Christmas is over & fairly harmlessly.  Christmas Eve Henry & I dined off roast duck at the club & then went to party at the Mercury with all the boys & girls & very charming it was too, with a Christmas tree on the stage & charades & forfeits & plenty of drinks.  I was treated with immense respect by everyone as the Critic.  We left at one o’clock & to bed.  In the morning Henry produced my parcels & your heavenly books, dear you, Wisden, so nostalgic & charming, & the fine O.U.P. Clark Stewart book.  I sniffed it & gloat over it whenever I see it.  Then communion in our little chapel & then a party ten, the Kick off of a Cup tie football match at 1030, a cocktail party with the Colonel at the Brigadier’s, & the final of the match & the cup presentation, the Final Dinner arrangements, the ceremonial & toast, & the beery cheerful hectic dinner preparations, and the clearing up, after 680 dinners & rounding up guards & the prisoners & all, & the Sgts men at 4o/c & then a Ball where I slept soundly for an hour !  6o/c our dinner & speeches & and then the dance & that was Christmas & I found myself M.C.ing the dance & handling a too drunk officer & controlling Ian, very affectionate & gently pickled, & at 2.30 I carried the goose someone had brought to the dance to her home & so to bed !

Thus my last Christmas away from Home !  A pleasant day, but very very beery.  Yesterday I had work in the morning, slept all the afternoon & went out to Martin Benson’s girls mother’s flat for cocktails & then we all went to the 3 Arts Ballet, & saw Moonlight Sonata, the usual Divertissements, & a lovely  Ballet.  If I can find the programme I’ll send it.  It was John Regan.  And very good, but so nostalgic & youish.  I had you with me.  From there to the Santa Lucia for a handsome supper & much talk & then at midnight home.

Today’s been very busy & all the afternoon & all the evening, – it’s midnight now, I have slogged at act 2 of the Play. So here we are.  Hectic days & much thought of you.  They were lovely presents.  Uncle Parker sent me such a nice pipe & I had a new pipe on Christmas day.

We go back to Suez, Ian, Otto & I on Saturday, lunch at Cairo of course.  Then the last phase starts.  The daily phone calls indicate that our presence is needed.  Everyone’s very pleasant here, but they need us there.

And whatof your Christmas ?  I do hope it was happy & Dickie liked the stocking & the elephant.  Oh dear, how I look & look at those colour photos of Ronnie’s.  That was a great kindness he did.  Oh, a letter from J.G.L.  & a sweet cable from Aunt Ame on Christmas Day.

This is a fin du jour letter, to send my love.  I’ll write for the tomorrow.
*

*I’ve written 22 minutes of play today !

                         At the Club with Henry, where we dine at 8o/c & then go, after a leisurely coffee & chartreuse to the Mercury for their Christmas Party on the stage. This morning I was inspecting Christmas arrangements & solving the inevitable problems connecting with feeding & feasting 680 men, & this afternoon we played tennis. A luminous & affectionate Ian came in & we had to have a few drinks & Christmas spirit at the Bar & he brought us down, it being very difficult not to dine with him. Now, as our wives are so prominent in our thoughts we have decided to write to them in the library of the club. We’ll discuss & laud you over dinner. There is a most exciting Parcel for me in the cupboard of our room & Henry will produce it in the morning. Also a parcel from uncle Parker ! Bless the man.

                         Col.  our A.Q.M.G. telephoned his wife this morning. I considered the idea, but £3 is such a lot of money to be spell bound for 3 minutes ! Anyhow we’ll have opportunity to talk before very long. All here is laurel & little lights, the Messes & the dining Hall. The club is lightly decorated & dignified & Englishly unemotional over it. Elderly exiles reads the Times as on any evening.

                        I’ve been considering the problem of Coming Home. As I see it it is thus :- D₁ + D₂ + D₃ ;- quietly at home, just Us. D₄ – D₇, Kettering. D₈ – D₁₂ London, D₁₃ – D₂₀ at Great Alne & out & about, D₂₁ – D₂₈ Mothers Anne & Rose at Great Alne. D₂₉ – – – begin work. Any comments ?

