Faraway lady

1 Lives. lives. We've just completed an Oxted group meeting. Eight of us around the table. The tales were of the misfortunes which brought young men (mainly) to detention in Brook House (mainly). The misfortunes of life. One man has served a sentence of three and a half years for GBH; from prison to Brook House; there he will stay for the foreseeable future because he cannot be removed to Zimbabwe. He does not want to return because he fears for his life.

2 Other lives in the upper room (of the RBL in East Grinstead). The mounted picture of the old man when he was (40) years younger did what it was intended to do. It got them going. An agreement to speak for 20 minutes; a further agreement to talk for another ten minutes. Lots of good stuff about SSAFA. And a £25 cheque for SSAFA. A convivial atmosphere. In the upper room and in the saloon people who were at ease in each other's company talked and then left for home, having been fortified in their regard for the others.

3 A companionable telephone call to Master Brown. A good evening, it was agreed. Yet we wonder how it finished. Tomorrow, I will key something about the opera. The writing is the roadway to clarity of thought. The road, of course, may be long or it may be short.

4 And this short note has been keyed on the laptop on a tray on the gas-stove.

Settle in. Take your ease. Make the connexion. Send the news.


The man in the SSAFA tie.