6th May 1959

Written on a HSBC Jesselton airmail letter

Dear Mr and Mrs Martin,

Thank you very much for your letter, it is good to hear from you. Susan is doing very well and is much the best behaved of the three, and putting on weight, sleeping and doing all the right things without too much fuss. Adrienne is walking now and consequently is in a continuous pickle. Caroline on occasion acts in grown up fashion and tells her off, but for the most part she is up to her neck in trouble too. They have great fun with the cat and two kittens and a giant Boxer which visits us daily and are in perpetual motion from the moment they awake to bedtime. (Even then they manage not to sleep for some time.) Margo is fit and has made a grand recovery. Mainly, I think, because Borneo is such a very pleasant place after Calcutta. I myself feel 100% fitter than I did there. The morning and Night Sky of Borneo is full of beauty. We have the grandeur of the hills behind us with one large mountain sticking up into the clouds and to the front the sun flames down setting in flashes and streaks of brilliant colour. Rain last week (the first for months) formed rising clouds below the house and water sheeted down into the thick vegetation which surrounds us and the cracks in our driveway widened. The lightening kept the phone ringing and eventually cut off the electricity for several house. A week before we had a minor forest fire opposite the house and Margo dialed '999'. They soon had it under control but nearby houses were a bit scorched. Never a dull moment. The children take everything in their stride, even the blasting which is going on, one a nearby hill. The builders are trying to find rock on which to build the Governor's house and at 5 pm daily they use another stick of dynamite. This has been going on since we arrived and the hill is getting flatter and flatter, but so far no rock. Our best wishes to you and to Joyce & Tom, Rita & Fred,

Margo, Peter, Caroline, Adrienne and Susan

(The Martins were neighbours of my grandmother and lived at 74, Tamworth Park, Mitcham, Surrey UK. The other names in the best wishes were also neighbours.)