March 1 Monday

Snow on mountains.

Letter from Short, via British warship & London, saying that Gelat was locked up a week before i.e. id est Feb February 12 & that young Juan said that it was the Dr.'s doing, but that he had been assured that 'nothing serious' would come of it.

(Daily Telegraph says that the Insurgent offensive at Madrid has failed again, the troops being back where they were a fortnight ago.)

Bad headache all day, finally cured by a walk to Lugano with Karl & Nickel. Nickel & Schw. had come to coffee. Schw did not take the Gelat news at all personally.

Epilogue & Year of Damage.

Miss Wright not coming; says that the Claudius script is 'not ready' according to Korda, though shooting started a fortnight ago!

Answer to Int.Letter from Eddie Marsh.

March 2 Tuesday.

Telegram from Sherek, saying that Jenny has pleurisy in the Duchess Home & wants to come to Lugano in a fortnight to recuperate.

Replied to N.N. & to Jenny (& Sherek) saying how difficult & inappropriate, suggesting a cruise instead.

Epilogue, Year of Damage.

Supper in Fermata Tram, an Italianish inn: soup, chops, very vinegry salad, Barbera wine. Open fireplace and family life.

Changed from Avantaguardia to Literi Stampi Italian newspapers? eds..

March 3 Wednesday

Went over Schools with Laura.

Letter from Cunningham that he is sending 15,000 lire and enclosing Claudius scenario: different from all previous versions, drawing more on I Claudius, but anach spoiling the assassination & accession series. Wrote to thank.

To Lugano by steamer. Cold hills.

Epilogue.

March 4 Thursday

Read the Claudius script which is more & more dreary as it goes on.

Walked to Gentillino & beyond.

Wrote to David for his birthday. Letter from Juan Junyer at Barcelona. Laura wrote letters to Rennes, Short & Deyá. Epilogue.

Claudius.

Schools.

Emmi back from Germany. Says that the military clique Fritsch, Blomberg & Raeder are the real rulers in Germany already and that Prince August Willhelm is expected as the new President Kaiser.

March 5 Friday.

It rained most of the day.

Claudius. Schools.

Walked to Lugano & bought a Swiss pewter platter for 4 fr. francs and some anemones.

Barbera with Str, Schw & Nickel at the Fermata Tram.

March 6 Saturday.

Last proofs of Epilogue, galleys. Checking page-proofs of Epilogue.

Claudius (another 15,000 words to do only).

Letter to Denham, about scenario absurdities, and about money.

Letter from N.N., reassuring about Jenny; & from Jenny. Wrote to both, sent N.N. £135.

Laura wrote letters all day.

Reading. or reading: Hornung 's Dead Men tell No Tales Dead Men Tell No Tales by E.W. Hornung. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1899. eds. and Mrs Thackeray Ritchie's Memoirs Chapters From Some Memoirs by Anne Thackeray Ritchie. London, New York: Macmillan & Co., 1894. eds. and Nat Gould's Settling Day Settling Day by Nat Gould. London: R.A. Everett, 1901. eds. part of a hoard of Tauchnitzpaperbacks KG from Ida.

March 7 Sunday

Wrote Claudius all day.

Lunch at Ziebert. No one there. Coffee at Str & Schw. Schw tells his Isidore stories for the umpteenth time.

Walk over the hill to Sorengo. All Lugano coming home to supper, with bunches of wind-flowers in hand.

After supper walk with Karl & Laura to Lugano. Beer at Gembiani's. On the way home a drunk man shouting: Mussolini." Brutto uomo senza cuore! Ecco! La difficulta della ciuta...Noi altri.... Mussolini! Horrid man without a heart! The trouble of our civilization...We heretofore... eds.

March 8 Monday

Claudius. Wrote to Cunningham.

Epilogue: sent off last galleys & some page proofs.

Copy of Troy came.

To Lugano in afternoon. Rain, (did Epilogue proofs in Olympia).

Laura finished her letters. Several answers to the I.L. have now come in, several one or two constructive.

Year of Damage.

Letter from Rennes asking whether we are concealing anything.

March 9 Tuesday

To British Consul to 'notarize' my U.S. United States income claim: sent off.

Claudius & Year of Damage all day.

It rained.

Blackberry scarf from Julie, with a long account of what a stringy, dreary thing it was, & twice dropped in the mud.

Lights fused at 11 pm

Rebels 'break through' on Guadalajara front.

Two Italian mechanised divisions.

March 10 Wednesday

To Lugano – for a telegram which is only one letter of sympathy about Gelat from Maisie & Honor.

Year of Damage, Claudius, Epilogue page proofs.

Year of Dam

Five shirts back from the modistatailor eds. with reconstituted collars.

March 11 Thursday.

Claudius F.V. and wrote letters and a cold misty day and bought a pewter cigarette-box for 5 fr. francs with a stamped late-Renaissance design.

Laura writing letters all day.

At night considered sorting out poems for a collected edition.

