W. Macpherson, English.

49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.

9th January 1944

Dear Viola,

Your Christmas parcel arrived before Twelfth Night and how we saluted it. I cannot tell you how much we have enjoyed the cake. Not that we had it recklessly. Oh no! It is cut up in very small pieces and doled out on great occasions. And we could hardly bear to touch the candied fruit. And we were all amused by the little booklet.

We are getting used now to being three instead of two. My mother in law died as I wrote you and my father in law is living with us. There is great excitement for his daughter married and went to live in Long Island with her husband some time before the war and now my father in law has applied for a compassionate visa to join her. As he is seventy five and therefore what is known here as a "useless mouth" I think he will get permission. It will take months of course but I think he couldn't manage such a journey anyway except in summer. It will be a complete change and as he had been married almost fifty years, losing his wife was a dreadful shock and they'd had two really bad bomb experiences. Bad even for us.

I cannot think of anything very amusing to tell you except that I got on a bus yesterday where apparently everybody was recovering from flu and couldn't speak. The conductor croaked and everyone else sat with hankerchieves to their faces. I felt I was in a plague cart and got off.

They announce in the paper to-day people are going to call round asking housewives what they most need in the postwar period in the way of household replacements so I have amused myself to-day, it's Sunday, by making lists. I begin with proper heating installations, go on to a sunray lamp for the damp climate and thence to good, sprayed paint. In the house in Switzerland we had paint sprayed on the walls and they were just three times as easy to clean. They say even if the finest brush leaves a tiny ridge and that collects the dust. But I am quite sure that after all the lists have been made nothing will happen ... till the next war! We are now beginning to act on recommendations made about 1910.

Thanks again so much for your Christmas gift and greeting, you are so very kind and good to us. I can assure you that I appreciate all you have done for us enormously. And I think so often of you all and hope you have good news from your son,

Love and best greetings,

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.

30th January 1944

Dear Viola,

I have two things to thank you for, my share of that wonderful cake and your woodcut. We have the woodcut up on the mantlepiece and we have almost eaten the cake but do not think we were reckless ...we cut quite tiny pieces and rationed ourselves so as to make it last longer. And each time we all said how very kind you were to make it.

I love your woodcut, it is such fun and has such personality I shall keep it to look at when all the Christmas is a thing of the past. I hope you are going to be able to read this better, I had my machine mended yesterday, was very pleased to get it done and should have realised there was a catch somewhere. Now every letter sticks and I'll spent to-morrow morning being indignant with them instead of getting on with my office work. Is anything more infuriating than a machine that piles itself up on top of you?

I had a superb morning yesterday - it was Saturday so off I trotted with one basket, one canvas bag, one small bag and a special bread bag for the shopping. I got wedged in one queue between two old ladies " in moth " as we say, you know those awful shaggy once-were-fur coats all rubbed away in bits? Oh, one said to the other, " a friend of mine in the same village said to me, now don't you go wasting any sympathy on her, " "Oh, " said friend, " No, dear, he bit her nose and she'll be disfigured for life. " "My dear, drunk I suppose, the shame of it ! " But what all the rest of the tale was we couldn't hear. I thought I'd die from suppressed laughter.

There are some snowdrops up in the Park and the days get lighter. We have had a lot of noisy nights. They make people so bad -tempered. We were talking the other day and a soldier said to me, " that applies to civilians " then we both thought and he said " but who are civilians? " And that is so true here, everybody has been shot over at least once and mostly far more often. And life is worse often for us than for the people labelled as forces. It is a funny, upside down world.

All my thanks again and love and I do hope that you have good news from your son.

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.
27th February 1944

Dear Viola,

Thanks so much for your letter of January 7th. It was kind of you to order that subs. for your friend, you sent too much. But our business section is explaining things to the govt office here and they will either return the surplus or we shall extend your subscription to your friend, it is out of our hands, we have to do what the government tells us! I am so glad that you like our magazine.

