part of the London Centre, described as a "new hub for London" opened by the New London Agenda, set up in 2018 under the leadership of New London Architecture which had been active since around 2005. I had arrived before it opened and could not stay for fear of missing the flight at London City Airport.
2 June. Tuesday.
Today I changed Sieglinde’s dressings. The scar down the centre of her back was about 8 cm long and was healing well. Her recovery had astonished everybody and the surgeon saw no reason why she should not fly to Exeter.
3 June. Wednesday.
We took the S-Bahn to Wannsee for a 12:00 appointment in the Immanuel-Krankenhaus to remove the staples from Sieglinde's scar. I was allowed to be present and was amazed how quick and easy it was - clip, clip with tiny surgical secateurs and the staples were removed one by one.
We agreed that we would visit the Wannsee Villa, home to the Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Described as a Gedenk- und Bildungsstӓtte (Memorial and Education Centre), it was open free of charge. It was well frequented and guided tours and audio-guides were available, but we just wandered through the displays. They were uncertain in which room the meeting of fifteen nazi officials on 20 January 1942 described in my earlier blog was held. The meeting set out to rubber-stamp the document for the "final solution of the Jewish problem" drawn up by Adolf Eichmann, whic was completed in one and a half hours and resulted in the persecution and murder of 6,000,000 Jews across 21 European countries. The displays traced the long history of antisemitism, concentrating on the period from the Weimar Republic and through the 1930s with Hitler at the helm. The images did not make for easy viewing and there was a section on the knowledge and participation of the German population, which may have explained why the efforts of the Polish Jewish historian Joseph Wulf to establish Holocaust memorial and research centre found little interest with the German government in the 1960s. In despair at his lack of success, Wulf committed suicide in 1974.
The displays are on the ground floor, and on the first floor is the extensive research library, with more than 75,000 documents, printed, electronic and video, appropriately bearing the name Joseph Wulf Bibliothek. I was anious to see this, curious to see how such a library might be arranged and the staff obligingly provided me with a detailed tabulation which gives a good indication of its scope:
A. General reference works.B. History and historiography of individual countries.C. Jewish history.D. Anti-Semitism.E From Weimar to Hitler.F. Nazi Germany.G. World War II.H. Persecution and destruction. Iincludes concntration camps (H. 5. 1), Auschwitz (H. 9.)I. Resistance.J. Exile.K. Dealing with National Socialism after 1945.L. Palestine/Israel.M. Right wing extremism, right wing populism and racsim after 1945.N. Education and psychology.O. Political and social sciences.P. Philosophy and theology.Q. Fiction.
R. Science and medicine.
4 June Thursday.
We decided to continue the Jewish theme with a visit to the Jüdisches Museum, so caught the S-Bahn to MöckernbrǙǔcke and walked east along the Tempelhofer Ufer beside the Spree. Sieglinde said that her husband Jugen was born in this street, and quite by chance we happened to be just in front of the door.
08 June, Monday.
It was an evening flight from Berlin to Bristol and we arrived at the airport to check in well before we needed to, so time for a snack beefore we passed through security, only to find that a delay of an hour was announced due to problems at the airport. Nevertheless the flight was uneventful with wonderful views of the sunset, which did not stop Sieglinde from falling asleep.
We negotiated the labyrinth of passageways in the arrivals sectio of Bristol Airport and emerged at the transport interchange to find a National Express coach with hopeful passenngers queuing up. We joined the quene and were allocated the last two seats, downstairs with the driver and no air conditioning. But while the Falcon buses drop you at the Honiton Road Park and Ride the National Express actually goes in to the city centre, not far from the bus station.
Of course there were no local buses ar 2:00 in the morning, but we were surprised quite how busy Sidwell Strret was - even in the early hours of Tuesday. We found taxis waiting in the taxi rank and so arrived home wondering whether it was worth going to bed before catching the tain to Redruth later that morning.
