大象传媒

My father-in-law (born in 1908), and known to everyone as Tig, worked for the Bank of England and was not called up for military service. One of his friends in the Bank was captured and eventually word got through which camp he was held in so of course Tig started to write to him. Censorship applied to outgoing letters and naturally letters to prisoners of war were read before being handed over and the first letter duly arrived with a lot of chat about some mutual friend whom Boyes Lee didn't recognise at all. When the second letter arrived mentioning this friend again and saying that he had turned his house into two flats and he (Tig) was in one with a fine view of the sunrise each morning, Boyes was mystified until it occurred to him that Baily was not the usual spelling for Bailey and looked again at the rest of the letter. "Art...who tells us ... associated with Eire...boxing match but had a pasting..." and it was then he remembered that Tig everyday did the crossword in the Daily Telegraph. Baily/Libya flat/desert Art and Eire (anagram) Eritrea. The letters flowed (we have from 1941 to 1944 with just a few missing). References are made to horse-racing - you can have marvellous names for horses "Mickey The" /Mickey The Greek (Greece), Sweet Delight from rival stable (Turkey)held back for further engagement, reverse is the case for Go You (you go /Yugo(slavia), Rose of Lancaster / Red Rose (Russia). Then there was Rugby - The Blue Boys ("the boys in navy blue") (Navy).

Dunkirk thus: Curiously named horse Belief No Lie (British Expeditionary Force - remove Lie = BEF) put up a magnificent show against the best of opposition. The last named horse got hemmed in ............ but by skillful riding his jockey managed to extricate him after a dead loss of 3 lengths. Thousands were there. Treble the number were left behind. The total crowd must have been as large as for an Arsenal match on Cup-tie Day. By the way, isn't racing slang silly - as a grammarian, I think you will agree that it would be better if words like "Lengths" were never used.

P.S. he goes on to say I have had to put up with a certain amount of truculence from Ivan Roberts and Arthur King just lately; initially they were good friends of mine so I have not liked being forced to rap them over the knuckles even though they are rather oily customers. I.R.A.K. (Iraq. British troops moved in to suppress a Nazi-inspired coup and to secure the oilfields).

23rd June 1941: Having talked about the Derby 1st, 2nd 3rd results as a truly run race (i.e. this was fact!) he goes on I dare say you remember Rose of Lancaster by Community Life out of Ridinghood (Russia). Anyhow, she is an enormous beast with little enthusiasm for racing except against poor horses (annexing the Baltic States etc.). Times have changed and she is being tried in better company having been forced to join the local stable. (Germany attacked Russia on the 22nd June.

There were references to the RAF as a cricket team called the Giraffes with their origin (Gi) insignificant and end (fes) equally uninteresting.

Then Japan came into the war J. A. Pot (pots and pans) recently taken out a lease of part of the Ionic hand (anagram Indo China) stable, consequently it is thought he may be going to oppose one or two of our horses (Hong Kong and Malaya) with his Anne's Pub. (A local pub was called the Rising Sun and Boyes' favourite barmaid was called Anne)

Then he got classical: Do you remember "Cursi", that house next door to Roberts' and King's a perfectly classical little place (Iran). I have been aware for some time that the owner is none too sure of himself so that in conjunction with my biggest friend, I have decided to acquire the property lest it should fall into the hands of some undesirable person. We have already started to move in.(British and Russian troops into Iran 25/8/41)

Russian racing again: telling of the loss of Pike Cave who has lost pace (Kiev); news of Repined (Dnieper); Grimace who has previously lost a head when running a confused sort of race (Crimea - remove G "head") and then an inspired one which requires all sorts of idiosyncratic British knowledge: :Yellow Moorics, who incidentally, is now without the trainer we think of so highly but, blimey, he is looking well. (Old song: "If this is the Reilly you think of so highly then blimey O'Reilly you are looking well") - remove OReilly = Moscow!

27th November 1941: Anne's Pub has been kept in strict training but has not yet made an appearance. The St. Leger winner of 1930 (actually called Singapore) receiving plenty of support and should have wonderful effect on British bloodstock in future (!)

America: Pawnbroker or My broker friend (Pawnbrokers were known as Uncle and America was Uncle Sam)

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