good humour

We can often discover good humour in the strangest of places. Not long ago I bought a small book – not much more than a booklet actually – in Waterstones Piccadilly store.  Published in 2017 it was a light hearted look at The British Diplomatic Service over a period of years and made good reading.

Here is a short piece that I have pinched from it – with apologies to the Turkish population everywhere.

It’s a letter from the British Ambassador to Moscow to Lord Pembroke at the Foreign Office , London dated 1943.

“My dear Reggie,

In these dark days man tend to look for those little shafts of light that spill from the heavens.  My days are probably darker than yours and I need - my god I do - all the light I can get .

But I am a decent fellow and I do not wish to be mean and selfish about what brightness is shed upon me . So, I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt.

Well , we all feel like that Reggie from time to time especially when spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards.

It takes a Turk to do that ! “