As a young man de Manio worked as an invoice clerk and then as a waiter.

On leaving she went to work as an invoice clerk, but she was already reading widely in English and French and doing some writing.

MacDonald eventually found employment as an invoice clerk in the City warehouse of Cooper, Box and Co.,.

I had worked at Research Machines ( invoice clerk & their first employee) and had a book on Basic from there and I can remember so clearly when we wrote a small bit of code which made lines appear and make random patterns in various colours.

He was a vegetable invoice clerk in Covent Garden market, night sterilizer in a food factory, waiter, film critic, supply teacher, actor (with the English Children's Theatre under Caryl Jenner) and finally librarian in Kensington, Keele, Shiraz, and lastly at Newcastle University.