Ravenswood

47 Bristol Road

Weston-super-Mare

Somerset

December 4, 1950

Dear John,

Thank you for your last letter. It was lying behind the gas fire in my bedroom. It was a bit brown and crinkly. I think this was because Mummy let me have the fire on before I went to bed last night, so it might have caught fire, but it didn’t.

I like the Canadian stamps on the envelope. I don’t have any of them in my album. Most of my stamps are English or from the British colonies. You told me Canada is a British colony, so I am going to start a separate page for Canadian stamps. If you write to me again, can you put different stamps on the envelope, because I already have two of the Year of the Monkey and two called Womens Suffrage. I swapped one of each with Traps, as he doesn’t have any Canadian stamps either.

Can you tell me what those stamps are about? I thought of asking Mummy or Miss Lancaster, but they won’t know because 2016 is a long way in the future. It was Mummy’s idea for me to write to you, but I don’t think she ever expected I would get an answer back, especially not from the next century! I think if I showed your letters to Mummy, or my sisters or friends, they would think I wasn’t right in the head and put me in the loony bin.

Traps and I go to a stamp shop in The Boulevard most Saturdays. I just bought three of the UPU commemorative stamps. UPU stands for Universal Postal Union. I got the 21/2d, 3d and 6d, but I can’t afford the 1/- one yet.

I am now in Form 2 at St Peter’s, and we break up for Christmas next week. Whoopee! I won a prize for Latin, which was a book called “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” by C.S.Lewis. Do you remember reading it? It’s all about these four children who go to live with an old professor in the war, and find themselves in a frozen forest full of talking animals. I really liked it and I fell asleep reading it when I should have turned the light out ages ago. Do you remember reading it? Maybe you can tell me if C.S. Lewis wrote any more like this if you write again.

We just had the annual boxing tournament at school. I had three matches and I won them all. First I had to fight Dates. He’s one of my friends, so I didn’t like having to, but our boxing instructor, Captain Lancaster, said it was the luck of the drawer. Dates kept ducking so I could hardly hit him, but I won anyway. Then I had to fight Linn, and I was scared because he is a good boxer, but once I got in the ring I didn’t feel scared any more, and I beat him too. Then I had to fight Holman in the final, and I was really excited and not scared at all. They had to stop the fight in the third round because Holman’s nose was bleeding so much. But at the end of the round, Captain Lancaster said it was too close to decide who had won, so we had to have a fourth round, which I didn’t think was fair. But I won in the end and got a cup to take home. Captain Lancaster told me afterwards that I was too wild and I needed to practice my style a lot more.

I hope you and Dorothy have a lovely Christmas,

Love, Johnny-boy.

P.S. Mummy came to watch the boxing final in her best dress. I think she was proud of me, but she just said “well done, John.” I know I am not supposed to boast, but I think it’s all right telling you about things I am proud of.