Four notebooks of literary, personal and observational musings, and is perhaps the most intellectually valuable item in the collection. The first notebook, if they were to be ordered chronologically, is the small cream notebook with floral pattern on the front, which dates from 1969 to 1970. It is perhaps the most general of the notebooks, even containing such ordinary details as train times, however it does contain many quotes and quips. The quotes included are often of a literary ilk, and reference such notable writers as Oscar Wilde. The text is in places very small and the text difficult to read. Next is the small brown flip notebook, whose entries date from between 1970 and 1971, which appears to be of a more personal nature containing as it does details of dreams and outings, and numerous quotes from H.N., or [Hilary Nicholson].

The notebook however does contain lines from later published works such as 'Dead Man's Life', and musing of language construction. Thirdly, is the small yellow notebook which has 'NOTES' adorned on the front of it in black ink and dates from between June 1971 and December 1972, as the writing on the front cover indicates. This notebook is more clearly dated than the others and contains more drafts of poetry than the previous two, and contains many wide ranging cultural and literary references. Notable figures referenced included John Keats, J.S. Bach and Vladimir Nabokov.

The final notebook is the medium sized blue notebook which has faded brown-green on front and is affixed with a sticker stating "Commonplace book 1973-". As with the third notebook, it is fairly judiciously dated with most of the writings dating from between 1973 and 1979, although the notebook does contain entries from as late as 1986, and perhaps later. The content is consistent with the previous three notebooks containing as it does quips, quotes and literary references to W.B. Yeats, Samuel Coleridge, Mark Twain and Virginia Woolf amongst others. It is worth noting a lot of the quotes are uncredited, so it is unclear at times whether the quotes are Nicholson's own or those of a third party, quite as the literary quotes are. This is true for the other three notebooks also.