On New Year's Day 1948 Kathleen Ferrier set sail from Southampton for America, the first of three annual trips she would make, but on this one she was accompanied by John Tillett. This was an honour he was unaccustomed to bestowing upon his artists though there had been a precedent when his partner Robert Leigh Ibbs went with another contralto, Clara Butt, and her husband, baritone Kennerley Rumford on a tour of Australia and New Zealand back in the very early days of the agency in 1907. On that occasion, however, Butt was already a star and the crowds turned out to hear her, sometimes just to watch her train steam through their town even though it may not have been part of her itinerary to give a concert there. Ferrier, on the other hand, was an unknown and had a mountain to climb to make a name for herself with American audiences and particularly the critics. She was away until the middle of February and found it difficult to make ends meet on the tour for there were many unexpected expenses and the cost of living in luxurious hotels was high. She was not helped by John Tillett's indifferent health, and, being nearly forty years his junior, she was neither patient nor understanding about his ailments. He appeared ‘liverish’, was slow and often confused, and prone to dietary complaints. She could not know that he was suffering from terminal cancer and would die six months later. However, the highlight of the tour was her collaboration with Bruno Walter in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall soon after she arrived in the country. After working with Kathleen the previous autumn in Edinburgh, Walter had been a prime mover in getting her to come to America, despite the upheaval it caused at Ibbs and Tillett to cancel or reschedule engagements back in Britain for this period, and at the end of her tour she received private coaching from him in the Lieder repertoire. Her experiences covering the period September 1947 to February 1948, from Edinburgh to America were written down for publication in the school magazine of her alma mater.