Saturday
Dover
Dearest,
Many thanks for your letter and the news about ‘Modern Reading’ which, I agree, is very encouraging. Reginald Moore [editor] seems to have been impressed, anyway. I knew of ‘Chambers’s Journal’ as one of the older publications (I always put it in the same category as ‘The Quiver’) and for that reason never entertained it as a possible market, perhaps because it is not at all attractively “dressed”, or wasn’t when I last saw it.
Mother and Dot are a funny pair. Dot goes up there for a holiday and somehow they always manage to get at loggerheads in a very short time. When they are going out together for a day it is a real picnic to watch the performance. Neither of them has the least political conceptions so an argument such as you describe must have been really funny. After the years I spent trying to knock the elementary truths into Mother, it hurts to hear that she thinks I subscribe to her views!
I thought the cigarette cards would make an impression and for that reason had been saving them up as a treat for when I came home. The Canadian chocolate, too, had been carefully hoarded for the same purpose. But I felt that, in the circumstances, there was no point in hanging on to it any longer. It will be a long time before I can get any more now, though I’ll do what I can.
What sort of a sun suit are you making for Wendy? I’d like to see a snap of her in it if you ever take one.
We’ve settled down to the routine here now – we have to! Food is quite good, with some of the dinners really good, the only snag being that, as in most places where there is mass cooking for people who finish at different times, some of the meals are cold when we get them. It’s a shame because most of the food really is quite good. Yes, we do get tobacco but not, unfortunately, the old Tickler. This is an American blended brand which I don’t like as well. Still, it’s a big saving and I honestly don’t know how I should manage without it. Will you please let me know how much I have in the old oak chest? By return, please, as I have to buy a suit and I’ve not got a lot of money in hand as we have only had casual payment here to last us a fortnight.
Another good point is that we get grog each day, and that is the only drink I have had or am likely to have while we are here. By now you should have my letter about my birthday. Bathing trunks, please, love, with as small a waist as you can get. About 28 inch I should think. Certainly not more or you will land me in gaol for indecency!
That answers all your points, I think, and now I’m stumped for news for you as there just isn’t any. Tom and I went wandering round a little place called Kearsney Abbey on Thursday but had to get back to Dover earlier than we anticipated because of rain and there was no shelter for us other than an odd pub – places we are avoiding like the plague, lest we develop the pernicious habit again!
I have written a note to Hughie and will write Eric in the near future, but if you see him in the meantime, will you give him my address? Have you seen Lilian lately? Poor girl, I don’t think she likes the idea of being saddled with the old man for the rest of their married lives. I don’t think they have ever really hit it off, you know.
Now I must be off, love. Take care of yourself and keep your chin up. It’s just possible I’ll be home sooner than either of us expect. All my love to you.
Ever your own,
Arthur X
Jun 031944