But during this time, the playwright had never lost sight of his principal career. As soon as hostilities ended in May 1945, while still in uniform but freed of his duties, McLellan straightway composed the verse drama "The Carlin Moth" during the fortnight after VE Day, by his own account, in the 'hot attic' of a mansion near Southwold on the Suffolk coast where his unit was stationed at the time. By combining the poetry with his drama, this resumption of his stage work had also added a new mode to his writing.