shewhomust | Thinking of Tom on his birthday

989689. LAC. Rogers
R.A.F. STATION
CARTHAGO,
Sudan.

7.8.42

Dear Ralph & Edith,
Many thanks for your long letter of April which has arrived here. News from home has fallen thick and fast, the latest item being that David and Phoebe are to marry on the 24th. I suppose everyone will be as pleased as I am about this. My only regret is that I could not be present at the ceremony. This piece of news came from Freda via an airmail p/c, the quickest form of mail from England. She is now at the North Staffs R.I. (?) but she has joined the Princess Mary's Nursing Service and expects to be enlisted in the Air Works this month.

Ted must still be on his way out, if he is lucky he will spend some time at a S.A. port, but I hope to have news of him within a few weeks.

Sorry to hear of your attack of influenza, it is a very unpleasant illness. Convalescence is, however, a delightful period when one can laze without being pricked by a guilty conscience and read books which normally one would be too busy to look at.

Quite a few papers and some books have arrived from home so that I have reading material to last me awhile. The papers of course are rather stale but they do help to fill in the gaps left by the BBC news.

I have just finished reading The Poacher by H.E. Bates, and found it very enjoyable. It deals with the life of a poacher who was a young man in the '80s. His father is a wonderfully drawn character and the book loses a lot of its interest after he is shot by a keeper. It was surprising to hear the hero say he could be hanged for poaching and gaoled for even making a snare.

The station cinema continues to give its shows thrice weekly but seldom rises above a 3rd rate program. Two notable exceptions were Mice & Men and Dark Victory both of which I enjoyed, although both were badly cut and suffered from the projection breaking down a dozen or so times.

Last week we had a lecture on "Current Affairs" by our Intelligence Officer. This was the first of its kind I had heard in the RAF and was interesting although nothing new came to light. The discussion which followed was very free and animated and centred around the issue of the 2nd Front.

The weather has been showing signs of initiative recently with brilliant storms of thunder and light[e]ning (sic) and downpours of rain. This helps to break the monotony but the rain usually holds back the trains so that we get no mail for a few days.

I must close now. How is the baby? I look forward to getting some snaps and hearing a lot of news about her progress.

Love to all,
Tom

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