from NR
Darling Steake1
I wonder so much how you are both getting on now & if you like your new jobs. Do write & tell me all about your holiday & where you went.
Our flying journey home was wonderful but it was rather frightening when we took off.2 The plane seemed far too small to battle all across the Atlantic. We came down at Botwood in Newfoundland & were able to go for a walk while the plane was being filled with petrol. The next stop was at Foynes in Ireland. The whole journey only took 28 hours! Derek had a special job for three weeks on research for the Air Ministry & now expects to go off again soon for a similar job. Muv, Farve & Debo are all still up at the Island & say it is lovely there. Uncle George, Aunt Madeleine & their two children3 are going to stay up there for two weeks with them. Nancy is working at a casualty depot & has of course had nothing to do. I heard from her a few days ago & she said she had been given an indelible pencil to write on the foreheads of her dead & dying & what would she do if a black man was brought in!!! So Nancy-like.
We had a refugee family in one of our cottages but they left at the end of the week because they found it too far from the public house. We are more or less full here: Tello & her granddaughter4 were here for three weeks but have now left. We have a friend’s baby with his nurse, & they come (the parents) every weekend. So far food has not been rationed but it is going to be. And we may only have ¾ the amount of coal. Petrol is very severely rationed & we only get fifteen gallons a month for the two cars. As I have to fetch nearly all the food from Banbury because the shops also have very little petrol the fifteen gallons will not last very long.
We can never get into Banbury for the cinema these days partly on account of the shortage of petrol & partly because it is so horrid driving in a blackout. We went to London for a night last week & saw the barrage balloons5 for the first time. They are so very beautiful & make a wonderful decoration.
I am sorry to have been so long before writing but I have been so terribly busy the last five weeks that I have not had a moment to spare for writing. One of the most difficult things has been blacking out this house. We have had to make black curtains for all the windows. Even if a pin prick of light shows through the police come rushing down on you!
There is no more family news at the moment but I will write again soon & I do long to hear from you.
Much love to you both from Woman
Darling Boud,
Your Boud is so sorry you are ill, I’ve written to you very often but I think the letters may have gone astray. I’ve been so longing for news of you & am awfully glad you are back home again with Blor & everyone to take care of you.
Esmond & I have got jobs in a Miami bar, you must admit rather ‘fascinating’. The other people there are heaven (mostly Italian & Spanish) & we have all our food there which is wonderful, because it’s the most delicious food I’ve e’er noted. We’ve got to know the most amazing people here; for instance, I have one friend whose only interest in life is birth control, & when I go to tea with her she takes me round in her car for free handouts of contraception to nigger families. Miami’s rather like the South of France or Venice, all the people here have got something extraorder about them. Well Boud I’ll write again soon, & do get well quickly.
Very Best Love, Yr Boud
Darling Boud
When I got your letter, I nearly went off my head! You SEE, I had ached for your, because I do love you so much.
Oh, Boud, I have a Goat! The Fem gave her to me & I LOVE her.
Oh Boud, I AM so sorry to be short, but will write again soon!
Dearest Cheerless
Well dear, I’m here for the weekend and although it’s very comfortable, it’s pretty bloody in some ways because Woman will keep telling one to keep one’s dogs off the daffodils etc & one feels that if one settles down with one’s book someone will say something & interrupt one.
Birdie is here & is so terribly pathetic, it really makes one miserable to see her. I can hardly bear the idea of this summer because she & Muv & I will be all boxed up at Swinbrook together & when Muv gets gloomy it’s awful. Actually she is wonderful, I believe I would have gone mad if I had been with poor Bird all this time. She is like a completely different person, it is extraordinary & awfully horrifying. She has stages of doing things, really like a child, I mean she has now got a habit of standing up till everyone in the room has sat down, & is furious if anyone starts eating before the Fem has started. The whole thing is really so awful it doesn’t bear thinking of. I wish you could see her, I long to know what you would think. She is very apologetic & funny in that way, always says ‘I’m awfully sorry’ before she says anything else.
[Incomplete]
Darling Diana
So pleased to hear of another 10lb son (Maximilian1 this time I suppose). I hope it wasn’t too much trouble in spite of the size.
I stayed with Sachie & Georgia2 last weekend & S told me such a typical Sitwell story – it seems that ages ago they had to stay two people who knew you & Bryan very well & one who had never met you & for some reason the only topic the whole weekend was you & B. By Sunday night the man who didn’t know you was joining in & saying no that was the weekend Bryan & Diana went to Bailiffscourt, it was the one after they rode over to see Lytton Strachey,3 because by then he knew you so intimately. Of course Sachie couldn’t remember who any of them were. Weston is heaven, have you seen it?
I am here chaperoning Debo & Andrew you must say good-natured of me. They are so funny, rush at the papers & turn quickly to the racing news. The Germans will have to march down the village street before they notice anything.
Cecil4 was also there, he now does 0 but photograph Cab ministers wouldn’t you love to see him at it.
Much love & to the beautiful BOY. NR
Darling Nardy
I am so pleased that you feel really well this time, it must make the whole difference of course. Are you feeding him for a few months? And what is his name?
I am in an anxious state as Derek is determined to join the Air Force if he can, as a gunner! But of course he must do what he thinks most useful, although it is heaven having him safe in Oxford.
Hoping to see you soon – in haste to catch the last 1½d post!
Much