大象传媒

In my last year of army service, as a Personnel Selection Sgt, I recall being able to buy a fountain pen. This does not sound strange but very few if any had been made during the war and I was glad to be able to acquire one. It was of a mottled green colour and I thought it might be appropriate to fill it with green ink. I think I had another, old, pre-war pen, which I used, containing blue ink. On one occasion I was sitting at my desk writing something with the green ink pen when one of the Personnel Selection Officers passed by. He saw me writing and starting laughing. It was a very ribald guffaw. I was startled and asked him why he was laughing, but he refused to tell me. I temporarily forget about the incident.
A few months later, when books were also in short supply, I managed to pick up a paperback copy of a book I'd heard of, and now reprinted. It was by Havelock Ellis, whom I had heard of as a pioneer writer on sexual matters. It was entitled 'The Psychology of Sex'. It was, as I now know, not based on any systematic study but appeared to be a collection of anecdotes told to him by his patients. There was no question of a random sample.
Nevertheless, I started reading the book with much interest but then I came to his chapter on homosexuality. His poor scientific method was evident here. He wrote that most homsexuals were men in certain occupations, such as hairdressers and waiters. This seemed to be no more than the usual gossip. But I was pulled up sharp when I read that, in addition to these and other occupations, something like,'and most of them use green ink'. I now knew why the officer had laughed. So I stopped using green ink.

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