I got up early this morning. During the morning I spent nearly three hours making out lists of the plants we identified in Broadmoor Wood, about sixty in all (plants not lists). I find it is sometimes difficult to identify plants. The Observer’s Book [of Wild Flowers] lists only a few and has no key, while Watts’ Flora lists nearly all, but the key is still rather lengthy and impossible to use if the plant is not in flower. [[book cover]]

   Before dinner I went down the village and bought Picturegoer and Picture Post. It had rained continuously until 12.0pm but kept fine then for two or three hours. I took Ginger to the park after dinner.

   Tonight we have watched a 30-minute play “The Practical Jokers” by Owen Holder, floodlit football (Boxers v Jockeys, 2 goals 4), and Arthur Askey’s show. This was again very funny, especially a [Prisoner of] Zenda sketch.

   Nothing much happened today. We all went to town about midday. I called at the B.B.C. to see Peggy Bacon but she is still on the sick-list.

   Dad did not have to go to work today so we all got up rather later than usual. After breakfast I fetched some horse-meat from Buddie’s, who have opened up again on Stratford Rd. not so very far from where their old shop used to be.

   Grandad came to dinner — at two o’clock! After dinner we watched the Kempton Park racing. I picked the winner of the 1st race and in the 2nd race the horses I picked to come 1st, 2nd and 3rd came 1st, 3rd and 4th respectively.

   After tea I went to the Piccadilly to see Top of the Form with Ronald Shiner in a role once played by Will Hay, that of a bookmaker who becomes a headmaster by mistake. It was very good. The Black Castle was a thriller set in 18th-century Austria. It was well acted and distinctly eerie. Exaggerated but tense in atmosphere & good acting from Richard Greene, Karloff, Chaney & Paula Corday.

   Nothing happened at all this morning or afternoon.

   After tea we all watched an Easter Day service conducted by Canon Bryan Green from St. Martin’s. Unfortunately the sound broke down two or three times during the sermon.

   Elizabeth Allan replaced Barbara Kelly in tonight’s “What’s My Line?”. The programme is becoming just a trifle boring.

   From 9.15 until 10.15 we listened to the third of four programmes in a Coronation series “Throne and People”. Tonight’s episode was the story of King George V by Sir Compton Mackenzie. Duncan McIntyre was the narrator. A pity the series is not repeated. It makes the most enthralling listening.

   We got up at ten o’clock this morning. Nothing much happened all day. After dinner we watched the Kempton Park racing and a film on the 24 hour Le Mans motor race, 1952.

   At 5.30pm I went to the Scala in town to see a French film Caroline Chérie (X). I have been wanting to see the film since last June but I had given up hope of its ever reaching Birmingham.

   The film’s advent has unfortunately given rise to a number of previews of which some were in extremely bad taste. I suppose it might be in the nature of a Gallic Forever Amber, though I wouldn’t know. On the other hand, I don’t know why all the film critics (with the welcome exception of Picturegoer’s Lionel Collier) should have to dwell on the se(x) aspect of the film which was much over-emphasised anyway.

   It was an excellent film, the best I have seen this year; if there was a fault, then it was its length — 105 minutes was just a little too long. The acting throughout was of the highest order. Martine Carol as Caroline was quite brilliant. She is a fine actress with a winsome figure which she displayed to utmost advantage throughout. Jacques Dacqmine and Jacques Claney too were both very good. The settings I liked — they managed to convey the era of the French Revolution very well together with the photography. Richard Poitier both produced and directed. Altogether the sort of film that only France could make.

   Caroline de Bièvre is the daughter of an aristocratic family. On her 16th birthday she has an affair with the man engaged to marry her sister. He (Sallanche) goes off in a hurry (it is July 14, 1789!) and in pique, Caroline marries a very dull husband. They are thrown into prison. A friend who has fallen in love with her gets her to an institution run by a Dr. Belhomme for “ill” patients at a personal cost of 1,000 fr. a day to the “patient”. The money runs out & Caroline borrows the last 2,000 fr. of a man with whom she spends a night in his bed. He is taken away, and Caroline nearly goes too (she has no more money), but she blackmails Belhomme and gets away. She is captured by Royalist outlaws, stays with them awhile, then leaves when her brother is killed. In the end she meets again her true love, Sallanches.

   When I got up today I went down the village with Ginger to buy this morning’s Birmingham Post. None of the newsagents had one but I eventually got a copy in Tyseley.

   After dinner we all went for a walk to Solihull and back. On TV this evening there was a rather good comedy, “Joking Apart” by Ivan Butler.

