Kenya correspondent Bill Hatworn was one of the very greatest letter-writers of the twentieth century. Although most of his correspondence has already been gathered in the forthcoming Collected Letters Of Bill Hatworn, new items continue to come to light, including this unsigned and undated example, sent to an unknown recipient:

Meet me at the fireworks factory. I’ll be wearing red. You in your shoes, and me at the end of my tether. Speak to me – fourteen words. You can make them up. I will listen, but I won’t swim in your muddy waters. Truth, or grit, or something foreign to my senses – you had better see me right re: my expenses. I paid through the nose and it hurt me much, but where I goes is such and such.