Diarists become historians when their lives are touched by momentous events, whether fleeing the Great Fire of London, or hiding in an attic from the Nazis.

My grandfather Harry Barrett Pratt was born in 1890 in the North East of England.

He oiled the wheels of Sir Thomas Liptons grocery empire throughout the turbulent first half of the 20th Century, broken only by military service during WW1, which took him to the lesser known theatre of war in East Africa. He was a workaholic, intent on providing for his family.

From shop floor to Board of Directors, he was a company man. He had the...

"I'll be waitin' fer ye on the other side, my hand outstretched, till ye reach fer me when yer earthly time is done. Then our clasp shall ne'er be broken again..." Sometimes love can be so strong that it ruptures the confines of a single lifetime, extending into those beyond. This is what Caitlyn Hegarty, an American schoolteacher, learns on her trip to Scotland where she soon becomes entangled in the tragic history of a pair of 17th-century lovers. Standing before the dungeon at Undlay Castle, she relives the romantic adventures of the roguish thief and poet, Donal Donn, and his doomed...