February 23, 2004

Turkish de(light)

Letter to Lord Pembroke in the Foreign Office, London

6 April 1943

My Dear Reggie,

In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from Heaven. 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 want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. 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.

We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, 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.

Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr
H.M. Ambassador
Moscow

Thanks to DJ for this one. See the original letter here.

Posted by Joe at February 23, 2004 10:23 PM
Comments

A perfect name for a character in Captain Pugwash - Mustapha Kunt would have been in excellent company with Roger the Cabin Boy and Master Bates!

Posted by: martin at February 24, 2004 10:31 AM

Very Carry On! Goes well with the Mustafa Leek character in, was it Carry On Up the Khyber?

Posted by: Honey at February 27, 2004 11:29 PM
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