                        Henry & I went to tea at a swagger place last night & had beer & an omelette & then to the Mercury to the last performance of Thunder Rock. All were so pleased to see us. In between all this I been very busy sorting out minor muddles. It’s nice here but the Desert has points in its favour.

                        Well, dearest, a Happy Christmas and soon may we meet. We’ll pledge you both this evening. Tomorrow is a busy day. Men’s dinner at 1o/c & then the Sgts. Mess & finally our dinner at 730 & a dance.
Next Christmas – – – – – !

A spare 2 hours in Cairo changing cars. I arrived at ten thirty & went to the Museum & was quite bewildered at the acres of mummies, scarabs, sarcophaguses & so on. Particularly I liked the chariots, the cooking utensils, a genuine six-foot God Anubis – Jackal with lovely ears  & we must call any upright eared dog we have Anubis ! Also I love the toys, tops & a striped cat, a dolls house & a small bow & arrows, all 4000 years old. The Egyptians haven’t half degenerated in the past 4000 years to the modern common wog ! The Tutankhamen Galleries are too splendid for digesting. Golden sandals, Golden thrones & lovely jewellery. Gloves & daggers, little jars & large jars, rings & crowns & scent bottles. The sarcophagus is all solid beaten gold & enamel. It’s startling. You’ll like it. There are sphinxes & lions, couches of gold & canes, quivers & “play boxes”. I had to buy a scarab from a revolting dragoman outside, quite certainly a fake but a clever fake. He asked 75 Piastres & took 15 (2/6). I’ll send it to you, not pretending it’s more than a few weeks old. It’s only  is that it’s an excellent fake. One thing struck me (not a scarab) – the little lamp & bowls Lanave gave me are valuable. They have many in the Museum, of 1000 BC & more & none better than ours. Well, yes, but many worse. So tell Richard to be kind to them. I’d have loved one of the chariots for the Alcester run. You’d have squeaked with delight, will squeak, at the birds & animals & a sweet lion.

                        After that I had coffee at Groppis & then called at G.H.Q. My business done I dismissed my driver to Suez & the other to see the sights until 3.30 & came here, were I have lunched & sit on the terrace with the Nile at my feet. A fine lunch, too, Gnocchi, veal, celery au gratin, creamed potato & peas, a delicious almond raisin confection, cheese & a basket of tangerines, oranges & bananas & coffee – 20 Piastres – 4/ –

                        Before lunch I nosed  in the officers shop downstairs & bought  for 46 Pt – my hoard grows – & a hearth rug for Richard. It’s white cashmere & gaily patterned in flowers. For this room  – soft for small feet & Candy will look glorious thereon. It can be washed & cost only 80 piastres – 16/- I think it’s a wise purchase & you will approve.

                        I’ll get to Alex at 7.30, all being well, up the desert road, for dinner & a reunion with the gang there.

                        Time marches Proudly on to what a climax ! Bless us all. I met four lost looking R.N.V.R. loots at the Museum. They’re flying home from S. Africa. I took them to Groppis & gave them an itinerary until they take off again this evening for Marseilles. They hope to be in U.K. tomorrow afternoon ! I don’t know.

                        At lunch I reread your last 6 letters, dear gay tender letters. The faith you have in me humbles yet fortifies me. I’ll just have to write well & truly. I feel it’s there, & with life at so rich a consistency as it must be with you as companion & travel-mate, whatever befall it will not be impossible. I wonder if I’ve changed much in these 2 years & more ? I think not. Perhaps a steadier sense of values, & even deeper appreciation of life & the qualities you have in so rare a mixture. Quieter maybe, but generally I should be recognisable. I hope so. And do reassure Richard that I am indeed his Daddy & very willing for us to be warm friends, & that I shall indeed come home soon. And then he can talk to be on his telephone. Will he tell me stories, or is it to be a one-way contract ?

