Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.

Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.

This is worse than Hollywood, he thought. A girl comes in with a pork chop and I write a song for her.

It was a heavenly summer, the summer in which France fell and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk. Leaves were never such an intense and iridescent green; sunlight glinted on flower-studded meadows as the Germans encircled the Maginot Line and overran not only France but Belgium and Holland. Birdsong filled the air in the lull between bursts of gunfire and accompanied the fleeing refugees who blocked the roads. It was as though the weather was preparing a glorious requiem for the death of Europe.

When you're sad, my Little Star, go out of doors. It's always better underneath the open sky.

What are you afraid of then? Not Being able to see, I think not seeing because your obsessed by something that blots out the world.

Please, God,' Ruth would pray, 'don't let me be competitive. Let me realize what a privilege it is to study. Let me remember that knowledge must be pursued for its own sake and please, please stop me wanting to beat Verena Plackett in the exams.' She prayed hard and she meant what she said. But God was busy that autumn as the International Brigade came back, defeated, from Spain, Hitler's bestialities increased, and sparrows everywhere continued to fall.