Well, we have had a perfectly awful week. Such a lot of our friends had their places damaged but mercifully were unhurt. But we are all suffering from a kind of concussion, they say it is partly due to our barrage, it is a great comfort to us but the noise is so terrific that it shocks the nerves of the head. The sky was magnificent, Hilda and I hung out of the window with all our lights off, and there were searchlights crossing like rapiers and great golden tassels of flares and what the populace has dubbed " the green chandelier " which we innocently supposed was our own stuff but the B.B.C. if I heard it rightly said was enemy, and dissolving red stars, anyway all flares and lights. One of the most strange and beautiful sights I have ever seen, and then suddenly, as one is feeling its complete irreality, a swish and a thump, and the whole great block rocks like a leaf, and one knows that somewhere people are killed and homeless. Of course, too, what I think people who haven't been bombed find it hard to realise it, that a lot of trouble comes from secondary causes. We are not supposed to heat the houses at night and it means one gets up in icy cold and sits around waiting for things to happen, getting more and more miserable... and now everyone has started a third lot of winter colds and flu, and then there is the dust and dirt. And the worry of not knowing what is happening to one's friends. I must say I don't want ever to go through last week again. I don't know how Hilda stands it, and I wish she would go to the country but she clings to Perdita.

I do hope you get regular news from your son, I do so understand and feel for your worry about him. We think and talk about you so often - especially when I have my little blue jacket on.

Much love from us all, I do hope things are well with you,

All greetings,

W. Macpherson (English)

12th March 1944

Dear Viola,

I'd just popped a letter into the mail when yours of the
17th December arrived. Thanks so much for it. Oddly enough I'd
first had another letter from yourself, dated end December ! But the
posts these days are all upside down.

I hope the worst of the cold is over, everyone here says
that they have never felt it as much as this winter but I think a lot
is due to the terrific amount of starch now in our diet. I never was
a believer in starch.

We had some very unpleasant nights....the barrage was
tremendous, it is reassuring in one way but in another when the house
starts swaying you don't know if it is a bomb or vibration from our own
guns. This place blew about like a leaf - the last one - on a tree.
And we none of us liked it at all.

Yet the sky is a magnificent sight with lights and flares
and red and gold stars dissolving and searchlights. I have to
watch though it is pretty dangerous.

Life and Letters

I hope the Land and L thing is straightened out, it has to
be done officially through the special office, we are not allowed to
have anything to do with it, alas. We reported in immediately that
you had over-subscribed. Please don't blame us for seeming un-
business like. We have to keep to the regulations.
We were so glad that you liked the magazine well enough to subscribe
for your friend. Did you like the Scottish number? For some
reason that was specially popular and we kept on getting orders for it.

I'm rather hoping to get my Christmas holiday! this coming
week and go for five days to my friends in Derbyshire. I was to have
gone just after Christmas but circumstances have always prevented it
up till now.

I do so hope that you have good news of your son,

With much love and all greetings,

Yes, I found the article you sent very interesting but hard
to know how things will work out after the war.

W. Macpherson, ( English )
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.

2nd May 1944

Dear Viola,

What a wonderful, wonderful Easter parcel ! I dont know
how to begin to thank you. The marvellous cake and all the puddings,
it really is too kind of you. And I loved the gay Easter card.
It is great fun getting all these things now, for we are all in such
a state of tension over what is known in our slang as the " boat
race " ( second front) that I have never known people so irritable.
We felt we had really got back into the old English Maypole
celebrations when the parcels arrived.

