Dearest Fergie,

A happy new year. This is hardly an expectation, but it's a hope. We had a pleasant Christmas here, all things considered, and I hope you did too.

I'm returning ‘The English Map’ [by Charles Close, head of the Ordnance Survey]. It's an informative little book. (If you ever see a 2nd hand copy I'd be glad if you would get it from me, as it's out of print.)

I also returning your Pu, in good condition I think. She was undoubtedly very tired when she came, and though she's not the sort of person that can be made to go to bed, she at least had a quiet time, with nothing to worry about. Perhaps the worst thing was having to read to the children, who fell for her at once and who, I suppose, thought it would be as nice for Pu as for themselves to have ‘The Three Bears’ four times over. How I wish we could keep Pu and send you our evacuees!

Our concert went off quite well. Pu will tell you. The church was crowded - fuller than probably it has ever been for a few centuries, since all the Chapel came too! - and everyone seems to have enjoyed it (even Robin [Milford], whose conscience is upset by having ‘pagan’ works like Holst's ‘St Paul's Suite’ performed in a church!). The scene and setting were lovely and the acoustics turned out to be marvellous. Well, I shall never make much of a conductor, but I'm glad the players want to carry on, as it's something to fill the terrible hollow feeling that the absence of music and music-making gives me. Curiously enough, I find conducting a sort of watertight compartment, and it seems to bear no relation to the creative side of one's mind. Perhaps not with a Toscanini, but I can now better understand why conductors, for all their experience, are not necessarily intelligent musicians, and are so often incompetent scorers. Anyhow, it'll all be useful if it ever again comes to conducting my own stuff. And in the meantime, until I'm called-up, there's the pleasure of doing things like Parry's ‘English Suite', Elgar's ‘Serenade', Holst, Bach, Corelli and much else, in a not-too-bad fashion. Amateur music-making usually gives me the pip, but this is just a bit better.