Poetry. ...a glorious and energetic flow of cut-up shifting perspectives. Thoroughly different, thoroughly enjoyable--Bypass. EMPTY DIARIES is an important part of Sheppard's long project TWENTIETH CENTURY BLUES. It provides an alternative history of the century, largely through the device of a succession of female narrators, each of whom knows she is narrated by a man. Robert Sheppard's essays and articles have appeared in the TLS, New Statesman and other journals. He is currently Senior Lecturer in English and Writing Studies at Edge Hill University College in Lancashire, England.