   Nigel Dean (Michael Medwin) is a not very successful comic artist. His wife Jane (Mary Laura Wood) was a most efficient secretary before her marriage. Their bank balance dwindles, they swop jobs, Jane becoming the breadwinner by working for her old boss Mr. Garfield (Felix Felton). When Mr. Garfield gives Nigel a job (and a model, Lola) he decides it might be better if he and Jane worked at the Deans’ house to keep an eye on Nigel & Lola. Chaos ensues!

   This morning I had a letter from Margaret in Canada.

   After breakfast I went to the Library and got Saint Overboard by Leslie Charteris. [It is very convenient that the Agatha Christie, Peter Cheyney, John Creasey and Leslie Charteris books are all in the same section.]

   I went to see John Winrow at 3.0pm at their new house in Church Road, Moseley. When I got home I found Mam had accidentally smashed my aquarium. Approximately four gallons of water started to drip through the ceiling by the pantry. It took ages to clear up the mess. The fish, snails, beetle have been evacuated and are now in the bath.

   This evening we have been listening to “Paul Temple & Steve Again”.

   We went to town today. After going all round the shops with Mam I went to the B.B.C. and talked with Peggy Bacon. All being well, I am going to see her on Tuesday at 11.0am.

   During the remainder of the day I read two-thirds of my “Saint” book. It is a most readable one.

   This evening, one of the programmes we listened to was the first of a new series of “Prisoner at the Bar” presented by Edgar Lustgarten. Today’s subject was Hawley Harvey Crippen who murdered his wife in 1909 or 1910.

   At 10.0pm we heard “T.I.F.H.” and in “Science Review” at 10.30pm “The Chlorophyll Story” by Magnus Pyke, Ph.D. Chlorophyll has caused a terrific sensation just lately, but the claims for its various properties are not yet fully proved or disproved.

   This morning I did homework and also went to the Library. I got Plays of the Year 1948–1949.

   John Winrow called at 3.0pm and we took Ginger with us for a walk to Sheldon via Yardley Road and Coventry Road, coming back down Clay Lane. [[map]] The weather kept fairly fine all day.

   This evening I have watched “Toppers About Town” from the Mayfair Hotel. The Toppers have now been taken on to the B.B.C. staff and each girl will get about £1,000 a year.

   This morning I wrote several more pages to my book on birds which I shall enter for the Bowater Natural History Prize. At 11.0am I fetched some meat for Ginger.

   This afternoon I saw Blues lose to Blackburn Rovers 2–1 at St. Andrews. Rovers had a penalty after 15 mins. Merrick made a fine save and punched away to the wing but the ball was put back to the centre and Eckersley headed in. Cox equalised then Quigley scored Blackburn’s second five minutes later. There was no scoring in the second half.

   Blues’ play was very poor and they missed several chances. Team:— Merrick; Hall, Green; Boyd, Newman, Warhurst; Stewart, Cox, Lane, Purdon, Wardle. Blackburn included Bill Smith at right-half. Tommy Briggs was absent due to injury.

   This evening I have watched Petula Clark in “Face The Music”.

   Nothing very much happened today. We watched “What’s My Line?” this evening. Walt Disney was the celebrity.

   This morning Mam took Clarice and Julia to town. At 10.0am, after I had washed up, I went to get a haircut and then paid Dad’s I.B.S. [Ideal Benefit Society] sub. Then I spent an hour and a half in the garden and trimmed the edge of the lawn on Bowens’ side [No. 155; Webbs have left now]. Last Wednesday I trimmed the edges of the bottom bed and mowed the lawns, as I did again today.

   On TV this afternoon we all watched a film, Pluck of the Irish starring James Cagney. It was fairly good.

   This morning I went to the B.B.C. for my talk with Peggy Bacon. We had a short discussion and it now seems likely that my programme will be broadcast on Whit Monday, May 25th. But it will only be twenty minutes long. I’ve had the script back and re-arranged it. The revised programme will probably contain three poems, a short story and play (Paul Bradley’s), four talks and five items of a musical nature. The whole thing will probably be recorded.

   This afternoon I washed up and did some work on the broadcast. John Winrow came at about 4.0pm.

   Tonight Mam and I watched a TV comedy “Half Seas Over” by Roy Plomley. It was about an American visitor who sponsors a girl’s attempt to swim the channel.

   Off to Juniper Hall. A party of some fifteen of us met at New Street Station at ten this morning and we caught “The Midlander” express to London at 10.20am. We were drawn by a Jubilee engine, No. 45720 Indomitable. The journey was via Coventry, Rugby, Northampton, Leighton Buzzard and Watford. One of the interesting things we saw was the White Lion in the chalk near [space left]. We went over the lines where the terrible rail disaster at Harrow and Wealdstone took place last October 8th.

