THE DIARIES OF PAUL K LYONS - 1984
A busy year. It started with a bizarre Zen retreat in Wales, and continued with trips to Paris, Nice, Berlin, New York, Rio de Janeiro. But, somehow, nothing was ever enough for me. I had a good job, a beautiful girlfriend, a great house and my life was full of activity of various kinds. Why then did I seem to despise the contentment that was coming my way. Already by February I was planning an escape to Brazil ‘to justify my existence’ to myself.
I wrote in four diary books during 1984, all of them with red or green bindings. Diary 24 covers from April to July, and then ‘takes a break’. For some reason, I decided to start a new journal written in the form of letters to Bel - Diary 25. Bel and I had decided to give our relationship a break, and this was my way of dealing with her absence from my life. This way of writing my diary affected, obviously, the style, but also the content to some extent. I’ve felt the need to edit this diary quite sharply. I returned to write in Diary 24 in October when Diary 25 was full. While in Rio that autumn, I bought a beautifully produced green cloth-bound diary notebook, and started writing in this not long after returning to London (Diary 26). During the following two years, I was to buy two more of these same notebooks and use them as diaries. (Diaries 23, 24, 25 26)
Paul K. Lyons (September 2007)