I have very little news. On Sunday I went out to see
friends who live on the outskirts of London, so nearly in the country
that they keep hens and have our ration books for eggs, we have done
much better that way than if we were registered at a shop. I wanted
to take them something and found with great difficulty a small box of
plants. These plants are awfully rare this year because the growers
are only allowed to do five per cent I think it is, of what they did
in 1939. So it was a great triumph first of all to find them, they
were Canterbury Bells. Well, there is nothing terrifies me more than
an escalator, and I had to go down one on the subway on a crowded
Sunday afternoon with hundreds of people about, carrying these wretched
plants. I don't know how I ever managed to do it. Then I had still
to make a nuisance of myself on the train with two changes till I got
out. The box wasn't heavy, but it was just so awkward and spilling
soil everywhere, including over <u>xxx</u> my own clothes. Then when I
finally arrived they had wilted in the sun !. However, we watered
them and put them in the shade till evening and they came round.
I felt awfully virtuous.

Everybody is busy, everybody is wondering what is going
to happen and we are all so tired of this wretched war and all the
horrible restrictions --our fifth year of them-- we don't know what to
do. Nothing seems bearable.

I was at Eckington for a few days, and the bluebells were
beginning to come out. And everywhere the meadow flowers were up
and the young leaves were at their best. But it was all so un-
settled that I was glad to get back to London.

Thank you again so much for all your great kindness
to us,

Yours very sincerely,

With much love,

W. Macpherson, English

21st May 1944

Dear Viola,

Very many thanks for the Willkie book - it reached me a few days ago but generally I have to leave my own correspondence for Sunday. I was most interested in the book (I'd heard a lot about it) and agree with quite a lot, but one thing I could not get over. He seems not to have known anything about Islam. As you know, it is absolutely forbidden them to paint or draw or sculpt, except geometric designs. And as one of our main troubles in India is trying to reconcile the Moslems with the Hindus, I felt he ought to have known just the basic principles. He mentions asking an Egyptian why there were no great painters in Egypt. But otherwise it was an exciting book to read and very interesting to know what he thought about it all. Thank you so much for sending it to me, I am lending it around to friends.

Hilda read me bits of your letter which she had just had too, and I hope so much that your son has got back on leave by now, in fact I hope that after all that time out there he wont have to go back. He has been away so long, hasn't he?

Everybody is just shaking with nerves here as to when and if there will be a second front, I wish they would stop talking about it. Maybe it is intended to break the enemy but it is upsetting us a lot as well, everybody is bad tempered and irritable and getting ill.

The only amusing story I can think of is there is a very old lady I know who worked all her life in a big store. She is too old now even for war work and went to sit in Kew Gardens. She is rather religious by temperament and suddenly saw a lady and a bishop approaching. This upset her so much she fixed her eyes modestly on the ground though the lady smiled and bowed. After they had passed the gardener came round and said in a surprised voice, didn't you know that lady was the Queen? It really has not much point if you do not know the old lady but if you do, it is just the kind of thing that would happen to her.

Hilda's book is having a terrific success, and in fact you can no longer get copies. The tragedy is, that with the paper restrictions, it is seldom possible to reprint.

I do hope all goes well with you,

Love and many thanks,

2nd June 1944

Dear Viola,

Your letter of May 18th reached us about three days ago - very quickly this time and just previously the Bergen news with the picture of your son in it. He looks a flier...something quite different in his face than in the other photographs and he must have done splendidly ...can so sympathise with you that he did not get leave when expected. But I fear the better they are, the more they are worked. Do hope anyhow that he gets back soon to you. He has had far more than his share with those many flights.

My age....no, I met Hilda you see, in the last war before Perdita was born. But I still have a year to go before I am over what they call military age.

The climate in the south of England is always damp and usually never very cold nor intensely hot. I would rather have the intensely hot summers of the continent myself, as I expand in heat and can work better. But Hilda likes the more moderate climate here. We seldom have much snow around London and the south but where my friends are, in Derbyshire, it is usually heavy for several weeks in winter. They showed Jane Eyre here but it was in the winter so there was no chance of my going to it. I can't go afternoons being at work and evenings only utmost need would take me out in the black out. Oh, you asked about summer time. Well, for years we used to put our clocks on one hour for the summer but since war started, we've kept this even in winter and from April to August put on a second hour to save light and electricity. So if we have breakfast by the clock at eight, it is really six by the sun. Most of us like the long evenings without black out but the farmers grumble.