   The train drew into Euston at 12.45pm. Outside the station we got into the ’bus for Waterloo. [The fare was 6d, according to a scrap of paper tucked into my diary — and on the back is my first jotted draft of the running order for my radio programme to be broadcast in May.] It was rather interesting to see the South Bank site from the other side of the river [Thames]. All that remains of the Festival is the Royal Festival Hall. The Skylon was taken down almost a year ago to the week.

   We had a short wait at Waterloo, then at 1.30 we went by electric train to Epsom. One of the places I saw, which before I had only heard of, was Clapham Junction. At Epsom we boarded a Green Line ’bus and this stopped right outside Juniper Hall, where we arrived more than four hours after leaving Birmingham. [The ’bus fare from Epsom to Juniper Hall was 1/-.]

   Mr. Woods, who had joined us at Waterloo, introduced Mr. Monkcom to Mr. J.H.P. Sankey the assistant warden and then, since the staff were not quite ready for us, we dumped our baggage outside the front door and Mr. Woods took us off to see some badger sets on Box Hill. We walked about half a mile along the road to Dorking, then turned left along a path, crossing the River Mole by some stepping stones and so up the side of the hill. We found the Badger sets — we could tell they were in use because there were hairs around the entrances. We heard and saw the Chiffchaff.

   Back at J.H., we were shown our dormitories. I am sharing one with Phipps, Maskell, Gordon, Evans, Fleming, Plimbley and Marks. In two other dormitories are Williets, Budd, Webb, Stevens and Gompertz, Eden, Hammond, Perry, Tipton. Buckler is taking the course but not staying at Juniper Hall. There are 17 from other schools.

   After tea in the big Drawing Room, Phipps, Maskell and I went for a walk. Dinner was at 7.30pm. We had four courses including coffee at the end. Supper was at 9.30 and afterwards we sat around talking before going to bed. [I bought a postcard of Juniper Hall which I shall post tomorrow:—

Dear Mam and Dad,

   We arrived here at 2.15 this afternoon and we went out for an hour to see where the badgers are. We have dinner at 7.0pm (three courses) in the big dining room. This is an enormous place. I share a dormitory with seven others. Altogether there are 19 of us and 17 from other schools. Tomorrow, Thursday, it is intended that we make a general survey of the animals and plant life of the chalklands.

   Will you get me this week’s Picture Post and Picturegoer please. I will write again at the week-end.

   Your loving son, Brian.]

   Earlier, Mr. Sankey gave us an outline of our week’s work when we met in the Lab after dinner. Lights out was 10.45.

   We were up early today though breakfast was not until 8.30am. We went out at 10.0 to make a survey of the plant life of the chalklands. Mr. Sankey told us we could divide the plants into three groups, exclusive (Carline thistle, Salad Burnet, Brome spp.), indifferent and characteristic. There was a good example of plant succession, the sward eventually giving rise to scrub dominated by Dogwood. The climax was yew woodland, though beech or ash is usual. Many of the plants we identified on the spot, others we put into the evascula to identify back at J.H.

   We made our way up a valley, noting the pH of various soil samples. One rather interesting animal we found was a long-tailed field-mouse.

   This morning I got up at 6.0am to go bird watching but it was drizzling so we did not go. After breakfast we had a lecture from Mr. Sankey on the classification of the invertebrates, the distinction between bugs & beetles, spiders and harvest spiders, millipedes and centipedes, diptera & hymenoptera. We also learned ways of collecting animals from soil samples using Berlese funnels etc.

   We went out at 11.0am armed with specimen tubes. We got a large number of animals and identified these later in the lab. The drizzle gave way at 12.0pm. When we got to Box Hill we had a magnificent view over the Weald. We came across a bomb crater where some foreign plants (like foxgloves) are growing. A joker introduced them in 1950 — it caused quite a stir at the time because everyone thought the seeds had come with the bomb.

   Last night I was drawn into a lengthy discussion on religion following my efforts with Tipton. We ended at 11.05pm! When I got into bed I found it had two blankets & a sheet short, and no mattress. Phipps found the latter in his cupboard and Budd (attacked by conscience!?) returned the other missing articles when I was nearly asleep. It must have been 12.15 by then.

   We walked miles today over the greensand area to the SW. We went into Dorking by ’bus [the fare was 8d] & had coffee after walking round. The area we saw was very different from the chalk, the fauna & flora being more limited.