                        I sent on a Saviozzi letter last night, & afterwards I remembered that the flap was struck down. Open it up & read it if you like, it’s in rather foul Italian though.

                        I fear the token Christmas present I sent you was by no means a measure of my wishes. I am not very good at presents. Handbags seem to have become habitual & I thought a powder doings might be all right. The Firenze one was leather and not very lasting. This would do for all time. I ransacked Alex for a gold pencil but could find nothing right, only ordinary automatic ones with gold bands or ugly American ones. However, it’s with much love. I found a Max Factor shop & will cope in due course.

                        If I had unlimited funds I could satisfy my constant craving to shower you with the presents I wish. As it is they are all mere tokens of a very great love.

A little letter with a commission – will you please post this for me to my Saviozzi. It takes 2 months from Italy to Egypt. I feel it will perhaps be quicker from England. So nice & sweet a letter they sent, Giorgio as the scribe in his self appointed place as the David caretaker. He was always most proprietorial. I enclose their letter, Giorgio’s plus family comments.

                        No news since last night. A busy morning & evening & a tennis afternoon. Now I’ll pack for my departure at 8o/c in the morning. I have a very luxurious pair of staff cars at my disposal. I hope to find an hour at the Cairo Museum with Tutankhamun. They say it’s the best thing in Egypt.

                        Youll have finished Christmassing now. The elephants name is Ahmed. The camel is Jerome.

                        No news & much love   ̶

A Gala day, three letters from you, of the 1st;, 9th, and 10th;, the middle one typed and all very fine letters indeed. They came aptly, as I have been having a Lazy Sunday and after a brief hour in the office sat in a deep chair in the mess in front of a good fire and was reading the Christmas Illustrated London News and the letters came. Also one from your good mama with a Christmas Box, the nicest little diary of the size and kind I like best of all, blessings on her head, and a letter to her hand will come. To answer a question of yours, I acted independently as regards a little Christinas token present to Mama Hall by sending her a little bracelet, the same kind as I have sent per Aunt Ame for Mama Anne, a small thing but not unpleasaing.

                        My constant determination not to mix drinks failed last night. Peter Redgrove decided that I had been working very hard and should go out and I agreed and we booked a table at the French Club at Fort Tewfic for dinner. We asked Ian if he’d like to come and he accepted and we asked Bertie Eley, our nicest of Dock Superintendents, a Robertson Hare of a Major with sweet ways and a boyish outlook. Se we had a couple of John Collins and a beer before we left and then, in party frocks with Samuels gleaming we went down in the Staff car. We had four sherries at the bar and a beer or two, drank a Cyprus wine with the dinner – which was very good – and some Kummel afterwards and then returned to the bar and had Scotch whisky until we left at midnight, me dancing twice with sweet little Anne, daughter of a shipping agent and the Colonel’s newest secretary, a.wide eyed child of 16½. We were not drunk, nor influenced beyond a certain amiability, but this morning I have two heads, the inner one loose and liable to rattle against the outer case, a sore taste and a dubious interest in food. Not being a drinker it shews me how foolish it is. However we did relax.

                        It is now seven oclock, I have spent most of the day in the Mess, two sessions in the office and am now in my tent waiting for dinner and enjoying myself writing this to you. I had a letter from Peter today too with a cheque for ten pounds and a request to buy shoes or sandals and frock material for May which I shall gladly do. Nice Peter.

                        I laughed and laughed at the incident of the texted calendars, and what a clever girl you are getting six poundses in the commercial world. Don’t go and Wear Yourself Out.

                        Tears came to my eyes at the story you so charmingly told of my little son saying “I wish Daddy would come soon, mummy !” it was enchanting of him, and I can well understand your tears on “his funny little shoulder”. Oh dear. I do not send many cables but I shall send one before very long . . . . “I’m coming home”. Oh. And 24 should leave here early February which is no time at all, hardly enough to complete the progrmme of work I have set myself, It is still an incredible thought. The study, too !