Do tell me how your balsam pear gets on, it sounds too exciting for words. I love trying new things but now - here - have no garden.

We are so fed up with second front propaganda that we are trying to forget all about it. It has simply made everyone very irritable. We all know what may happen when it comes and we don't want a lot of stuff shoved at us beforehand about it.

We survived Whituun. The Parks were black with people as we could not travel but I took a bus into the City where nobody stayed and wandered about old Elizabethan London most comfortably ! Still it seems a sad way of spending our so short summer.

All love and greetings and I do hope all goes well with you,

Affectionately,

W. Macpherson, English.

11th June 1944

Dear Viola,

Very many thanks for your letter of the 29th and for the seeds. We are halving them and sending some to our American friend, Mr Plank, he was ill all last winter and couldn't do anything about his garden. I used to grow some of the Actotis in Switzerland and they looked well there in the herbaceous border so I hope they'll do well here.

Blower seeds are almost unobtainable and they ration you to a packet each. And plants unbelievably expensive for here. I was lucky and bought a box of pansy plants, a dozen and they cost me nearly five dollars. The man said that they were delivering some furniture and he would send along the box as it was heavy. But on the way it was stolen. I got another, because it had been insured but it is odd to think that even a dozen pansy plants get stolen on a journey of less than ten minutes! *My farm friends sent us some plants, so we are luckier than most.*

Your fish pool must be great fun, I think. It was awfully clever of you to save them.

It is hard to know about those soldiers you speak of, except that maybe they didn't realise what was happening, because here we have no places where people are photographed nor such things as flower girls. I suppose if they were English, they would not have known. It was always a regulation here that on the whole you could not photograph people in public places, and of course now you can't get photographed at all. There is a tricla sometimes of material so that service people can get photographs of babies they haven't seen or something like that but my father in law had a struggle to get even his passport photoe, had to show why he wanted them etc.

Of course this has been a wildly exciting week though too, one of the things that has impressed us has been the apathy - people are just too weary to react. We all knew invasion was near but on Tuesday when it came, it wasn't in the morning papers or on the first news. I went out to three shops before going to the office, to get the bread and there the girl chatted about her rose trees ( well, she isn't a girl as she's a widow of fifty!) then to buy our coffee, we talked about the weather, and to post office. Only at a fourth place as I was leaving after talking about the difficulties of the times, the girl said " did you hear the special radio announcement that the invasion had begun last night? " I rushed back, abandoning office to its fate, until I had heard the news flash at the hour but though we were all desperately excited, nobody seemed to be anything else but desperately calm.

I find I can't work or concentrate, just want to sit by radio the entire time but then I have two very great friends in Paris, one is American, Sylvia Beach, she had the students' bookshop there, and

W. Macpherson, English
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.

5th July 1944

Dear Viola,

Quite amazing, your letter of June 20th came in two days ago, dont believe I have had a letter so quickly for years. You must be extremely proud of your son, getting the Oak Cluster but what a mercy it is, that he is now out of that terribly dangerous work for a while. I think they might have sent him on leave.

As for us, we are all singing softly to ourselves " Oh, to be in Normandy in a nice, soft field. " We can say no more except that I now sit under the table at the office, which is not an ideal spot for work draped with mackintoshes over every bit of my anatomy ( one should be utterly streamlined ) that might peke out.

No, Egyptian tomb paintings are always highly religious in character, ( I was partly brought up there as a child ) I know them well. The lurid paintings are those in south Italy. But since about 700 A.D. Egypt has been Moslem by religion and it is one of their worst sins, to represent any living thing. I meant merely that as Willkie is often speaking about India, and the main problem in India is the clash between the two religions, Moslem and Hindoo, he should at least have found out the main ideas of the two religions. Up till quite lately one dared not take photographs in Egypt and even to-day, never near a Mosque, though a few now used for mainly secular purposes, such as a school or hospital, have been photographed. My father used to photograph some of the old temples in Egypt,pre the Moslem times but always had to hide the camera driving back through the town. The Hindoos - as opposed to the Moslems - ix decorate their temples with paintings and statues and usually ( but not always) are pacifists. The Moslems on the contrary are good soldiers and much more warlike in their ideas.