   [In Dorking I bought a Raphael Tuck postcard of the River Mole and wrote to my parents again this evening:—

Dear Mam & Dad,

   We are having a wonderful time here. We are out of doors from about 10.30 until 5.0pm searching for bugs & beetles and collecting plants. After tea at 7.0pm we write up notes and identify specimens. The weather has kept pretty fine so far and today, Saturday, the sun shone all day. I don’t know what time I shall be back on Wednesday.

   Love, Brian.]

   I quite forgot to mention that at 6.0 yesterday morning Plimbley, Maskell and I went bird-watching with Mr. Woods. We went to the Stepping Stones hoping to see a pair of Grey Wagtails that were there on Wednesday. We saw quite a large number of birds, including both the Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler which we were able to distinguish by their songs. We watched a Wren for quite a time but we didn’t see the Wagtails until, quite suddenly on the way back, we found them on the traffic island outside the Burford Bridge Hotel.

   Altogether, yesterday was quite a day for bird-watching. Near Leith Hill, in a pinewood, we heard a most unusual bird note. It was a sort of “peet”, a quick sound, rising very slightly and repeated every few seconds. We must have heard it thirty times. I thought it was a Bullfinch, we all hoped for a Hawfinch. Eventually, Mr. Woods traced the bird and his description, which I hurriedly scribbled down, seemed to be that of a Chaffinch — blueish head and nape, rust coloured breast and throat etc. But still this same queer call. And then all our hopes were shattered. Came the “peet” and then the all-too-familiar “chip, chip, cherry, cherry, chip — ee”! It was a Chaffinch. None of us, not even Mr. Sankey, had ever heard this call before, so I can only conclude that it must be very unusual. I’ve not seen it described anywhere.

   To make up for the disappointment, we saw a Woodlark, a tiny bird which would flutter up for a few feet, glide, then close its wings, and fall to the ground or land on the branch of a tree. Once seen, I don’t think the Woodlark could ever be mistaken again.

   This morning I went to the Methodist Church in Dorking with Mr. Woods. Maskell, Plimbley & Evans came with us [and Mr. Woods paid for us on the ’bus]. After dinner we had the alternative of preparing a talk or gardening. All but Gompertz and three others including Phipps did odd jobs in the garden — digging, chopping wood etc. I dug up two rose-trees. At 4.30 we had the four talks. Phipps’ was best and he had some chocolate as a prize. High tea was at 6.0pm.

   Today we spent in studying a pond at Holmwood. We had to go into Dorking first and while there, Budd, Webb, Stevens and I spent twenty minutes drinking sodas before catching the second ’bus. [It cost 8d on the two buses, and the same coming back, 1/4 altogether. I also posted the card I wrote on Saturday.]

   On arrival at the pond, Mr. S. gave us notes on fresh-water habitats, after which we paddled all round the pond and identified a large number of plants & a Short-tailed Vole.

   We then ate our sandwiches.

   Last day! How the time has flown. We spent the morning doing transects and quadrats. I was one of those making a transect of the valley. We first worked out the slope by noting the drop in successive lengths of ground, then we made a detailed list of plants in a 20 cm. square at half-metre intervals in the order of dominance. That took us almost two hours, then we ate our sandwiches before returning to J.H. at 2.30pm.

   The rest of the afternoon we spent in translating our efforts on to graph paper. The quadrat people had been counting Round-lipped Snails at 10 metre intervals, and noting the pH in each case — but I didn’t think their graph showed much.

   This evening Mr. S. showed us some excellent colour slides he has made of some of the animals & plants of the area. We had to go to bed at 10.0pm. [Maskell has now returned my Agatha Christie book Ten Little Niggers which I bought specially to read in bed here. He snatched it from me the day we got here, and has bent the pages back so much that the spine is all broken. I never do that to my books.]

   Looking back over the past week, I think it has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life. I would have liked to stay longer.

   I finished all my packing before breakfast as I had the washing up to do afterwards. The other schools went off before us. [I rather liked one of the girls, only to find that Plimbley does too. She had just left with her party and Plimbley boasted that he had got her address. I told him that I had too but he didn’t believe me until he asked me where she lived. When I told him her exact address in Gillingham, Kent, he said that if I ever dare to write to her he will bash my head in. I didn’t tell him I just got it off her suitcase which was standing in the hall.]

   We said goodbye to Mr. Sankey, then caught a ’bus at 10.15 to Epsom [fare 1/-]. From there we went by electric train to Waterloo, then by tube to Euston. The tube still fascinates me — especially the machine which gave us a ticket and a penny change from sixpence. [The tube fare was 5d, but from Euston to Waterloo last week was 6d. Altogether I reckon I have spent 6/-d on ’bus and tube fares.]

