Letter from William Empson, Evesham, to John Davenport, after 1940 : autograph manuscript signed.

Apologizing for not writing a Collins after the weekend; adding "I have been asked to try and get together a BBC 'programme' about China, which involves finding Chinese who can act and make noises off, very puzzling when one is tied by the leg here. However it forces me to sit quiet and write letters a bit; that is how I come to be writing to you. My hours of work are getting so odd that this morning I woke with a start at 7:20 am (having got to bed about 4:00) feeling certain it was 7:20 pm and nobody would have written the notes on enemy propaganda for broadcasters all day. I dressed and prowled about downstairs, where the black out might apply to either hour, but the state of the kitchen table seemed conclusive and I went back to bed for another four hours with my clothes on. I am much entertained to hear about the military career of Capt. Blofield, who I met as a Buddhist monk in Yunnan; he believes it to be a cardinal sin to kill the lice on your body, so if any one is a conscientious objector he is, you'd think, but he has been rapidly promoted and the War Office is using his Far Eastern languages. The news I think is less alarming this week than it was last. Will you be coming down here again or in London soon?"