Wednesday 7th June 1933

Up at 5.30 a.m. and away by 6 with Wilf via the car. Very few people about. A lovely fresh morning. Cool clear, with green hedges, trees and grass. Sleaford. Bicker for a hasty breakfast, then on again, - south.. Peterborough, Stevenage, to THE CITY.

Miles and miles, streets and streets, heat, dry sunlight, sultry air, thick traffic. London. Wilf called for an interview at Shaftesbury Road East – it took us hours to find it. Then we drove to Bath Street and I called on the General Tobacco Co. (vacancy for traveller.) I was shown into the waiting room, where I still am. Have written the last 5 1/2 pages here. There were three other men waiting and the third is now inside. I hear there have been 1200 applicants for 11 vacancies! I still wait; so does Wilf. The interviewer was a Lincolnshire man! Will that help me? Fine job, better than the Heinz one.

We were glad to leave the thick stifling city behind us. Tea at a roadside café near Welwyn – Devonshire tea. Red sunset. Great North Road. Into the night. Country roads. Peace. Bicker 12.30 a.m. Instant sleep. (Bicker is Wilfs’ home.)

(2004 This desperate, almost ridiculous attempt to get a situation was not untypical of those jobless times).