No, I think the movie you wrote of, the Ox Bow, has not come over here yet.

Stories, most of them cant be written though these last days they have poured in like plums but the most perturbing I must risk, ....the neighbour of a relative had bad toothache and at last got an appointment with the dentist. It is very difficult these days, often one has to wait 7 weeks. At the worst moment of having a bad tooth filled there was a whump. She came do, blown from her chair through a window and to the end of the garden ( fortunately it was a window that was open) but otherwise unhurt but her dentist was seriously injured. Really, one cant imagine in a horror story, a greater combination of shocks.

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.
17th July 1944

Dear Viola,

The lettuce and chard seeds have come - thank you so much
and I am now going to make various friends sow them and supply us with
fresh vegetables - I have three friends with allotments and my friend on
the farm. It was a kind thought of yours to send them - I like the
Cos lettuce so much better than the ordinary round variety, don't you?
yet one so seldom seen here.

Hilda and I are hoping to go this week if we can get on a
train to Trenoweth, St Keverne, Cornwall. Any letters sent here
though will be forwarded, the superintendant of these flats is a friend
of ours and so careful with our mail.

I should think we should be away three weeks. I help with
the harvest and Hilda will sit in the sun, I hope, though she speaks of
driving Matilda, the donkey, more than I would venture. We are eleven
miles from the nearest town there, three miles from the village and no
gasolene whatsoever. My friend has a shopping permit to go once a
week, that is all, to the town as she has to cater for all the extra
harvest workers. But we have the donkey and cart.

Life here has been horrible, far worse than the big blitz
I think. This morning I nearly died in the arms of a completely
strange sailor and somehow I don't fancy that as my end! The
danger overhead signal went and we both dived for the same bit of floor.
A friend of ours was partially blinded and his flat wrecked two weeks
ago. We have all had enough of it.

I do hope we get to Cornwall, a friend of ours who used
to box, is coming to try to help us get off. It takes us about
a day with two changes.

Once again thank you so very much for the seeds,

With love and greetings from us both,

W. Macpherson, English,
Renoweth, St Neverne, Cornwall
but write London

18th August 1944

Dear Viola,

Your letter of July 14th reached me about ten days ago but there is not much time to write letters here. I am supposed to be helping with the harvest, not that I can do much, but I can get the food for the rabbits, weed, and do odd jobs which helps a bit.

We had the most dreadful time in London up to the moment that we left. We even had a warning as we were jammed on the platform with the people waiting for the train. But we arrived here and I think the change has done Hilda a lot of good, though we are a very full household as other friends of my Cornish friend have come here with some small schoolboys to keep them out of London during the school holidays. But we shall soon have to be getting back, so please write to 49 Downdes Square, S.W.1.

We even have had some bathing which is very rare in wartime England but the weather has been variable, some lovely days but on the whole most of the time it has been wet. The other evening I was wakened by a scratching in a tiny store cupboard in the wall by my bed, at last I opened it and out flew a bat! I had to turn off the light, draw my black out and sit or crouch on the floor with a torch till it flew out of the window. But the puzzle is how it got into the cupboard. There is no opening and it is used only to store blankets and covers.

The corn looks lovely in the fields, cut or uncut. I do hope that your son soon gets transferred back to the States for he has been out such a long while hasn't he? We are tremendously excited to-day because they are so near to Paris, I have an American friend, Sylvia Beach who had a bookshop there and may still be there.

