The Journals of Classic Women Authors

This month, The Enchanted Book Club is celebrating the joys of journaling. We’re reading The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volumes 1 and 2 and will welcome the author, Beth Brower, to join us for a Zoom discussion. We’ll also have the pleasure of meeting with another special guest, Sarah Gristwood, author of Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries. Throughout history, oftentimes, a journal was the only place women could be their complete selves, and for many women, the same is true today. The pages of a journal offer the opportunity to express what it is you carry in your heart. Maybe its happy memories (or heartbreaking ones), or the lofty dreams you have for your future. Maybe its the repressed pain you fear would be a burden to anyone else. Whatever your story might be, spilling it onto the pages of a journal provides a rare kind of comfort. One of the best parts of journaling is that you don’t have to be a writer to write about your feelings. Journal entries don’t have to be interesting or compelling or even grammatically correct. The joys of journaling are experienced by expressing exactly who you are, imperfections included.

I’ve been journaling for the better part of the last decade of my life. As “Journaling Month” at The Enchanted Book Club approached, I gathered all the journals I’ve filled over the past ten years and read through them. It was so interesting to realize how much I have changed—but more so, to realize that I’m the same girl I was when I was freshly 20, wide-eyed with a steadfast belief in my deepest hopes. Another joy of journaling is that it allows you to look back on the story of your life, to remember all the moments you never want to forget, and bittersweetly, the moments you sometimes wish you could. So, in celebration of this month’s book club theme, I thought I would share some of my personal journal entries in hopes of encouraging you to delight in the solace that awaits when you reach for a pen and write about the things that matter to you most.

“I’ve decided that I miss it, writing. Maybe it took a certain kind of inspiration to realize how much I miss it or maybe the wave (which is more accurately described as a tsunami) of sadness and distress and everything-seems-to-be-going-wrongness has calmed enough for these pages to feel safe again. I never like to write when it seems like everything is going wrong…because then I’ll put the wrongness into words to live on a page forever. I don’t want the wrongness to live forever so I let it pass and start writing about rightness again. Rightness is making happy memories, watching your favorite movie from when you were six, and going on an impromptu road trip with your mother – all of which I’ve done in the past 24 hours.”

“Yesterday, my mom and I hopped in the car along with blankets, pillows, snacks, comfy clothes, our camera (which we forgot to insert a memory card into – oops!), and an unleashed sense of adventure to drive up to central California for the day. The drive was beautiful, filled with views of the sparkling sea, grazing cows, and a handful of parks and pumpkin patches I quickly added to my mental ‘explore one day’ list. We talked most of the way there. The first couple of hours, we talked about the memories we had already made in the places we drove through – the L.A. hotel my mom had stayed in when she was a teenager and the mall we once visited in Sherman Oaks. Of course, we changed the subject while passing through Malibu and Topanga Canyon. I think the memories I made there are painful for the both of us to remember. As we started passing through less familiar territory, we spent the last two hours on the road talking about the new memories we hoped to make in these places…and of course, the memories we would make once we reached our destination. The Apple Farm wasn’t quite what I imagined it to be, one of the main reasons being, there were no apples! We determined that it probably had its hey day in the 80’s but it still had some of its charm. When we arrived, we were seated almost right away for the event that we had made this special trip for: Susan Branch’s talk and book signing! I truly don’t recall a time in my life when I didn’t know who Susan Branch was. I grew up with her artwork and books in our home and I always knew how much joy and comfort it brought my mother. My mother, my very best friend, who has done more for me than I could ever repay her for. Susan was adorable, kind, intelligent, funny, and relatable. We were lucky enough to have her share the first chapter of her unreleased book, ‘Enchanted’ with us.”

[Reading this journal entry in 2025 gave me the chills! Seven years ago, not only did I have NO idea that I would create The Enchanted Book Club, but I certainly couldn’t have guessed that Susan Branch would become a personal friend. Susan has been an Enchanted Book Club guest multiple times and is a huge supporter of our community. A true Fairytale Girl moment.]

“I’m not sure how I feel today. I still feel good internally but I don’t know where my mind is at. In a million different places I suppose. I don’t know how to get more followers and affect more people. I don’t know how to grow my audience or even get the audience I do have to see my posts half the time. I’m just not sure. I want to have an impact and inspire with my content, with what I create. That’s one of the reasons I create, because I want to give others that inspired, invigorated, magical feeling that my favorite storytellers have given me. That feeling of burning inspiration is a gift and I want to give it away to as many people as I can. I want to brighten lives and lift hearts. I want to help people realize the beauty around them and how to create it when they feel like there’s none. I want my words to touch souls. And I wish I knew what the key was. The key that unlocks the door with all of these people on the other side. And I hope I can look back and read these words one day and smile because I found the key.”

