Letter to Judith Winnan
Dec 8 1997

Dear Judith,

I hope this is seven leagues nearer what you want than before. Otherwise I shall be staying up all night rewriting…

“Mummy, why’s Daddy staying up all night?”

“Ssh, dear, he’s trying to introduce a note of gaiety and informality into what the lady in Cardiff calls a wooden script.”

“Is that very difficult?”

“Impossible, dear. Now go to sleep, or Lord Raglan’s good arm will come and get you.”

“Mummy, when you lose an arm, does it go to heaven before you do, or does it wait for you?”

“No, dear. Its friends have a whip round and buy it a house in the country.”

“Arms have houses of their own?”

“Yes. They are called alms houses.”

yours