This series contains essays, notes, poetry and plays written by Julian Bell from school age until his death.
Many typescripts and carbon typescripts within the seven series JHB/1/5-JHB/1/11 (the series containing Julian Bell's poems) contain textual variations and manuscript annotations. Occasionally two or more poems are given the same title. First lines are given where a poem has no title, indicated by three dots(...).
The poems have been arranged in the following order: autograph manuscript drafts; poems with extant manuscripts and typescripts; poems with a typescript or carbon typescript only; a folder containing typescripts and carbon typescripts which appear to have been selected by Julian Bell; printed poems; decorated poems; and a 'poetry game' with lines written in different hands. Generally, published poems have been placed first within any given series, but if Julian Bell included unpublished poems within the same consecutive numbering system as published poems, his arrangement has been preserved.
Versions of a poem may be located in more than one section, and cross-references are provided next to the listings of individual items within files. Typescripts or carbon typescripts of a poem may be listed in JHB/1/7 and JHB/1/8 because Julian Bell seems to have divided his typed poetry and these divisions have been preserved.