March 12 Friday

Have had no letters for four days.

Claudius – last chapter but 2 or 3.

Heavy snow, changed to rain.

Chosen & arranged poems for new collected volume.

Laura finishing last of about 60 letters.

Decided to postpone Year of Damage & Schools till until autumn.

Letter from Honor introducing friendship with George which made us rather blank.

March 13 Saturday.

Work on poems

Claudius, which is getting too long for its contract.

News of Mary Hale's death.

Laura wrote her first poem for months – to Juan Marroig in Prison.

Ordered feather pillow.

Sent stamps to Sam.

Laura had a bad night with cramps.

March 14 Sunday

Finished Poem-sorting (Laura sorting her collected poems, beginning with Voltaire)

Cut down Claudius by 17 pp pages & schemed out last two chapters for Karl.

Rain all day. Cards & Lunch & cards at Ziebert. Coffee at Schw & Str.

Karl & I, when it cleared, went for a walk – Sorenzo Gentillino. Small white useless crocuses in the woods.

Karl enjoying 'Year of Damage.'

Nickel to supper.

March 15 Monday

News of a Gov t Government counter-attack against the Italians at Guadarrama. Italians reported in rout.

More sorting of poems; rewriting some.

More Claudius.

The MacCormacks turned up on the way back to England from Dubrovnik.

To tea at Buri's with them, to supper at Zieberts.

* Finished Claudius except for cross-copying.

March 16 Tuesday

Jenny's lungs reported better.

The McCormacks took us in car for a day's visit to Italy – round Lugano, past Lake Piano to Lake Como. Lunch at Cadenabbia decoyed by a nasty little boy into an expensive restaurant where we waited an hour, then by rowing boat across to Bellagio (tourist & embroidring embroidering centre) when I bought a silver peasant hair-pin for 12 lira – as a paper knife. We passed Villas Carlotta & D'Este but did not go in, had coffees & beers in Como, & back by Chiasso. Italy lovely, but the Duce's apothegms stencilled or engraved everywhere. Much trouble at customs. Laura had a headache.

(Today in Libya M proclaimed himself Protector of Islam – against English & French oppression).

March 17 Wednesday

Voyage round the lake on a dull day with McCormacks, as far as Porto-Ceresio (Italian) The little places we stopped at were as dull as the day too.

Tea at Olympia, where Schw. & the McCormacks met.

Splitting headache all day.

Gave the McCormacks things to take to England to our friends.

March 18 Thursday.

Goodbye to the Mc Cormacks.

* Publication day of Trojan Ending.

Poem sorting.

Mist. Ida did not come so I did housework.

Laura went to bed early at 4. and nothing much happened for the rest of the day.

News that Merle Oberon has been injured in a car-smash & the I, Claudius film is likely to be scrapped.

News of definite breach of non-intervention (acknowledged by British Govt Government ) by Italians.

March 19 Friday

St Joseph's day: so a fiesta, shops shut.

Cross-copying Claudius.

Laura going over her poems.

Wet day. Walked to Lugano by upper way in rain.

Four drafts of a poem – The Fallen Tower.

Have lately read (re-read) or reading The Hill, Heart of a Child The Heart of a Child by Frank Danby a.k.a. Julia Frankau. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908. eds. by Frank Danby, Leonard Merrick stories, Choice of Evils A Choice of Evils, A Novel by Mrs. Alexander a.k.a. Annie Hector. London: White, 1894. eds. by Mrs Alexander.

Recapture of Brihuega from Italians.

March 20 Saturday

Laura wrote a poem The Readers.

Cunningham sent about £170 in Swiss francs: acknowledged & receipted & put in Cook's.

One more draft of The Fallen Tower of Siloam, & one more of a rhyme 'Jack'? eds. written a few days ago.

Cross-copying Claudius.

It rained all day but Karl & I went to Lugano to buy food.

66card game eds. again.

First cuttingspress-cuttings KG of American Antigua – favourable.

Random House will take 1000 sheets of Laura's poems.

Talk of a visit to America to write a book if Spain does not clear up.

March 21 Sunday

Fine day again. Ziepert as usual – Ida didn't come.

Finished and wrapped up Claudius to send off tomorrow.

Emmi a prisoner because Pippa Strenge's terrier eds. is on heat & Schw. won't do anything about it himself.

We walked to Lugano past 'Mrs Simpson's statue'.

Laura writing a poem about primroses.

Enclosure – Laughton as Claudius

clipping about I, Claudius film

March 22 Monday

Still raining continuously.

Letter from Short. Mallorca 'terribly sad'. Gelat still in prison no charge yet. Juan wrote: has hopes of his release (March 13th) Juan wrote himself: also adde had hope and also for the end of this war in the sense that we would desire it. Wrote to Honor with a diagram plotting the CAD? eds. centre of George Ellidge from pts points on the circumference.

* Sent off Claudius.

Blue china beads for Laura, 3 fr francs .

No Trojan reviews yet.

