The only surviving diaries are those from the years 1942 to 1953 inclusive, all of which are kept in the archive at the Museum and Art Gallery in Blackburn. There appears to have been one for 1941 which was still extant in 1988, according to references to events in that year in Maurice Leonard's biography, but it has since disappeared. I have omitted days, sometimes weeks, if nothing was entered, especially in the summer months out of the concert season. Apart from cancer, Kathleen Ferrier's greatest enemy was the taxman, to whom she resented paying anything more than necessary, and therefore most entries from the start of her professional career in 1943 include items of expenditure which could be offset against her earnings when it came to making her annual tax return.

Unlike some of the later diaries, those for the years 1942 and 1943 are packed with detail, particularly for 1942 when highly significant events occurred in her life. During this year one can follow the transition from her role as a housewife burdened with the drudgery of washing, ironing, knitting, sewing, mending, shopping and cooking (although these were tasks which she often insisted she enjoyed), to that of a professional singer. By the end of 1942 she had uprooted 300 miles from Carlisle south to London; war had taken away her husband and she was freed from the shackles of a loveless and unconsummated marriage. She and Bert were divorced with no fuss in 1947. Like a bird released from its cage she took full advantage of her freedom. By 1943 she had become an avid theatre-goer, having always enjoyed the cinema or ‘flix’. She now had her favourite London restaurant, the Casa Prada at 292 Euston Road, and also enjoyed regularly going to ‘Chop Suey’ in London's Chinese restaurants. She became a member of the MM Club (the Mainly Musicians Club run by cellist May Mukle) in North Audley Street. Wherever she went she would have hours to while away between rehearsals and performances and would visit antique shops. It was in Liverpool that she encountered her partner of several years Rick Davies, the antique dealer who appears in the diaries between 8th February 1943 and 17th February 1952.