                        Odd letter from that odd reader !  I was eleven when he read that book and honestly I didn’t get the idea from anyone else !  I’ll write nicely to him though.

                        I am so glad the elephant made it and that you like him. I loved him myself, his expression was so ussish, and he is so well dressed, suede and leather and ivory. I hope Richard approves. The telephone is crude but it was the best I could find. And the dress material had come, I hope it was all right. I thought the cotton could be used to make things for Richard but I don’t really know. Your passage in the first letter about religion I agree with whole-heartedly and endorse. Bless you for that.

                        The pigs are in the care of a suabltern who occupies my chair in my absence and he telephones every evening at half past five about them and other affairs. We run the Alex side of it from here, with a Major and a subaltern acting for Ian and I. We go up on the 22nd to spend ten days there leaving another Major and Peter the Adjutant Elect, here. Busy people Ian and I now. I shall be able to see the Mercury Christmas Show and dine with Henry at the Union on Christmas Eve and or Boxing Day. Christmas Day I shall tool round with Ian among the men and we have our own dinner in the evening and a dance in the Mess they tell me.

                        I don’t know for sure but I think I’ve got hold of a copy of the 1945 edition of Banister-Fletcher’s History of Architecture. If I haven’t I shall buy it for you. Its the book you must have, the standard in its way and so full, and lovely pictures.  You shall have it, I expect you know it well enough from your academic days.

                        Yes, I think  PRIMA DONNA is a good name and I shall go on at it. I have finished the final typing of Act 1 and am in the middle of Act 2 scene 1. That scene is between the first and second Act of Bohème in Margharita’s dressing room and the second scene between acts 3 and 4. Henry and I have hammered out the synoposis fairly closely but I want you or even him to talk at still. I ought to wait until I am with you.  But I think I’ll get it written and then we can work on it. The Statement of the comedy is the choice of an artist of 42 between admitting matrondom or what ? She has a nice English pipey husband called The Bear who caught her young in Florence and has kept her through wise undeestanding of her need for admiration, encouraging her to have had a long series of affairs which were expensive for the men and harmless in fact, and always letting her talk and flounce and Feather while he safely sits and loves her. Now she has on one Sunday afternoon a Swiss Financier after her with glittering offers for a real affair and her daughter’s Young Man, a slightly unkempt-communist-poet who Falls completly for Margharita’s shattering personlity and looks. Its difficult to explain so I’ll send the Act along when I’ve read it over and “Done” it. The play can have fun, colour, music and a whale of a part. I don’t know. You would.

                        I WILL NOT MIX MY DRINKS MORE THAN A LITTLE, it is very stupid.

                        Poor Mrs Anderton, I have sent her a Christmas Card and I’ll see Master Gerald when I come home.  Tell her I’ll be available if necessary.

                        So nice a letter from your Mummy who says such good things. Thank her please and my love to Ame and Honor and all.

                   What a saga of a journey yours must have been, did Richard go with you ?

                        My love is yours, oh dear, so much it is. If this coles for Christmas, my Christmas love too, and to Richard.

HQ 4 Docks Group RE     MEF. . . .

Dearest. . . . .

General Orders have warned us that jumpy weather will delay mail from the UK posted after 1 December so we are all being patient about it, I hope ours is not too badly held up. All goes well, and I find, this job exceedingly agreeable, and have got it right in the palm of my hand in the most satisfactory way and tomorrow the great amalgamation comes into effect, with fine new sparkling Orders published, Special Orders of the Day; Administrative Instructions and what have you. Ian and I have been at it hard, and so has my good assistant here Redgrove and Clark at Alex, and the slightly bewildered Group HQ Clerks, not used to our methods have been jumping round.   We are also painting entrance gates and signs, blitzing police, changing slack systems for tighter ones, pep-talking Company Commanders and having a lovely time. Funny how one gets enthusiastic and how it becomes infectious and makes everyone happier. Apart of course from the cardinal main fact that I WANT TO GO HOME I’m intensely happy and busy and full of fun. Good that one’s short army career should end on an exciting, constructive and formative note.

