Some ninety-nine letters and postcards, 1975-2013, from the poet and local historian Ruth Bidgood, Abergwesyn and later Beulah, Powys, addressed to the Rev. James Coutts, and frequently also to his wife Stevie, discussing her poetry, publications and public readings, her daily life and her family, containing frequent references to friends including Anne Cluysenaar, Angela Morton and A. M. (Donald) Allchin (ff. 1-188, 191-214).
Also included are typescript copies of eighteen of Bidgood's poems and sequences of poems, published and unpublished, [c. 1979]-2014, notably 'Hymn to Sant Ffraed' (ff. 215-225), most given by her to Coutts and a few re-typed by him, and cuttings and photocopies of a further fifteen poems from periodicals, 1983-2002 (ff. 25, 37-38, 52-53, 70, 116, 120, 215-265); typescript drafts, cuttings and photocopies of articles, interviews and reviews, [1978]-2006 (ff. 266-299), including two typescript articles by Donald Allchin (ff. 279-293); and a letter from Bidgood's friend Mary [MacGregor], of Myddfai, to James Coutts, 2 June 2009 (ff. 189-190). Many of the letters were written on the backs of sixty-three of Bidgood's own photographs, so as to resemble postcards; besides these a further twenty-nine of her photographs are also included amongst the letters.

Some one hundred and seventy-five original poems by Ruth Bidgood, 1966-2011, mostly typescript, some are emended and a few are in manuscript (ff. 208, 212, 214, 216-217, 219).
The majority of the poems have appeared in various periodicals, as recorded by the author on the individual folios. A few only have subsequently been published in collections, including 'Cwm Pennant' (ff. 132-133) and 'Encounters with Angels' (ff. 195-201) in Symbols of Plenty (Norwich, 2006), 'Complaints' (ff. 66-71, 187-189) and 'Bringing Home the Bride' (ff. 169-170) in Hearing Voices (Blaenau Ffestiniog, 2008), and a revised version of 'Reading a Landscape' (ff. 177-181) in Time Being (Bridgend, 2009). 'The Zombie-makers' (f. 38) and 'Brianne 1970' (f. 42) were first published in Matthew Jarvis, Ruth Bidgood (Cardiff, 2012), pp. 133-134. There are multiple copies or drafts of some poems, including 'Complaints' (ff. 66-71, 187-189), 'Summerers' (ff. 129, 152), 'Apparition' (ff. 171, 208), 'Reading a Landscape' (ff. 177-181), 'Windblow' (ff. 182, 218-219), 'Elan in Autumn' (ff. 193, 213-217) and 'Looms' (ff. 194, 210). A list of contents (for ff. 1-194) in the hand of the author is ff. i-ii; the order has subsequently been revised by her. Since the author usually disposed of typescripts once the poems had been collected, this volume includes rare examples of her work.