All love and greetings and I do hope that you are all having a pleasant summer,

W. Macpherson English

49 Lowndes Square London S.W.1.

18th September 1944

Dear Viola,

You are so wonderfully kind and generous. Just imagine
you thinking of sending us those two glorious packets of soap powder,
and the marshmallow. Thank you so much. I do wish I could think
of a dozen ways to say thank you for all your kindness but I do hope
you realise how much we value your gifts and also your letters.

I had a great time yesterday. I was awfully lucky. I
got a card for the special Battle of Britain memorial service at
Westminster Abbey. The same friend took me last year to the same
service at St Paul's. I liked the St Paul's service best, it was
simpler and more somehow of London but yesterday at the Abbey it was
awfully impressive, with the Air Force banner near the altar and another
flying outside over the Cathedral. Hardly anybody was there, male or
female, out of uniform. I felt quite conspicuous as a mere civilian.
They had an air force guard of honor, lots of the diplomatic corps and
people whose faces one knows so well from photographs though one cant
always put names to them. It was a lovely end of summer day and they
left open one of the side doors so one could see the trees, an occasional
passing bus and a vast crowd who would not get inside. I thought
the sermon was poor but then they mostly are. They had drums and
the full national anthem with all the verses nobody knows ( hardly
anybody get beyond the second verse, and I never remember more than the
first ) and it was all most interesting.

Hilda was asked but felt she could not face being in a crowd
and having perhaps to stand for a long time. I think it would have been
very tiring for her. I am short and therefore tough and can wriggle
in places.

Last night we started dim out. Well, we were all looking
out of the window for we had an American friend come in to supper and
we were saying it was just as dark as ordinary black out when we had
a warning, so we had to close up as usual. But we only had one warning
and an all clear five minutes later. But London anyhow doesn't think
much of the dim out, it is practically the same as other winters. You
see, we daren't rip down our black out because if the warning goes you
have to darken everywhere as usual, and therefore you just draw curtains
as usual.

I loved your description of the barbecues. They must
have been fun. We'd have had more fun in Cornwall only we were just
so worried about Perdita being here and having to go to work all summer
with those wretched flying bombs about that it spoilt the holiday.
But we all do hope it won't be much longer.

Once again all thanks, much love and greetings,

Do hope you have good news from your son.

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.
12th October 1944

Dear Viola,

It is great fun having a second birthday, I got your card, that most attractive inkpot and your letter of Sept 27th all together. Thank you so much. I cant think why you ever worried about the card, it reminds me of Switzerland and is so gay and charming, we never see such cards here now. There was a lot of not quite red but deep saffron scented honeysuckle this year wild on the hedges in Cornwall, and where I used to go as a child there was a lemon scented one that was very rare but also grew wild in a hedge.

No, I am afraid I hardly ever go to church but this Battle of Britain service is always very interesting for you see people there that otherwise are just names or pictures in newspapers. And the defences meant a lot to us, the only cheerful thing in a raid is to hear your own guns roaring back.

Do hope your son has got back - he must be sick of kangaroos, rain storms and the Pacific in general. It is not a part of the world I have felt attracted me ever, though I had friends out in New Zealand.

We are depressed over the black out, nobody dare take down a curtain. Two reasons, first of all if the warning goes you must have complete black out immediately and we get quite a lot of warnings, then in five years materials wear out, and if we took down the black curtains we cant replace them with colored ones unless we give up dress coupons and who is going to do that these days! I just had to give twelve coupons for a mackintosh, fortunately I had saved a few from last year.

We shall do our best for your friend but he has not rung up or written yet. What has happened to Georgie Henry? I'd have taken him around willingly had I known ahead when he was getting leave.

