![]() ![]() ![]() On the morning of Tuesday, February 1, 1944, he is settled in a hotel, deep in the West Country: Easton Court, Chagford, Devon-a thatch-roofed 14th-century farmhouse with low, dark rooms and small windows. If, in fact, the book is not written now it will never be written.”īy the end of January he has been granted his three months’ leave. There is a book he needs to write: “It is a peculiarity of the literary profession that, once an idea becomes fully formed in the author’s mind, it cannot be left unexploited without deterioration. The necessity of immediate action is stressed. “I have the honour to request,” the letter begins, “that, for the understated reasons I may be granted leave of absence from duty without pay for three months.” The understated reasons are various-for instance, that his previous service in the Royal Marines, the Commandos, the Special Services, and the Special Air Service Regiment does not qualify him for his current position in a mechanized unit of the cavalry. On January 24 he writes a letter to Colonel Ferguson, officer commanding, Household Cavalry Training Regiment. Only one possibility remains: to revert to his pre-war occupation as a novelist. To join M.I.5, the intelligence service? He is turned down without an interview. To become a screenwriter? An overture to Alexander Korda comes to nothing. He has just turned 40 and is considering his options. ![]() John Waugh has fallen out of love with the army. ![]() It is early 1944, and Captain Evelyn Arthur St. ![]()
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