Anne Frank

Finished watching the Anne Frank adaptation of her diary today. And wept my eyes out. It is one of my favourite books and was the first proper book I bought although I couldn't really understand it Her writing talent is extraordinary I find it fascinating that she, a teenage girl living in the 40s during Nazi Occupation, still had the same thoughts, anger and emotions as girls nowadays. It's comforting to know that even she felt this way and that it is not selfish or silly to be upset by these things. That she was a real girl, with everyday thoughts feelings and faults in a tragic extraordinary situation. We visited Amsterdam 5 or 6 years ago, and visited the Anne Frank Huis It was a chilling and emotional visit, I remember seeing the movie stars pasted on her bedroom wall The orange checkered diary and the pages crammed with black ribbons of writing, broken up with photographs and more pages overlaid. Jeff Werners description is perfect The families and their helpers are a true inspiration And this is just one girls story and experience of the war, it is impossible to imagine the horrors of the war and families who were even more unlucky than the Franks and Van Daans Elli Kendrick, who plays Anne in the BBC series

"Anne is this fascinating combination of immature teenager and deeply contemplative, inspiring thinker - she had such constant, unfailing hope. There's a real wit and verve that comes across in her diaries in the face of all her hardship, which no reader can help but like."

Something that struck me was how little things have really changed since her lifetime: us girls still have spats with our families, worry if they're pretty or not and become somewhat dangerously fixated upon boys."

We also visited the Van Gogh museum and saw the Manet exhibition, visited the flower markets and shopped.