| Admin/Biog History | Waterfield was volunteering with the Quaker-led Friends Ambulance Unit in Libya. His parents had died two years earlier (1940). |
| Description | In this notebook, inscribed 'DH Waterfield. 28:4:42. Tobruk' [Tobruck], Waterfield records a short story about a boy named John who, on the outbreak of war, leaves England for a villa in France. The story spans only 31 pages of the notebook, the manuscript is double spaced and it is annotated at the end as 'Tobruk: May '42' . Details in the story suggest that it is based on Waterfield's own childhood at the time of the First World War, for example, the age of the boy, the description of the villa and its garden is reminiscent of Le Clos du Peyronnet, the boy returns to Hagley, which is the name of Waterfield's former family home, and like Waterfield, the boy has a brother named Anthony. It includes evocative descriptions of gardens and specific plants, and references 'Mummy', 'Daddy', 'Auntie' and Anthony, as well as people involved in the family's life such as a servant called Stratton, a nanny and people tending the garden or animals.
Related material can be found in DHW/1/5 - Journals: Middle East and North Africa: 1941-1943. |