Rosemary Tonks was born in 1928 in Gillingham, Kent, and published two collections to critical acclaim in the 1960s, Notes on Cafes and Bedrooms (1963) and Iliad of Broken Sentences (1967). Tonks also published six novels in the 1960s and early 1970s, before retiring from public view in the 1980s. In the year of her death, Bloodaxe Books published a collected edition of her poems with a selection of additional prose, Bedouin of the London Evening (2014).

This collection consists of digital copies of Tonks’s personal diaries, correspondence between Tonks and Joan Moat from the University of Exeter, and photocopies ofTonks’s personal records. A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.