Writing to Pips, he breathed a sigh of relief: ‘As my battalion has gone up to the front line today it looks as if we are to remain here at least another 6 days, or possibly for a longer period – 18 days maybe which will bring us up to Xmas.’
As they were likely to be staying for a little while they had decided to make improvements to their living arrangements, in particular by making an underground passage from their dugout, widening into a small room, which they hoped would be about 6 feet below ground level. He would feel much safer there than in the dugout at present, which was only covered by a corrugated iron roof and a layer of sandbags.
He thanked Pips for the parcel he had just received, with all his favourite goodies inside, and promised that he would go into town the next day to buy something a birthday present for him [Pips would be 59 on 7 December], not that there was much to choose from. At Xmas he intended to send him some short stories:
‘…not as a present, as they will probably be somewhat amateurish – but for you to keep for me – I am fond of writing stories but my only trouble is to have enough perseverance to finish them – I have tried several but have got tired of them in the middle and never finished them – but I will try and finish two or three – although meant to be serious they may offer you a little innocent amusement.’
The first page of one of Sherriff’s earliest short stories. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/3/8/1)
Thoughts of Xmas made his mind turn to his home in Hampton Wick – and the wares that would be displayed by the local traders: Sayers’ stock of Xmas cards ‘with Robins sitting on snow covered cottages with holly leaves all round’; the sweet-shop man with his ‘stiff open-work stockings full of sickly little white sweets’; and Winterbourne’s stock of ‘dates – almonds – all the other Xmas delicacies’. He would give everything in his possession, he wrote, to get 10 days leave stretching over Xmas. But he knew it was unlikely – which made it all the more frustrating that one of the RE officers who was going on leave had told him he didn’t really care much whether he did or not:
‘I suppose it’s the same the whole world over – those who have a thing do not find it so sweet as those who wish for it – but as each day goes by and I tick them off on my home made calendar it brings us nearer to the day my leave is due.’
[Next letter: 7 December]