"a small red canvas diary had caught my eye and i asked if i could take it out and have a look. i quickly got the impression that the diarist must have lived somewhere in the english countryside, but there was no name to indicate who wrote it. after i had leafed through most of its pages, i decided that i was going to buy it. not because the booklet had been full of interesting details (quite the opposite), but because it was full of mystery. how did an english diary, written in the second world war, end up in the netherlands in a shop selling second-hand things like tableware, furniture and books?" who is r? and who are n c? keen to unfold the hidden history of an anonymous diary, carla van beers shares her methods of research, bringing two stories: the tale of rural life not far from london in times of the second world war and the trail of her quest as an urban dutch detective visiting england. join her on this journey. what do we know to begin with and how much can we get back from the past?