Four Racy Diaries (converted Notebooks except 1954) and a Memo [Note] Book. (1930s) A young man on the loose in London, commencing a career in journalism and writing biographies.

With a file of personal papers. The social and professional life of a young writer in London (and Leeds).All 12mo, wear and tear to bindings (varied),some pages loose, contents fair and complete. Subjects: [1930] day-to-day activities and events; meetings (business and romantic); the "Y.P. [Yorkshire Post]; social life; played rugby; sexy dreams; working on article (on Michelangelo, etc); art gallery, theatre and cinema visits; dances and other social activities; ideas; saw a classic Bradman innings; girls, girls, girls; important purchase - "Lady Chatterley's Lover" [banned?]; poem about sex; public response to his article on Aldous Huxley; R101; commissions; (at back three pages listing articles he published in 1930, date, paper, payment - total £94.0.6 = income for that year). [1932-34] Subjects as 1930 and: poems; engagement; reading; Lovat Dickson rejects "Wonder Malady" (novel); his ex has a hold; starting work on "Rabelais book"; literary circles and art; reviewing work for the Y.P.; his "Trinc"; contract for "Laughter for Pluto"; in Frank Dobson's studio; invitation to go on Dorothy Una Ratcliffe's boat; "Northern Visit" (Leeds); publication of his novels; start of new novel; turned down jobs; "in a few days, I suppose, I shall awake from this dream, & find myself back in - Leeds!"; work on "the drury Lane book"; visit to Leeds; Leeds Arts Ball; projects that Pinker will be his agent; relationships; ambitions; (loosely enclosed soem scraps including a letter to the British Ambassador - he is stuck in a prison cell in Spain(?)). [1934-35] Subjects as above, as well as: Pinker, literary agent, to handle article "The Old and the New Feminism"; ideas for articles; his others' opinions on art; art shows; meetings with Nina Hamnett and Mrs Epstein, etc.; street orators; "Catherine the Great"; intellectual conversations; work; met David Granett to invite work; dream about writing something brilliant; travel in the West Country; Spanish trip - extensive coverage, including his being imprisoned in Calabozo for passport infringement (secret police and communists met in gaol); full entries re. the prison experience - a nightmare; explaining to his girlfriend his "unfaithfulness in Leeds"; suspects Norah of infidelity; meeting with George Hackenschmidt to discuss whether "it was worth my while to put his book into shape" [he eventually spent time on the Riviera interviewing Hackenschmidt and getting to know him]; encounter with Paul Robeson; ends in May 1935. The 1954 diary has only brief entries and the Memo Book contains mainly literary notes.The file of perosnla papers includes photographs of Watson; correspondence with ex-wife, partly relating to son; material relating to his wife (becomes ex-wife) and her son by another marriage; etc.