Pocket notebook sequence Rowse in 1981 (writing about himself in the third person) described his 'pocket note books' as 'about 100 in number, if possible even more intimate [than the diary]; for, in years of illness, afraid that he might die before accomplishing his life's work and - at heart a poet no less than a historian - he was attempting in these to catch every moment of experience on the wing, observing, noting, people, places, pictures, things, inscriptions, material for work; recording material, information, suggestions for future work, conversations, characters; journeys by road, sea or plane; the title he gave these Note-Books, Buch des Lebens, the Book of Life'. Despite this affirmation of their importance in his creativity, it is difficult exactly to determine what may be termed a 'pocket note book' and what a note book of another description. This inconsistency is amplified by Rowse's own description in his typescripts sequences of a distinction between a notebook and a pocket book. It is thus possible - likely, even - that some of the manuscript and typescript copies from the 'notebooks' (MS 113/2/5), do not relate to these pocket note books but other, fuller (normally larger) notebooks, which are described under MS 113/2/4. 1920s-1990s