Wrote note to my poems, translated George Sand's foreword to La Petite Fadette La Petite Fadette by George Sand. Paris: J. Hetzel et Cie : V. Lecou, 1852. eds. for Laura.

Italians reported in panic-stricken flight: which has much impressed Lugano people – to laughter & talk of Caporettoreference to the Battle of Caporetto 1917 eds.. English newspapers headlining this.

66card game eds. again: 2 tailorsbirdies KG.

March 23 Tuesday.

Sunny day. Going over poems still, rewriting.

A walk to Gentillino. Windflowers, primroses, white violets, & the white crocus, first buttercup I have seen for years. I had a beer in a small inn up there with copper pans – pewter measures.

On the way wrote Victory on a piece of paper I found in a hedge: two more drafts.

To Lugano – 18 fr francs for invisible mending of my jacket. Laura bought me a mug 1.80 francs for my pencils; 12 table mats 80 centimes each.

Supper at Gambrinus – hors d'ouvres, goulash. On the way back mentally rearranged Canellun.

To Emmi's at 8.30. They were drinking wine & quarrelling over a red leather purse they were making.

Read Leonard Merrick's Conrad in search of his Youth Conrad in Search of His Youth by Leonard Merrick. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. eds..

March 24th Wednesday

Raining all day.

Went over 190 pp pages of Year of Damage with Laura.

Greville Diaries and George Sand's Gallerie des Femmes arrived.

Cut my hand at breakfast.

To Lugano to buy a lobster supper, in shells.

Went over points in Laura & Francisca & Voltaire with Laura.

Papers reflect crisis in Spain & moral shock everywhere at the Italian defeat.

Snow on hills, hoar-frost at night, lake rising.

March 25 Maundy Thursday

Fine day.

Good Int. Letter answer from Strong.

Tom sent a cutting from New York Times, with account of shootings in Majorca – including Ques and Leal, the Inspector of Schools for shutting up nun's schools.

Letter from Anita: Juan of the Moli had gone back because Fascist spies might have reported him for dealing in Gov t Government oranges & confiscated his house etc.

Anxious times, buying too many newspapers – also reading Greville Diary. Finished 1/2 Alan's book with Laura.

Helped Laura with letter to Time about Butler Riding on Butler eds..

Boil much the same as before.

March 26 Good Friday

Have now gone over 3/4 of Year of Damage.

Lugano filling up with German & Germanswiss visitors.

(Delbos' warning to Italy about Spain)

Wrote 7 or 8 letters including children, Strong, Bridget, Barker , . A cutting shows that my critical remarks about the film have not been paid attention to.

Double tailor at 66card game eds., without an ace. Chee Cream garlick garlic cheese.

March 27 Saturday.

A review of Trojan Ending in Times: favourable but sniffy.

Lugano stiff with visitors now, not at all attractive shapes.

Laura going over her early poems.

Tea Raspberry ices at Huglienin's by the lake side.

Writing a note on morality games to Ward's Epilogue contribution.

Ida's boy Pierre came & washed up.

Easter Sunday, March 28

Lunch at Ziepert.

Writing the note on Games.see March 27th entry. eds.

In the evening finished going over Alan's book Year of Damage eds. with Laura.

Note from Anita at Rennes: she suspects Gelat is in prison & wants to send 5000 fr francs by us.

Laura wrote to Times Lit Supp about Kierkegard.

Easter Monday March 29th

Lunch at Karl's place

'De la Santa' with Karl & Nickel and then we went for a walk to Gentillino. Sun, banks of primroses.

Worked at the note on Games.see March 27th entry. eds.

Laura answered the Christina Stead questionaire.

We went to Lugano to see the illuminations promised us by Karl, but only saw a lost white Borzoi.

Easter Tuesday March 30

Work on Games: finished.for Epilogue III: see March 27th entry. eds.

Cleaned up the alabaster toilet set that Laura bought from Ida for 10 fr franc .

Laura wrote to Christina Stead at length & Storm Jameson.

Letter from Jenny at Cannes, happy again.

In Lugano bought a Hottentot iron-bead necklace with red trade-beads. Cleaned up beads, restrung with more trade beads 3 fr. francs 50 in all. Necklace broke/in Lugano (on the way to Gambrinus for a 10 fr franc hors d'oeuvres dish) but enough were recovered from the street (and later from Laura's underclothes) to make a shorter one.

Soller port bombarded by Govt Government ships.

victory at Pozolla

Wednesday March 31

A poem, The Wounded Man, in one draft.

Saw Str. who has not been out of her flat except for a few minutes every evening because of the dog being on heat for a fortnight. Schw & Nickel will not relieve her, though they originally bought the bitch against her wish. Schw. apparently jumping for joy because he has read in the National Zeitung Swiss? national newspaper eds. that Franco is going to lose.

Laura hasn't slept well for a long time & gets up at 11 or later. She is working over Ward's thing about Games & other pleasures.for Epilogue. eds.

Wrote to Jenny.