305 ORPHANAGE ROAD  ERDINGTON  BIRMINGHAM

Ma Chere Elizabeth,
Here we are, at the typer again, and it is profoundly hot here.   The only sensible place for such weather is in and by the sea.   Wetness alone is soothing,    I cannot even steal time to swim in the baths.   I have returned to an ocean of urgent work, a sheaf of papers from Kenneth demanding instant and concentrated attention, and an urgent request from the Dairy for eight hundred words on this subject and four hundred on that.   So since breakfast I have been typing, have dashed down to the office to get the girls going, and am back here again with much to do, which is nice, since it keeps the mind from brooding and dwelling on other, wetter and happier places.

It was a superb holiday.   And the brevity almost improved it; the imminent departure intensified the appreciation, added a smack of stolen fruit to the lazy time and magnified the glory of it all.   Your kindness, attention and complete friendliness is disturbing and exciting and quite novel to me, who have always had acquaintances and idle friends galore but no specialists, as it were.    General Practitioners in friendship rather than Heart Specialists!

The niceness of your folk to me, and their amazing pleasant deportment is rather miraculous. They seemed pleased to see me and almost sorry that I should go.   People are queer.

The Humber ran home sweetly and like a large swift brown bird.   We left at 7.7., were in Oxford at 9 exactly and at the City Boundary here at 10.43, which is good going.    I stopped only to drink pop, eating as I went.   Oh, there was Oliver’s scandalous essay in the Post.   Herewith for you to scrap after skimming it.   Uncle F. might be amused, I don’t know.

I would wish to write a long letter, with matter in it, and I will but not now.    I have set aside half an hour out of this hectic day to write three, no four letters, of which this is the first.    I am writing to Auntame, to my Mother, and, if there be time, to Uncle Fred.    So pardon brevity, and I’ll write really later.    For now, accept my thanks for your niceness and for a holiday in excelsis. The sea and the sun, the people and the air, the kindness of you and the hospitality of your Auntame all overwhelm me.

Perhaps later we’ll breathe and write, for now, it is a matter of not slackening. I like the excitement of a long job list, item by item scored off in red pencil.    I’ve a Post article to do s well this week now!   On top of all the rest, whoopee.    Owen tomorrow morning, too. No bathing this week but cricket on Saturday.

So my love, and don’t miss me, there’s plenty else to do! Greetings, and brown up well, bathe, ride and play. Attababy.

Ever yours. . .