Margaret Smith's diaries are of an essentially factual nature, recording events and activities largely without comment. They are presumed to have been written and kept chiefly as an aide-memoire. As they cover an unbroken period of sixty-three years they contain much of biographical interest, including regular mention of her six sisters. The broad outline is as follows:
Volumes 1-3 (1900-04) cover M S’s school years;
Volume 4-5 (1904-06) cover the early Girton years;
Volume 6 (1906-09) covers the remaining time at Girton, time in London and M S’s departure for Beyrout as a missionary worker / teacher;
Volumes 7-8 (1909-12) are largely written in Beyrout, with periods of leave in England;
Volume 9 (1912-16) covers Beyrout, Cairo, return to Preston in May 1915, war work in Preston, and M S's study for a teaching diploma in Oxford;
Volume 10 (1916-20) covers teaching at Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School 1917, return to Cairo in January 1918, and return to London in June 1920;
Volume 11 (1920-23) covers teaching in Sudan (Khartoum / Omdurman), with periods of leave in England;
Volume 12 (1923-27) covers Khartoum till May 1925; School of Oriental Studies, London from January 1926; and completion of PhD thesis;
Volume 13 (1927-33) covers the early years of reading, writing and lecturing on Islamic mysticism; also M S's Girton Fellowship from October 1932;
Volume 14 (1933-41) covers Girton to September 1935, London 1935-36, and Manchester College, Oxford, 1936-38, while M S continues to lecture and examine in London and elsewhere, and work on the Wartime Social Survey from December 1940;
Volume 15 (1941-50) covers Wartime Social Survey work to June 1941 and other wartime work (Arabic translation, scriptwriting and teaching), followed by further writing and publication;
Volume 16 (1950-56) covers continued writing and publication, and an increasingly domestic life;
Volume 17 (1956-63) as Vol. 16 above (working mostly on occasional articles and reviews), and increasingly spending time caring for her sister Clara.