SECRET DIARY OF A 1970S SECRETARY

(Constable £9.99) CLEARING out her loft one day, Sarah Shaw found a long-forgotten diary from 1971. Curious and slightly anxious about what memories it might reveal, she began to read. Sarah was 19 in 1971 and had just begun her first job, working as a secretary at the BBC.

Her diary is a wonderful evocation of the drab innocence of the Seventies, when sex education programmes for schools could produce a deluge of letters, some ‘written in weirdly coloured ink’ — and a touching coming-of-age story.

Unkissed at 19, Sarah embarked on an illicit love affair with Frank, a short, middle-aged, married BBC lift attendant. Her account of their relationship makes uncomfortable reading, but this is a period piece, and a poignant account of an unlikely first love.