30 June 1940

Dear Matthew,

I apologize for the delay, between exams and more shifts at work now that the fall term is over, I've only had time to come home and sleep when not eating (Rufus sends his regards). Though, I suppose you know what that's like being a copper before you were a soldier. I should be back to my regular schedule in a few weeks, however, as the spring term starts back up.

I'm glad you enjoyed the books I sent; I admit I did include the Christies and Sherlock Holmes as a bit of a laugh since you were part of the police. That, and something about the way we talked on the pier gave me the impression you enjoyed a good mystery. I can keep an eye out for any new Poirot books while you're gone and send them your way if you'd like. (I enjoy them too, though I wish pathology was more involved, the cases always seem so dramatic as well. Is every murder like the ones in Agatha Christie's novels?)

Please do tell me how you like Persuasion, it's an old favorite; that copy you have was actually the first book of my own I bought, but don't worry about it coming back in one piece. Books are meant to be read and enjoyed, and no doubt by now you've discovered that I loved that particular copy a lot. I'm a fan of Jane Austen in general, as well as her other later Victorian fellow female authors like the Brontë sisters, but Persuasion always resonated with me more than the others. I do hope you enjoy it as I have.

And those boys of yours certainly are judgmental, a book is a book, shouldn't matter who wrote it if the person reading it enjoys it. They like Agatha Christie, after all, so why shouldn't they also give Jane Austen the same sort of open mindedness? And at least you're doing something productive with your free time than just gambling and sports. Honestly, the nerve of them.

I'm not overly fond of the news coming out of Europe. With France falling to Germany and Italy, I worry over where they will send you. You could be sent to France or Africa from what my landlady has talked of - which, neither of these options are particularly ideal, but I wager Africa might be a little safer? Still no word of where you'll go?

I've wanted to travel before, in my younger years before I put all my efforts (and money) into school. Ironically, I wanted to go to France and Germany, to walk the streets of history, to go and learn from their medical departments at those grand old universities, see what was so great about France and their food. My sister and I used to pull down books from the library and find the best pictures of far off lands - regaling each other with what we'd do there: theater in London, going to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, feeling luxurious silks in our hands in Bombay, sail the seas on the old exploring vessels, see the pyramids in Egypt… but life and finances got in the way, so I never saw much of the world beyond Sydney and now Melbourne.

(I still dream of it sometimes, pouring out idea after idea in my journal of what I'd do now, but with the world at war… who knows what will survive the destruction and whether or not travel is possible.)

If you don't mind me asking… what made you volunteer to go to war? You were a copper, and didn't have to go, so… why?

Sincerely,

Alice Harvey