This is a fine text to be used as a primary source for research on the Victorian Era, but it holds little value as a general publication in the nonfiction history genre.

Such is often the case when something gets published by the person who found it in their ancestral home, who no doubt (and understandably) places great personal value on the item and it’s contents. I would be delighted to read every iota of this if I or a family member found the original. But without that personal connection, it isn’t informative or interesting enough to appeal to a common nonfiction reader.

Generally speaking, diaries don’t make for good reading because they were never meant to be read by anyone at all other than the author, let alone an impersonal audience. We’ve had a few examples throughout history that bucked the trend (take your bow, Samuel Pepys) and that seems to keep alive the tradition of publishing these things to a mass market.

There are some interesting daily life tidbits in here that interested me enough to keep me reading to the end, but there’s not much real value to this other than as highly specific source material.

I found it to be dry and not great for a simple pleasure read, but I think it would be good for academics who are interested in focusing on writing about travel, writers, and people researching the 19th century.

It's odd to review someone's diary. They clearly weren't writing it to be critiqued, if they intended for it to be read at all. Still reading the rather candid and unfiltered remarks from a someone alive at that time.

Julia Biddulph’s diaries that she wrote as she accompanied her husband John to India as he did his duties plus where they went afterwards. They were certainly well travelled and went to many countries where they visited many museums, parks and anything else that was going on. There was also a good deal about the people they met or who visited them. Some of this, actually a lot of this was rather dull but these were Julia’s journals and could write about whatever she wanted and neither was she writing for publication! I always wonder whether or not people would approve of their private musings being made available for all and sundry to read later? She was a lady of her times and readers are privy to what went on in those days, good or bad.

This book is basically what it says on the tin… the journals of Julia Biddulph as she travels around. And in parts it can be quite dull. Especially in the first half she moves around a lot between camps and not much else is happening. We just read short entries about that they went from A to B at a certain time. Now and then they visit a museum or a zoo, but in general it was quite boring.

In the second half her entries become longer and she describes in more detail the places the visits and the people she meets and spends time with. It gives us modern readers a nice insight into what life was like 140 years ago.

Julia herself has a fun way of writing. It is very easy to read and she just has a way with words that make even the most boring entries somewhat entertaining. She is up for anything and doesn’t take the easy way out. She got married quite late in life and never had children, which I found refreshing to read. Even though she is certainly a lady of means and can me quite judgmental of people of lower class, I found her a lot more respectful of the locals than I had anticipated.

Overall, this was a relaxing read which I would recommend if you are interested in the time period. It made me very excited for this travel ban to be over and go see the world again.

AMAZING! Very well written, a genuine can't put down book! You follow journaling of the traveler the emotional and twisting lives of the characters past! You say one more page, again and again

A woman who lived an interesting life but the best republications of diaries have an editor who condenses the entries so that the narrative moves along. Without this, the book is pretty dull.

I was offered a link via email from the publishers but I cannot access this title. I tried to email back but my email was not able to go through? If you'd like me to review this book, I'd really be glad to do so. I just wanted you to know that I saw the message and would like to follow up with this.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am really enjoying this Victorian era diary. I love that it reads as a journal instead of making it into a novel. I will continue to read, but I'm getting a time limit alert. I am definitely interested in learning more about the customs and travels in this time period. Very slice of life.

I really enjoy reading diaries this one based in Victorian times drew me in. Going back in history through the eyes of these diaries was interesting ,A peek into someone private lives in their own words Is really interesting.#netgalley#troubadorbooks

It was an interesting read as it helped me to understand more about Victorian people and their attitude.
Even if it's a bit slow at times it's engrossing.
The descriptions of people and places were fascinating.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Enjoyable but also a little slow in parts. Some diary entries were confusing as other people were mentioned who the reader knew nothing about. A good insight to Victorian attitudes, but I was yearning for more detailing on the actual travelling.

This is a type of book which depends (beside writing) also on graphic form of the book. I like Victorian times and travelling, so the conjuction of both is really fascinating.
These journals was discovered by great-great-grand nephew of Julia Biddulph, wife of British resident John Biddulph who worked in India on behalf on Queen Victoria (you can find him and a lot of other people easily on the internet. That is the part of fascination). Julia & John travelled a lot of years through India, later also east Asia, Japan, USA and Canada (and certainly many more countries).

First half of the book is rather dull with short entries which can be pardoned because they had to slept in camps and move almost every day to somewhere else. It had to be tiring. The second half is much more interesting with long entries about places, people and curiosities they saw while travelling around the world. I've googled a lot of to see what they saw. It was peculiar to read about prices compared to today's times (10£ in hotel for 2 1/2 days was quite expensive).

I'd like to see how finish copy of the book looks like because that would be part of the its charm. Will there be (hopefully) more photos? I'd like to see a map of their travels in India/world because in 19th century it was obviously more difficult to travel the world. (I'm still going to google some map of their travels by myself).

also I found some typos in the book (don't know if you know already about them, but just to be sure):
p. 19 - 26th, Sir" - the comma is in the upper index instead of the bottom line
p. 57 - "Though their camps were very comfortable, .........even months on end could become very trying." surely it was not tiring?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but having read several fictional books set in around this era, I thought it would be interesting to read a factual account.

I found the sections in Australia, Japan and America to be the most interesting. Here, Julia writes in long passages rather than short entries of only a few sentences. The section in India after she marries (which was in the first half) was rather dull, just continual moving about and hunting expeditions. In spite of the warning at the beginning of the book, all the killing of animals and birds was the most horrible thing.

I think people who have a stronger interest in the era (mine is only mild), and an awareness perhaps of some of the important figures, may find this far more fascinating than I did.

Most of the notes added by the editor (I’m not sure this is the correct term) were interesting, but I did find a few of them excessive. For example, writing [sic] every time Julia writes verandah became irritating - we get it, she spells it differently! Especially when he already made very clear that he copied it out exactly as Julia wrote.

I definitely enjoyed reading this real life account by a female Victorian traveller, it was very relaxing.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.