  Prior was soon contributing reviews to a handful of magazines, including The Student Movement and the left-wing feminist weekly Time and Tide. The snag was that his work was usually unpaid—but he was allowed to keep the books he reviewed and he sold them at half-price. Things looked up when T. S. Eliot gave him a ‘decent payment’ for two reviews in the literary magazine The Criterion. (Prior found Eliot ‘decidedly on the old side’ and ‘very shy &amp; quiet’.) But money was always tight. Eventually Clare started taking in typing and Arthur found temporary clerical work in the Examinations Department of London University (Prior 1941).