Ian and I go to Fenara on Tuesday to see a company there, to Port Said on Thursday and to Alex for ten days on Saturday. He’s being very cooperative and only pants a little and complains about being overworked. He likes it really. He’s a quite brilliant Commander and is in every way In Command, things big and little.

 For the rest; the odd drink at the bar; the game of Poker-dice, an occasional snooze, Ball-game with Otto, who is relaxing a little, and gentle reading of The Woodlanders. Telephoned Henry last night about two Courts Martial I’ve made him prosecute for and he said the shoes have been sent and sandals follow.  I am sending a box of food tomorrow and shall send one a week now on to help your larder and points and coupons.  Say what you want. We have Jams and tongue and spam and ham and bully-beef, fruits and juices, crab and lobster, sardines and herrings, soap and dried fruit. Its not extravagant because it should help your Bunting Bills. It has to be tinned foods of course. If you don’t want them say so. I could pop in the odd bar of chocolate for other members of My House, if that were approved by the authority in command. You’re Detachment Commander, really, aren’t you!  O.C. Great Alne Detachment of the Group.

I have been thinking and if Richard decides to take on an Increase in Strength by a posting in of a brother he must be called William, Wilberforce, Wilfred or Willoughby because quite a lot of our household Possessions are liable to have his initials on them. I have, for example some fine blankets marked WD all ready for him.

Seven weeks is the first of February. That doesn’t mean anything at all, only ask any forward primroses to hold it if they can and Young Lambs to Take Note.

Yes indeed you shall come with me to Italy: One of the things in life I treasure is taking you to the San Carlos for Boheme and to Rome Opera House for Aida.   And to walk over the Ponte Vecchio at Florence, with all the little jewellers shops on it, and into the Palazzo  Medici where Lorenzo lived and Leonardo strutted in his youth, and to shew you the frescos in the chapel there.  And we must drive over the mountain route from Rome to Florence through Siena, and bathe and bask in the sun at Sorrento and climb the cathedral steps at Amalfi, and  stand at nine in the evening on the piazza hung ever Rome by the Villa Medici. And lunch at the Osteleri del’Orso by the Ponte Sant Angelo. You’ll like Syracusa too, and a little village I know of tucked away in the mountains behind Piombino.   We’ll bathe in our cove at Piombino, too, where you lie on your back in thirty foot of bottle green warm sea and look up into an interminable blue sky.  There is a Tobacco factory by the sea at Salerno where I would like to go, and a tobacco plantation where we slept tightly in the bottom of our little holes, and a certain Olive tree with wide roots under which I sat and read the telegram about Richard’s arrival.

But for now I Want To Go Home.
Bardin,  anyhow,  marleesh  the  delay.   Saida.
My love to you and to Richard Lion-skin.
Ever. . . . . . .

Hello Richard:
Comè state? Sperò ritornare fra sette settemane.
Tell Candy & Edward to stand-by.  Julian I know has a very full engagement book, & I shall not expect much of his very valuable time.  Emily & Victoria (or was it Albert) will I hope, have a word for me.
Be fond.
Ever.
Daddy.  X

A nice homely Saturday evening in the Mess – a good fire, an easy chair, the radio on, five playing poker, half a dozen reading, me writing. Quite cold outside & sparkling stars. Otto with three bones on guard in my tent. So here I am.

                        A busy day. Conference this morning, & a tour of the camp with the Colonel to see what we’ve brought :- & vast room for improvement there is.    Fun it’ll be. Then a quite absorbing office session with the new War Establishment, planning the reorganisation. On Monday a new Captain arrives, to work under me, so I’ll have two stooges, one at Alex & one here – & thus my relief is doubly sure ! That’s exceptionally comforting, because they can’t keep me when the Day comes. Apart from separation from you & from my true vocation this is a very agreeable life & not unuseful, my particular job. The great blessing is the complete confidence & reliance Ian has in me. We are the close pair which is so necessary in this relationship, & duty

                        A letter came from you yesterday – about Tony & his little Nordic girls frock. Another is on the way down from Alex, I am told on the phone today. Hooray ! I agreed so much with H,S.B’s letter that I break the habit of a lifetime & wrote one too, also to him. A good man.