[This entry was written more than three years before I would ever think of creating a book club. I so longed for the kindred spirits in our community – to exchange beauty and inspiration with you. I of course couldn’t help but smile when I read the last line of this entry, exactly as I had hoped.]

“It’s hard to write or talk about being here without crying. This place means so much to me and I don’t even know how to explain why. As I set foot in the English Countryside today, all I could think was, ‘It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a dream.’ I came here for the first time last year and since then I’ve wondered if my memories are accurate…if it could have actually been as beautiful and life-changing as I remember it. Could parts of it have been a dream? I know now for sure. It wasn’t simply the newness or excitement of coming here for the first time. I could come here a trillion times in a trillion lives and my heart would always overflow with an emotion I have no words for. Before we arrived here at the Chatsworth property, yesterday I spent the entire day in London. I feel oddly independent, comfortable, and confident in London – all of which I rarely am. Tony had to go to another side of town for work and I didn’t mind at all. I roamed…”

“…the streets of Marylebone and Piccadilly all on my own and felt that I was exactly where I was meant to be. I talked with the fabulous founders of O Pioneers and treated myself to the most perfect dress. I explored all five floors of Hatchard’s and best of all, when Tony got off work, we went to C.Atherley and I met a true inspiration, Cath Kidston. She introduced me to Elizabeth Metcalfe, the author of New English Interiors, and said, ‘I want you to meet my friend, Hayley,’ I met her lovely husband, Hugh, and she told him, ‘Hayley got me that lovely Secret Garden book I keep on my desk.’ Gosh, if my younger self knew these stories. Before going to Cath’s shop, we had dinner at Carlotta’s and enjoyed THE most delightful wedding cake. Floral dresses, decadent cakes, and meeting real-life heroines. All of this has been my dreams for so long. It’s overwhelming to think about. After yesterday’s excitement, I didn’t sleep all that well and felt it majorly today. I was terribly exhausted and kept getting paranoid that I was getting sick and all the worst case scenarios just kept flooding in. I nearly had a panic attack at breakfast. It’s experiences like these that put a damper on what is otherwise a perfect dream. As a perfectionist and a worrier, I always have to remind myself that I would much rather have a beautiful experience be imperfect than not have the experience at all. I got myself together as I always do, boarded the train, and buried my face in this glorious bed when I saw the view from our window. It was like I found a part of my heart I didn’t know was missing – the same feeling I had last year. I felt whole again. We walked through the brisk air and glowing trees lit by countryside dusk. With each step and each breath, I felt more and more like there couldn’t possibly be a better place on earth. Every time I feel anxious at home, I mentally transport myself here. And on that walk, it was finally real again.”

[If you ever come to England with me for an Enchanted Book Club literary tour, you will bear witness to—for lack of a better way of putting it—my heart exploding. I’ll never quite have the words for England but England seems to have everything for me.]

Another joy of journaling? Reading the published journals of people you admire. Several of our most beloved classic authors kept journals that are now published for us to understand the true story behind the fictional ones they wrote. If you are concerned about the ethics of reading the journals of late authors, you will be interested to know that some of these authors had knowledge that their journals would indeed be published posthumously and even edited them accordingly (L.M. Montgomery is well-known for this). Below is a collection of journals by classic women authors that give us a glimpse into the hearts that our favorite stories came from.

In 1893, fifteen years before Anne of Green Gables would be published, Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote, “Oh I wonder if I shall ever be able to do anything worth while in the way of writing. It is my dearest ambition.” Similarly, ten years shy of Little Women’s publication, Louisa May Alcott confided in her journal, “[I] Read Charlotte Brontë’s life [biography]. A very interesting, but sad one. So full of talent; and after working long, just as success, love, and happiness come, she dies. I wonder if I shall ever be famous enough for people to care to read my story and struggles. I can’t be a C.B [Charlotte Brontë], but I may do a little something yet.”

I especially love reading journal entries like these—ones that were written before success came. Knowing that Lucy Maud and Louisa’s dreams came true makes my heart swell with hope for all the joyous things that just may be on the horizon.

If you’d like to join in the journaling fun with The Enchanted Book Club, visit enchantedbookclub.com. This month, members get an exclusive discount on journals at Rifle Paper Co. and tea at New English Teas…the most delightful pairing!

Love, Hayley