1224/5 Shipworking sections R.E. C.M.F.
No: 191
Dearest:
Handwriting letters for a change! Good for me if exhausting for you. I’ll try to be readable. Two letters yesterday, Glory be to God, one written 18-20 & the other 21/22 Nov. Good letters. Still penless you poor dear. I must see what I can do. I’ve a very homely but pleasant old fashioned Parker, a little one which hasn’t even a self filling device. Others have come and gone.
No need to worry about Johnny’s cheque. He moves with majestic slowness. A/c is up to end of July, statement 1st of Nov, payment 1st December. Its all in the agreement. (Filed in cupboard) The price was 9/6, well done sharp-eyes, a rare hit, agent, but I’m not sure if the royalty is not paid on the 8/6. The extra 1/- was a new stunt, to check the dreaded price-spiral in 1939. He’s usually pretty sound but you are very very right to query it. Anyhow, have a look. You can, innocently, query that point if you like – naive. (Naive, you. Hm!)
I sent a double letter card to you on Sunday all about the plays for Johnny. Actually I acted differently afterwards. I sent everything to Bertha, introduction & notes. She’ll send them on to you, with her stage directions & editings. Then you have to cut out the Queen & Mr. Shakespeare from the book, & the introduction if it was done by me & if it is good, or better than the one I’ve done this time. Then put the whole wodge together, & put the letter I’ll send along on top & parcel it up & bless it & post it. O.K.? Might come off!!
So He says Marmalade! Hooray. But one point, does the say marmalade when he means marmalade or when he sees a duck or when the bath gurgles? His sentences are terrific 
– (Poor Emily, Everyone’s been saying that to Emily for so long! Now Dickie!) & “Mamie mark ch- ch- ch- ch-” is a very fine remark & full of meaning. It means different places to live & people going places & a whole pack of things. I gather it’s unusual for people of his age to talk. Hope he won’t be an overbright bloke. But the bright is better than dull. All this talk of him by you is not & can never be too much. I’m strangely exercised in my mind about him. A man who lives solely for & is absorbed by his domestic life is a poor thing, of course, and escapist. But there is & must be a sane medium between over absorption & indifference. I am partly alarmed, no, disquieted at the thought of this little son of ours. I dread any situation or mood or relationship I cannot analyse & pin down with words, expressed or not expressed. It seems to me that this youngster will reveal aspects & disclose & call forth emotions which I shall find above and beyond words! Its so much a miracle. Praps I’m getting a false idea of it all, it being all imaginary. But I expect there are gleams & flashes which far surpass in reality all imaginary speculations. So very much do I want to see him & you.
The Mawdsley notices. They’ll come down when I get home. I believe that threatening is illegal. The prosecution have to prove a man is a poacher before he is sentenced, & it is not for the owner or tenants to give sentence but the magistrates! A sergeant cannot tell one of my men he has C.B. He charges him & I say what he gets. If the Mawdslay notices are there I’ll declare war when I come home. And directly the war is over we’ll challenge them by walking the woods & ignoring the Govt. property notices. War! We’ll have a lovely time. Yoicks. Good mind to write to the Alcester chronicle!! Will wage war anyhow. Bless us all.
Your comments on the river & flood are nostalgic. You do write well. And its quite an idea going to Moseley, I mean Kings Heath. Your Uncle Fred would be a good influence on Richard. I’ll not be jealous of other people’s influences if I keep it. I’d like to establish a prima facie case for myself, but I must plead guilty to a certain irrational sentimentality about him. Today I had bought a very simple & tiny silver locket & his whisp of hair is inside. I have a little silver chain & shall carry this visible sign of my son, this part of him, with me at all times. Silly!
All quiet here. We seem to have succeeded in tackling our men when they were getting rather too wayward. This evening one of them brought me a bunch of very sweet scented Hyacinths, skilfully stolen from some garden. British sappers don’t bring their O/Cs flowers! Its odd!! Touching too. They are on my desk with a dozen little opening red roses, & scent the room. To the cinema this evening to see Fanny by Gaslight. To Cliff & Allans Mess tomorrow to a party & lunch with Lanave on Friday!! Tea with the colonel on Saturday at 6o/c 
my canteen, my pet scheme at the moment, to keep the men out of Bari at night. Tell Mr. Polyphoto to be Quick. You couldn’t smuggle one in an air letter? Maybe get through. Do my stamps? Could you reckon up what we’ve made by writing this year? Post & Guardy, G. Housekeeping, Geog & etc? Be interesting. Your Dickie picture over my desk is sweet. Bless you both. Of course Dickie loves Candy. I do too, & you -and I’d say More More More if you kissed me, chopping wood! Bless you, dearest, ever David