Sunday, 8 January 1978 I have decided to keep a diary during Zelman's term of office as Governor General. I have kept diaries of three recent overseas journeys, and have been pleased that I had, because one forgets so much and the re-reading of a sentence can bring whole occasions, scenes, and otherwise forgotten things, vividly back to mind"". And so begins an extraordinary record of the life of a Governor General's wife. Lady Anna Cowen's edited diaries capture the day-to-day lifea "the wardrobe fittings, the running of an enormous householda "as well as the pomp and circumstance of vice-regal duties during the term Sir Zelman Cowen served as Australia's 19th Governor-General from 1977 to 1982.