The air is thick with rumours, most of them very exhilarating, but the Boche is still carrying on as doggedly as ever. His booby traps are still being discovered occasionally, but they are scarcely as good as the ones we left for the Turks in Gallipoli….I heard yesterday of a social meeting of past and present students of the History School. I should have liked a chance of being there. The need for some intellectual respite from army life grows greater with me every day. When I tell you that we are on parade for nine hours every day and that our leisure time is taken up with kit inspections, feed inspections, gas drills, roll call, orderly room and a multitude of other things, you will see that reading is out of the question…Given the chance I could sit in the biggest library and read every book cover to cover.