Dearest Diary

This month Olly Mann professes his love for the lost art of keeping a physical diary

Whenever I fantasise about going on Desert Island Discs—come on, we’ve all done it—I’m preoccupied by the playlist. Do I choose records that actually represent my life, or take the easy way out, and select only the credible ones? Consider: the first album I bought was Ten Good Reasons by Jason Donovan. (That was also the second album I bought, just in case I lost the first cassette.) Yet somehow I can’t imagine putting forward “Too Many Broken Hearts” as one of my eight discs. In my adolescent years, I was a Meat Loaf fan, but most of the songs I liked are about 15 minutes long, and don’t lend themselves to being clipped. Ben Folds would make the list, but which song? I have at least ten favourite Ben Folds songs! Nightmare.

However, when it comes to choosing my “luxury item”, there is no debate. I would, without doubt, choose the item that has been my companion for nearly 20 years, despite the fact that it has zero practical purpose on a desert island: my Filofax.