Went out to Boxted this evening to see the Roses, who were just going off to do their turn at firewatching. I went along with them, getting there just at nine. They were anxious to hear the News, and had brought their radio with them. As it was so near time, they switched it on in the school yard, and standing there under the stars, with searchlights waving far away to the south, I heard the chimes of Big Ben, as clearly as if I had been on the Embankment, followed by the information that the United States is now at war with both Germany and Italy. So another chapter of misery and death begins.
It is strange how I have before heard momentous news over the radio in the most unlikely places. Five years ago tonight, I was standing outside North Station with Hervey Benham, waiting for his sister, when I heard King Edward VIII’s farewell speech coming from a radio in an empty car just outside the station.
Cycled back at 10, by the light of dozens of searchlight beams.
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