We get twenty points each four weeks, for cereals, syrup, or any tinned foods except soup or a few vegetables. This month I got a tin of syrup for eight points, a half pound of dates for eight points and a pound of biscuits four points. Meat is too costly in points, the cheapest is sixteen I think but I get my lunch out which is a great help. Generally with Hilda, a very nice small place run by a woman who lived in France and has two boys in the Air Force. She is a wonderful cook. If you cant eat out, it is a hard struggle to get meals that are not so monotonous you cant even sit and look at them. Having our lunch out except weekends we manage nicely. All these details because I like hearing about what you do and hope it amuses you to hear how our daily life goes. Hilda doesn't mind getting up as much as I do, so she gets breakfast and sticks an alarm clock inside the door to wake me, then I go to office and we try to meet at lunch,

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square, London S.W.1.
22nd November 1944

Dear Viola,

All possible good wishes to you all for a very happy Christmas
and a 1945 that runs just as you would want it. My Christmas card this
year has been done by my father in law's brother who has been working on
the art side of some of our best known newspapers for the last fifty years.
He is a dear old gentleman, had retired but went to work again with the
war as all the younger people were called up.

Well, it seems we may now mention V2. It is not as bad as
the summer but it is pretty unpleasant. Cant say more. The autumn
has been wet and miserable, so many people we know have had a horrid kind
of flu, and it is not to be wondered at. Transport gets worse and worse
and the other day on the subway coming back, I really thought I was going to
be suffocated. Always take a bus for preference but if I'm kept late
they do not always run.

Black out is as it was, we are promised more light but it
does not seem to appear yet.

Christmas will be a problem this year in lots of ways. There
is nothing in the shops or if there is, it is of frantically bad quality
at an appalling price. We are all disappointed at the terribly slight
increase for the Christmas ration period. We ourselves are lucky in
having several friends with gardens, and we have been given some nice
fresh vegetables during the year at different times and some otherwise
non obtainable fruit which we made into jam. But conditions are
so monotonous for the majority.

Still the news is better and maybe it will end soon, it
cannot end quick enough to please me. And I do hope that your son
may soon be back in the United States and with you once more and that
you will all have a happy time together. The friend of whom you
spoke, has not written or rung us up. Of course, he might have rung
up when we were not here.

Once again all good wishes and all possible gratitude for

your great kindness to us during the year,

W. Macpherson, English,
49 Lowndes Square London S.W.1.

31st December 1944

Dear Viola,

First your gay card arrived about a week before Christmas with all your good wishes, many thanks for it, I hope indeed that by the time the spring plumage appears on the birds here, we shall have peace. Then on the actual Christmas mail came your parcel of good things and my stockings that were in Hilda's parcel. Thank you so very much for your continued kindness.

I have not seen a pair of stockings like that for years and they fit me beautifully, I am going to keep them till Easter day and greet the spring in them, I hope.

And all those good things. One of those lovely puddings ... incidently we generally have them as a great treat when our American friend comes round to supper as he does about twice a month. He always says it reminds him of home. And all sorts of other lovely things, the cheese and the cereals which we never see here any more. We get a ration cheese but it is peculiar lump without taste. It is so kind of you to think of us again and to send us such a wonderful parcel.

How did you get on over Christmas and did your son get leave? We had a better time than usual because Perdita got leave for the first time for three years on actual Christmas day, she usually gets it late in January. This time she had four days. As she was home we went on the Saturday to a very bad pantomime, ( often here they are good and it is the traditional thing to do ) I suppose wartime makes it difficult, but being altogether we enjoyed ourselves, then on the Sunday, some others and myself managed to hire a taxi, for we all had wreaths and went down to where our relatives were buried, it was very pleasant having the car trip which we hardly ever have now, it is years since I was in an automobile, other than a taxi to the station. On the Monday we had friends here including Perdita's chief, an American, Christmas dinner and on the Tuesday, Perdita, H and myself went to a very amusing revival of an old play, The Magistrate. We were lucky enough to get a bus each way because there was a strike on the subway and very few busses running.

We thought it was rather mean of the subway people to strike when it was the one chance lots of people here had to visit their relatives, on Christmas day it was impossible to get anywhere unless you could walk there and back.

Once again all the possible good wishes that we can send to you all for every possible success and happiness and good health in 1945, and so very many thanks for your great kindness to us,

With much love,