Sherriff’s letter home today was brief – partly because, as he told his mother, ‘I am having such a nice quiet time here that I nearly failed with my letter…and I have left it late…’

He had been enjoying watching the skating, which had been interesting because ‘all kinds and conditions of people indulge in it – officers (French, English and Portuguese), French women, English and French soldiers and all sorts of civilians – they all get on well together’.

He was feeling ‘very much better for my rest’, but knew that it was now drawing near the end. He had been to the dentist three times, and had three teeth ‘stopped’, and the rest passed as ‘sound’. He felt the dentist had done them ‘quite well’, but that he ‘lacked the delicacy of Dr Wallace.’ His cut hand [incurred in a fall while in the Rest Home] was healing up as well.

And there, with an apology that he could not think of anything else to say, his letter ended.

[Next letter: 7 February]