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Notebook of Berta Ruck, May-October 1936, containing journal entries recording her social and family life in Henley-on-Thames and London, and notes for fiction, in particular the novel Half-Past Kissing-Time (London, 1936) and various Christmas themed short stories. Some twenty-six letters and telegrams, mostly from family and friends, cuttings, programmes and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include her father A. A. Ruck, June-October 1936 (ff. 14, 79 verso), sister Ursie [Ursula Griffith], July-August 1936 (ff. 47 verso, 56 verso, 60), and husband O[liver Onions], 16 September 1936 (f. 67), Noel Langley, 10 July 1936 (f. 29), Alec Waugh, [n.d.] (f. 60), Gertrude Lawrence, 14 September 1936 (f. 64 verso) and Rebecca [West], [n.d.] (f. 79). The volume contains references to Amy [Johnson] Mollison (ff. 1, 8 verso) and Norman Haire (ff. 37 verso, 43 verso, 44 verso) and includes ink sketches by Ruck (ff. 52, 68) and the seating plan and menu for H. G. Wells' 70th birthday party on 13 October 1936 (ff. 75 verso-76).

Two scrapbooks relating to the novelist Oliver Onions (1873-1961), husband of the novelist Berta Ruck (1878-1978), the first mainly containing press cuttings of reviews of his works of fiction, 1900-12, including The Compleat Bachelor (London, 1900), The Odd-Job Man (London, 1903) and Little Devil Doubt (London, 1909); and the second compiled by Berta Ruck containing press cuttings, 1946-65, mostly relating to his novels Poor Man's Tapestry (London, 1946), Arras of Youth (London, 1949), A penny for the harp (London, 1951) (see NLW MS 20805C for a corrected typescript), and A shilling to spend (London, 1965); together with obituary notices; and letters from family members, writers and publishers including Dorothy Charques, undated, Rupert Croft-Cooke, 1949, Olwen Caradoc Evans, 1956, John Gawsworth, 1947, Pat Lawlor, 1955, Moray Maclaren, 1957, Martin Secker, 1965, and Raleigh Trevelyan, 1965.

Typescript draft, corrected in autograph, of parts One to Three (to p. 228 in the printed work) of Oliver Onions's historical novel A Penny for the Harp (London, 1952). Considerable further changes of detail were made before publication.