I struggled with this. My feeling is that unless you already know a great deal about Mansfield's life, then this is not a particularly clear introduction to it. There's little indication of what's actually going on, it's very fragmented, and honestly I think its main value lies with researchers.

I didn't warm to her - the impression I was left with was that KM was a bit of a drama queen - and while the entries got clearer and less fussy as she developed her writing skills, my opinion didn't much change. I suspect may feel differently if I wasn't reading it essentially adrift, cut off from the context of her life. But maybe not.