Love in the Blitz by Eileen Alexander

Author:Eileen Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

9

Limbo

FRIDAY 1 MAY 1942Darling, you sounded never so weary, never so in woe. What you need is a course of Solace. Come to London, my love. That will cure your malaise. I agree with you, darling, that the work of a computer is not up your strasse. It demands a singularly restricted type of mind which you have not – besides, darling, all computers end up by being a little mad. There is a Wildness in their eye, an electric unruliness in their hair, an unkemptness in their person which marks the Fanatic. I would not want you to give yourself up Body and Soul to Computing – It would be reflected in your mollocking, my love. You would see it all as a Pattern of Interesting Combinations – Horrible – I shudder to think on’t. No wonder F. L. Lucas has had such a rapid succession of wives, darling. He was always a computer at heart.

MONDAY 4 MAYI read a nice phrase in a document today, darling. It referred to Fitters at a particular Unit. It read: ‘They were not imbued with the fighting spirit. The spanners had entered their souls.’ It was a very High-Level Document too, darling. It’s nice to know that the Great Ones have a touch of poesy in their make-up.

THURSDAY 7 MAYDarling, my mother had 4 letters from Pa yesterday, and in the last one he told her that Gino Grassi, the son of out neighbour Mr Carlo Grassi, had been killed fighting for Italy in Libya. At first, darling, I felt nothing but irritation with Mr Grassi for being such a bloody fool. Serves you right, I thought, for strutting about like a peacock with your Fascist button-hole and your Commandatores. And then I thought, no – bigger men than you have been attracted by the glamour of power and titles – and I was just terribly sorry. Gino was a spoilt, raucous lad, he can’t have been more than 18 when he died, darling. He was their only child and had always been very delicate – and they adored him. Mme Grassi is a very beautiful Jewess, a tall, gracious figure with glossy black hair and lovely bones. Mr Grassi is like a little black bantam – rather a pathetic figure for all his Big Booming Voice and his posturing. He used to say that Mussolini wanted to make a bigger and better Italy – a splendid aim, he thought, and what did his Politics matter (!!!) provided he enriched his people and aggrandized his country? His friendship with Hitler was natural – Hitler treated him like a Gentleman, the representatives of the other powers treated him like a Dago. Poor little man. What price Fascism now?

Had I aught to tell you? I forget. Oh! yes, Joan Pearce rang me up last night having spent her leave looking through the engagement columns of old Times (typical). She Slapped me Heartily on the Back across 60 miles of telephone wire (She’s in Middleton) and I could hear her Sam Browne Creaking Expansively.

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