Thursday
Dover
Dearest,
It was good to see your writing again. A few days seem to stretch out to such a long time when I don’t hear from you. I am glad I can look forward to regular letters again. I’ll just run through it again to see if there are any points to answer.
Yes, there are two other fellows beside Tom and I, but I have never been particularly friendly with them as they were always on the other 24 hours to us. I’m sorry you didn’t send the other letter on – “Chatter about home”, as you call it, never grows out of date, you know. Still, never mind.
Like you, we had a gloriously hot spell but as you will have seen from the papers, it has broken now. It took the M.O.I. long enough to realise that Jerry knew what the weather was like in the Straits, didn’t it?
Glad to hear Wendy and Michael had such a nice weekend and that Michael has taken to roving a bit on his own. It will do him good to learn to find his way about while he is so young, though no doubt you’ll soon be having anxious moments about him! Still, don’t encourage that 8 o’clock at night stunt, even in the summer. You know what he is like for his sleep.
The change will do May the world of good and I’m glad to hear she is getting so much fun out of it. Sorry if the uncertainty of my movements spoiled your night at Limedale, but you would have been mad – and so should I – if I had come home and you were up there, especially as I might not have been able to get over.
Don’t forget to let me know where you get to this week with the children, and also be sure to let me know if you do change the date of your holiday. How will you be fixed for money in July?
It’s hard to know what the return of the sketches means. ‘Housewife’ seem to have some funny rules, don’t they? Are there any pencil marks on them where they may have been squared off for blocks to be made? Although inward letters are not censored, I don’t think it would be wise to send carbons of articles or stories here as they may get lost. Still, I shall miss them. In one of the canteens here – they are pretty putrid, by the way – I saw a copy of ’Modern Woman’ which looks like a possible market for your longer stories, though they are rather “sobby” I think. What does the ‘Writers & Artists Yearbook’ say about them?
Thanks for the news of the garden. Keep that long grass well back from the rhubarb and that might help to keep the slugs at bay.
Don’t worry about me down here. I’m OK except that my tummy is out of order. When you read in the papers that the south coast was rocked by explosions, believe them. It certainly is rocked – quite literally. Jerry and the Froggies must be getting hell just now.
Sounds as if Gardner is going to be a paratrooper, eh? With that knee he might not be able to stand up to it.
No, don’t worry about keeping letters short. Ramble on to your heart’s content – and mine! The restriction is on me, not on you, and I’ll be dependent on your letters chiefly for material for mine for I have so little news now. I won’t dwell on the place at the moment, but remind me to make a comparison between this and Rotten Row when I’m home.
Tom took me over to his mother’s place between Hythe and Folkestone on Tuesday and we had a very pleasant day. They have a lovely home – I reckon the house is worth £5000 – and as she runs a very successful pawnbroker’s in London she has some very nice stuff. She and her daughter, a spinster of 40 odd, live alone and they are a peculiar pair. I’ll tell you about them when I come home. They have both embraced Catholicism, to Tom’s disgust! Delicate ground for me!
Today the weather is not so hot so we won’t go far afield. And that is all the news for today. Bye for now, sweetheart, and look after yourself. I’ll be looking for a letter tomorrow. My love to the brats. They both owe me letters and they have a holiday! All my love to you, dearest.
Ever your own,
Arthur X
Jun 011944