British teen's 1914 diary from Paris brought to life on Twitter

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British teen's 1914 diary from Paris brought to life on Twitter

Hello All!  Well, another busy start to the month has seen ten days fly by but now here I am again with a new post.  I say "new" but the subject was first reported on as far back as January-February.

The 100-year old diary of Olive Higgins, a teenage girl from Kent studying in Paris, has recently come to light after over ten years in the possession of a London journalist & writer, who spent that time researching the girl's tragically short life following the discovery that they both happened to come from the same area. 

Margate girl Olive Higgins' diary put online at 100th anniversary of death

To celebrate the centenary of Olive's writings the journalist, Rob McGibbon, came up with the splendid idea of publishing the daily entries on Twitter (@OlivesDiary1914) - as well as creating a website with every day reproduced in full as well as further information about Olive Higgins, her family and how Mr McGibbon came to be interested.

The diary and the project it inspired have a poignant ending, however.  Barely two months in to her Paris adventure Olive Higgins was struck down by double influenza and sadly died on the 25th February.  Consequently her diary entries stop halfway through that month, as she struggled to recover.

Nevertheless her record of those first few weeks in Paris make for fascinating reading - a real insight into the thoughts of a 16-year-old student one hundred years ago, yet revealing teenage feelings and insecurities still familiar a century on.  Mr McGibbon's project has certainly been a worthwhile one not only from his personal point of view but also as a valuable piece of social history and a fitting & timely tribute to Olive Higgins' life.