                        In idle conversation with the doc. here he said he thought I was 29 – 31 years old, a consoling thought. He found it difficult to believe that I was in my fortieth year. Oh dear ! I do hope Richard thinks I’m not too old. Him & his gloves.

                        We go to Alex on the 22nd, Ian & I, & stay till the 29th, & are here for the New Year. Henry & I will be able to dine at the Union, he’ll like that. I must get some play done for him.

                        A delightful letter from Lanave & a gay one from Christopher, who is certainly developing. He claims to have risen to 14th in the 2nd monthly orders. Good for him. He has also divulged the great secret of his age, 14½ ! Our baby Christopher has gone the way of all young things, he will need a very dignified approach now. Bless the boy. Please tell Richard not to grow up too rapidly.

                        I’m reading, with careful sips and great relish, Hardy’s The “Woodlanders”. If ever you feel like buying me anything, I shall always be delighted with Hardy. We haven’t a set yet I think.

                        I think the study this time needs the desk, the cupboard, the best bookcase only with reference books, one armchair & one desk chair, & but little else. Maybe the Lanave of you & Dickie & the little “miniature” of him by the fireplace. My brass cow & the Bronze Bitch & a low stool for R.J.S.D. when on Study Duty. It’s a lovely thought, that room. Oh, a side table by the fire for tea &/or coffee with you. A W.P.B. & a coal scuttle should complete it. And me !

Another – & maybe my last exiled – abode ! Ian & I arrived at 4o/c here in Suez & it’s now the pre dinner period. Otto came too & looked out all the way. There was but little see, as Ian described it, miles & miles of sweet damn all. The desert sand goes on & on from Alex to Cairo, & after Cairo to Suez. We called at G.H.Q. & had lunch with our G.H.Q. full colonel & drank 3 grateful pints of beer. Now we are two polite new boys, & even Otto is trying to be ingratiating with the mess cat. But we’re new boys with a difference, more like the new Head Master & his secretary & accordingly eyed askance by the twenty officers here. Our task is interesting. It’s like creating one compact & efficient engine out of two worn ones. Release, & Service has affected No 3 & No 4 groups so badly that such a process is necessary. So No 3 is being disbanded & No 4 will absorb the remnants, & rejuvenate itself. All of which will be full of quite fascinating problems.
This is a desert camp again, but it’s been here for four years & is very comfortable. The tents are dug in & stone walled & floored. There is a private light plant, hot showers & a splendid Mess, with fireplace, a good bar & good chairs. It’ll be quite snug & I hope to make it writeable.
It’s warmer here even than Alex, & they last had rain on New Year’s day. But it’s not hot, almost perfect.
Then the returning Adjutant came in & entertained me at the bar & everyone was very nice, is very nice. It’s a Tri mess only & not, as at Alex a Mov. & Tri Mess, & that produces a better matiness. There are several young officers & even two 2nd. Lts !! I met a man named  who remembered you. He was one of 3 blokes attached to 1021 at Coatbridge for a Docks Course ! He at once recognised me & remembered them all ! I can only faintly remember him even now. He told me the details for Harry Reed case. He discussed secret “D” Day information in a mess in February 44 & was 5 months in the Tower of London, Court Martialled & Cashiered. He got 2 years hard labour as well but that was remitted. Poor indiscreet Harry Reed.
I’m in my tent at the writing table with Otto who finds it all very strange. I refused a poker game. I’ll revise some Play & then to bed. It’s been a successful day. Get out the Atlas (most apt of all presents) & pin point me. We asked 5 miles before the town on the Desert Cairo-Suez road, on the left – West, side. As always in the desert, the stars are very clear & sweet washed in a velvet dome. God’s Cathedral.
I have found that I can buy tinned food here. I’ll do so & send them home. Crab, Crayfish, fruit & so on. What is required ?
Otto & I are having a battle of will power. He wants to get off the bed to explore the  & potter. I want him to lie down. I’m gradually winning. His Master is playing Poker. He’s better here.

