Dear Lupin... by Charlie Mortimer; Mortimer Charlie; Mortimer Roger

Author:Charlie, Mortimer; Mortimer, Charlie; Mortimer, Roger
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780330136
Publisher: Constable
Published: 2014-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

1980

Little Shiverings

Leaking

26 January

Dear Charlie,

I hope you are having a good time and that your health is improving. Life here is not entirely enjoyable thanks to appalling weather and a wide variety of strikes. I’m sure this nation has a death wish which may before long be fulfilled. There have been no trains from Basingstoke this week – two days of strikes and the lines iced up the remaining days. There is no food shortage anywhere but patients are having to leave hospitals because of the bloody-mindedness of the employees. Your mother had the time of her life today, being first on the scene at an accident near Kingsclere and therefore in an excellent position to boss the victims and apply first aid. We are off to the Surtees tonight – dinner for twenty in a shed! What price a touch of hypothermia? Your mother has a septic nose, a septic finger, a cracked elbow and an inflamed antrum but under the circumstances is remarkably cheerful. Your elder sister has been on holiday in Paris, presumably at the expense of Torday & Co. Unfortunately Paul’s dog was run over and killed while they were away. He had cost £250 – a contrast to old Turpin who cost 7/6d. Aunt Joan is recovering well from her hip operation but has to be careful on the icy pavements. Not much news of Louise: I have not set eyes on HHH since that memorably disastrous Christmas party. At tonight’s party I am sitting next to Lady Graham (née Susan Surtees). She can be rather sharp and I’m not sure whether she likes me. Surtees and I will have a party next June to celebrate having been friends for forty years. I first met him soon after becoming a POW and we were both really riding on the rims. He always swears the first thing I did was to swindle him out of a lettuce sandwich (we were on starvation rations); the second to teach him picquet and take off him what little money he possessed. I deny both charges. Tiny Man does not like the snow much and goes out as little as possible. Your mother is ordering a new car – another dreary old Renault. I met at dinner a year or so ago a man closely involved in a murder at Nairobi: in fact, I think he had pulled the trigger. I believe the atmosphere gets people rather overexcited out there. An old friend of mine, Dick Twining, died recently: he had played cricket for Eton in 1907 so was fairly old. An exceptionally nice and charming man.

Yours ever,

RM

I am in Kenya again, driving around in an old Land Rover earning my keep by doing odd jobs. I have managed to avoid a rather lively Christmas at home where my mother beat up my brother-in-law, HHH, following a row about flat racing. This particular Christmas came to be known as ‘The Shining’ with my dear mother playing the lead role of Jack.

Budds Farm

12 May

Dear Charles,

Two items of news: John Boyce died early this week.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.