Sunday 7th May 1944

I chose an extract from Michael Roberts' “Hymn to the Sun” for my Summer Shower frontispiece, partly because Longbenton village is near here, partly because here in Northumbria I shiver and long to see “bright horizons shimmering in the sun,” and also because it is a non-committal type of frontispiece. I feel in a non-committal mood these days!

It is not topical with regard to the weather, for even Northumbrians could hardly call this “voy wawm”. When we assembled for roll call this morning, long after sunrise, there was white frost gleaming on the roofs of the huts and among the rough grass around the edges of the ash parade ground. Yet this is late springtime, even the beech trees are in leaf now, although the ash boughs are still bare.