                             Tomorrow morning at 8o/c Ian & I leave for Suez, calling in Cairo for lunch, so this is a Last Evening. This afternoon I packed & sorted my possessions & we came out, Henry & I & had tea at Pastrudis, & observed the fashion of Alexandria & ate the traditional sticky bun. Then we came here & now, at a quarter past six I write in this so pleasant Library, with a Captain R.N. reading Trevelyan’s Social History in the nearest chair & Henry sits reading Evelyn’s diary &, alternatively Shaw‘s prefaces. He’s not reading Evelyn, I’ve just had a look, he’s got Trevelyan too, his British History ! Our plan is to stay here in this haven of peace and sense in a mad world until 8 & then dine here statelily of fish soufflé & saddle of mutton – Galsworthian – & then the cinema at 9.30 to see Hangover Square. Then home, a last cigarette in my room & then to bed & tomorrow away to pastures new.

                        We dined here last night, he treated me as it was his Seventh Wedding Anniversary ! We came here at 8o/c after the office & drank sherry & drank Algerian wine with a roast chicken dinner & talked of our pressures wives. Then we called in at the Mercury & I said farewell to Martin Benson & so home. Friday evening it was Bridge until 11 & play until one o/clock.

                        For the rest I’ve been much occupied handing over the multitudinous facets of this job partly to the subaltern who will hold my place as Admin. officer, partly to the 2i/c the Group who will command in Ian’s absence & partly to various other folk. All is neatly disposed of now & except for fleeting return to see that all is well, it’s finished for me. Everyone is nice & sorry. At Suez there’ll be a very different situation with a full Group whom Ian & I have to take over & remould & reform. I will be scrutinised very nervously by people who fear a fall by the change ! An intriguing situation.

                        Yesterday came your jolly cable ! I didn’t send one back on reflection because my last two letters, saying that Postie had quite recovered, would have arrived several days before the cable ! I nearly did just for the fun, but saved the 8/-. It’s very sweet of you to realise how concerned I stupidly was. All is well now. So Dickie consents to me living there. Good-oh. But I still reserved my decision as to whether he stays or whether he goes OUT. We’ll have to see about that. He sounds terrifying, with his hammer, “mending things !” (Mothers tale) it’s quite impossible from me to realise, as I said before, that there is really & truly a Richard John Scott Daniell who puts his gloves on. Never in the sad history of exile & wandering has a wanderer been so certain of a homecoming completely delectable. Never. And it will come. Thank heavens I had the wits not to defer. Johnny Fawcett goes home on Liap in January, but he has deferred for the duration of the Emergency. I prefer my tactics.

                        The Service Dress arrived safely yesterday & was donned today, having been duly pressed & sorted before I got up so that problem is solved. Only the Mop parcellette is to come. Use the same address I think, not 3 Docks Group. Letters will be forwarded & soon Suez will be 4 D.G. & they’ll be no 3. It’ll only mean a slight one day time lag to start with.

                        Letter from Peter yesterday, saying that the picture was really finished & the no shortened adjusted by Lanave to Peter & Allan is complete satisfaction. He sending it with his own Release Box to his Mother & she’ll send it across to you.

                        I sent a little tiny parcel to Aunt Ame for your Mama. It’s addressed to your Mama c/o Aunt Ame. Please ask her to keep it & deliver it on Christmas day. Has the Blue Elephant arrived ? The telephone left the same time & the camel left today. Hope they’ll arrives safely & meet with my son’s approval. “My son” Odd ! I don’t know. You can have no idea of my wonder. You see him & know him. I have only reports, splendid though they are. Never hesitate to write on that particular subject.

