“I want you to send him this card,” she repeated. “You can send it to his home address. You see, I think he deserves to know your Christian name. Don’t you?”
Envoi
Monday, March 18
This list is not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. It’s been compiled by Everett Williams, director of the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics, and on it are the 150 most unusual names he’s encountered in 34 years with the bureau. Examples are: Tootsie Roll, Curlee Bush, Emancipation Proclamation Cogshell, Candy Box, Starlight Cauliflower Shaw, and Determination Davenport. But he never encountered a fourth quadruplet called Mo! Williams figures that some parents have a sense of humor — or else a grudge against their offspring.
On the following Monday evening, Mrs. Lewis handed the card to her husband:
“This is for you — from Inspector Morse.”
“You mean, you’ve read it?”
“Course I ’ave, boy!”
Smelling the chips, Lewis made no protestation as he looked at the front of the card: an aerial view of Bath, showing the Royal Crescent and the Circus. Then, turning over the card, he read Morse’s small, neat handwriting on the back. What he read moved him deeply; and when Mrs. Lewis shouted through from the kitchen that the eggs were ready, he took a handkerchief from his pocket and pretended he was wiping his nose.
The card read as follows:
For philistines like you, Lewis, as well as for classical scholars like me, this city with its bath and temples must rank as one of the finest in Europe. You ought to bring the missus here some time.
Did I ever get the chance to thank you for the few(!) contributions you made to our last case together? If I didn’t, let me thank you now — let me thank you for everything, my dear old friend.
Yours aye,
Acknowledgments
The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for use of copyright materials:
Extract from The Dance by Philip Larkin reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.;
Extract from the News of the World reproduced by permission of the News of the World;
Extract from Fowler’s Modern English Usage reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press;
Ace Reporter by Helen Peacocke reproduced by kind permission of the author;
Extract from Major Barbara by Bernard Shaw reproduced by permission of The Society of Authors on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate;
Extract from The Brontës by Juliet Barker reproduced by permission of Weidenfeld and Nicolson;
Extract from The Dry Salvages by T. S. Eliot reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.;
Extract from Summoned by Bells by John Betjeman reproduced by permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.;
Extract from Aubade by Philip Larkin reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.;
Extract from May-Day Song for North Oxford by John Betjeman, from Collected Poems of John Betjeman, reproduced by permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.;
Extract from This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.;
Extract by Philip Larkin on this page reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders but if any has been inadvertently overlooked, the author and publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.