The collection represents a fragment of the correspondence between Lady Lilian Adam Smith and her youngest daughter, Margaret 'Mippet' Elphinston Clarke, with an illustrated commentary on the letters by Margaret's daughter Dr Janet 'Zu' Rizvi.

The correspondence is primarily comprised of letters sent from Margaret to her mother, and contain detailed descriptions of Margaret's life in Aberdeen during the Second World War, when she was employed as Assistant Secretary to the local Regional Committee for Education in H.M. Forces. Topics covered include unrealised preparations to travel as a family to the USA by passenger ship in 1940; holidays in Braemar in the summers of 1940 and 1941; air raids in Balerno and Braemar in 1940; the publication and reception of Lady Lilian's memoir of her husband, Sir George Adam Smith; and comments on schooling, family outings, including to a theatre production of Peter Pan in Aberdeen, toys and games, church-going, Christmas, gardening, and the weather. Family members mentioned in the correspondence include Sir George Adam Smith, Lilian Mary Buchanan Drew, Brigadier Alick Drummond Buchanan-Smith, Kathleen Buchanan Thomson, John Adam Thomson, and Janet Adam Smith.