                        Wet these days. Warm still but sudden tremendous reins. It’s been sun today & promises well for tomorrow.

                        Dear you. I am a lover, and really we are blessed in the way the adventures of the past 3 years have develop. And the players getting really good. And I love you.

A splendid week ! Plenty of letters & lovely ones. Today’s was written  & was splendidly long & good. You discussed bills paid, Honor, the Suffield party, the outing with Hartley & Sheppard & Dickie putting his gloves on ! Dickie putting his gloves on !! That’s terrific. Bless us all.

                        I have had a busy week training a newly arrived Subaltern to hold my job as Administrative Officer while I create a new Headquarters at Suez. Ian & I drive off at 8o/c on Monday, lunch in Cairo and Suez in the evening. He takes over from the other Colonel & if from the Adjutant. Then we proceed to merge the 2 groups into one. It’ll be interesting but I’m sad at leaving this job, which I have just mastered & have beautifully tightened up. However the new man is very pliant & will carry on my policy & methods. Now I’m two adjutants. Only the one Adj. pay though. Has the 3/- a day come through yet ? From Oct 10th. It’s the rent.

                        So it’s been a busy time, & on top of that the play has been buzzing along. I wrote on Wednesday, or Wednesday afternoon I wrote part of Act II, & in the evening went out to dinner. It was not a successful evening ! A clever young man of my age, a civilian, Engineer, who knows he’s clever & is “handy” & wears a pink singlet, & a talkative empty wife who tells him & you how clever he is. They adopt a surprising coarseness, because you’re a rough soldier, & I was deeply shocked ! Also they are dull & unnicely untidy. The only good things were the roasted duck & my colour pictures shown on his enlarger, to the size of this paper. They are good & our Richard is so very nice. Bless us all.

                        On Thursday Henry & I hammered out Act II & part of Act III in synopsis form & played Bohème on a borrowed gramophone. In the evening we did the same & also this afternoon. I’ve got it all worked out now & half written ! Really it’s very good, quite fresh & colourful & lovely parts. If we have any luck where made, & we can have the West End to call on. I’ll send an Act when its typed. And all before very long, if my new life at all permits. It’s based on Marina Saviozzi, & has Bohème for theme, or for background, anyhow. Our heroine is a very successful singer, named Margherita, & Act I & III are in her home & Act II her dressing room in the intervals of Bohème. It’s different to anything else I know. Prima Donna is the title I think. Henry, as a talking Post, has been wonderful. A good person & sad at my going.

                        Tomorrow is his 7th Wedding Anniversary & he’s taking me out to dinner at the Club, to celebrate.

                        D’you know, I really feel cheerful & hopeful about coming home, I think it will be in the quite early spring. I know nothing but I do feel that the situation will improve soon. By getting Clark, this new boy, into my job now they can never say I can’t go; my successor is there ready in the job !! St. Anthony ?

                        For many, Release from the Army is the end of a life. For me it’s the Beginning. “In my end is my beginning.” My house, my wife, my child, & all the dear associations are intensely rich. And over & above that is the adventure & excitement of real work. We must really go  this time & Bill Hughes & the B.B.C. must be scorned. I’ll lay the world at your feet, & you’ll be so kind & nice to it. And Dickie to play with !

                        Mother tells me in a cheerful letter today that he goes about “mending things” with a hammer. NOT a handyman ! Spare us that !

                        Barry Cottis wrote me a very happy letter today, & he loves being Mr. Cottis. He says he telephoned you. He’s very joyous & his Peter, 5 years old, is a great joy to him. Heigh ho !
I’ve sent Dickie a wooden box today with a wooden camel in it. With love. Also I sent a little parcel by airmail c/o Aunt Ame for your Mama. You know my principles about presents so will you please see she gets it on Christmas day & not before, & knows nothing of it ? A small thing. But her own.