This publication comprises text originating from the author's 'many Saturday afternoon visits' to Grace Cossington Smith during 1970-71 and his subsequent research, matched up with almost 1400 little-known drawings from 51 of Smith's sketchbooks held in the National Gallery's collection. The sketchbooks, running from 1910, when Smith was an 18-year-old art student, through to the 1950s, include works from a productive sketching trip to Europe. There are black or coloured pencil drawings of such diverse subjects as old boots and gardening tools, domestic interiors, casual portraits of family and friends, of passenger ships and evocations of Stonehenge and English cathedrals.