slipped between the pages of the
minute book of the Fulmer Society
of Bell Ringers 1st May 1872
two letters written from the front

"my dear pater, on Friday we will have been five weeks ashore"

what remains

each page of the book watermarked, an image
of Britannia centre stage, crude cameo
with shield, and trident rough waves
and thirteen poems, typed, stuck carefully in

"we had a pretty hot strafe on the 21st I was . . . under heavy fire all day and most of next day"

just this

others, the limericks, light verse
on scraps tucked in the marbled end papers
whatever came to hand, the coal factors bill
1954 £1 5s 11d

"I went up on top of a hill the other night and started a dressing station . . . there were lots of snipers"

these pieces

on the back of form B941/MT the National
Milk Testing Service raw milk regulations 1949
a piece about ermine and something that caught
the eye in 1924 a page torn out of punch.

"and one of my men went potty with nervous strain – he sat in a corner and could not speak and kept rubbing his hands together"

folded

"we are praying for one nights frost to kill the flies . . .
they sit on your food as you put it in your mouth
and walk all over your nib as you write . . . when you remember
where they come from the idea is not very pleasant"

"there is no news, you can’t believe a word you see in the papers"

in the dark

 

 

Copyright © Janet Sutherland, 2006.

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Janet Sutherland lives in Lewes and is a regular contributor to this magazine. Shearsman Books published her debut collection Burning the Heartwood in April 2006.