   The train to Birmingham did not leave until 12.40pm so we had a walk round [Euston Station, looking at the bookstall and watching the trains] for forty minutes. The journey itself was uneventful.

   We were back to school, and G.C.E., this morning. Exams start on June 11th.

   We went to form rooms for first period. Music option was in the New Music Room when Dr. Willis Grant talked about organs in general and the one there in particular. The new organ was built in 1913 and is a particularly good one. It has tracker action.

   After school I went to Lewis’s at 2 o’clock to see two 3-D films, “Zoo Snapshots” and “Coronation Prelude”.

   I went to the Piccadilly this evening to see Decameron Nights, (A), three stories from Boccaccio’s Decameron. The colour was beautiful but I was disappointed in the film because Joan Fontaine was obviously miscast. Louis Jourdan played Boccaccio quite well. The stories were Paganino the Pirate, Wager for Virtue, & The Doctor’s Daughter.

   I have started up my trio again and we had a rehearsal today at 1.30pm. In fact Colin Roberts and I spent the whole afternoon in the Music Room. I could not go on parade because of my heel.

   Cycling to school this morning I heard Wood Pigeons cooing in College Road. Juniper Hall seems a long time ago somehow. It is quite hard to believe that only this week I was waking up to the Wood Pigeons’ cooing. [I must now submit my article for the July Chronicle:—

   In April this year, some twenty members of the School attended a Sixth Form Biology Course at Juniper Hall Field Centre near Dorking in Surrey.

   Nearly three centuries old, the splendid house is picturesquely situated in chalk downs on the less frequented slopes of Box Hill. To the north-east, beyond the chalk, is the London Basin (Eocene), and south-westwards from Box Hill there is an outcrop of greensand falling down to the famous Weald Clay. Because of this geological variation, the area is very rich in its wide variety of contrasting flora and fauna.

   Ecology was the main theme of the course, and during our week’s stay we made a general survey of the plant and animal life on chalk and greensand showing how it is related to the type of soil beneath. One day was spent on fresh water and we studied a pond near Holmwood. Everyone paddled and one more adventurous member even swam in the muddy water.

   On the last day our party undertook two projects. Some of us made a graphic representation of the plant life across a valley and produced an extremely good transect, whilst others were engaged counting round-mouthed snails per square metre at ten meter intervals up a hillside and relating the numbers to the soil acidity.

   After breakfast each day, we usually attended a short lecture before going out on the day’s expedition at 10.15 am. Packed lunches and drinks were provided and we returned to the hall between 4.0 and 5.0pm.

   Most evenings were spent identifying specimens and making good use of the laboratory facilities provided by the centre.

   Ornithologists in our party had a most successful time, but the patient badger watchers had very little reward for their nocturnal vigils, although Box Hill abounds in sets and well used badger tracks.

   Our thanks are due to Mr. J.H.P. Sankey of Juniper Hall who was our lecturer and field guide-in-chief, and to Mr. Monkcom and Mr. Woods who helped to make our week’s stay an enjoyable one.

   I went to Blues’ last home match of the season v Everton this afternoon which Birmingham won by 4–2. [Birmingham City:— Merrick; Hall, Green; Bannister, Ferris, Warhurst; Stewart, Boyd, Lane, Murphy, Cox. Len Boyd scored 2 and Peter Murphy and Jackie Stewart the others. Only 17,000 were there.]

   I spent several hours today doing prep. and I also mowed both lawns.

   Tonight we all watched a TV thriller “Take Away The Lady” by Gavin Holt and Gerrard Glaister. It was very well done, the acting of Raymond Huntley and Elizabeth Sellars especially.

   “What’s My Line?” was at 9.45pm and the team was Ghislaine Alexander, Elizabeth Allen, Jerry Desmonde and Gilbert Harding.

   I was not able to do P.T. this afternoon. My foot has been troubling me again and I can put no weight on my heel. I spent the period writing up Biology notes in the Laboratory.

   In Chemistry we did a volumetric analysis — a G.C.E. practical question.

   I went to the Robin Hood this evening to see Ghost Ship (A) which was the second feature. The film was obviously inspired by the Marie [sic, Mary] Celeste mystery. It was about a motor yacht which Hazel Court and Dermot Walsh buy and find to be haunted. A medium is brought in and she discovers that the previous owner had shot his wife and her lover.

   The main film was The Prisoner of Zenda (certif?) with Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Jane Greer, Louis Calherne, Lewis Stone and James Mason. Stewart Granger has a dual role as the King of Ruritania and the lookalike cousin who has to deputise for him.

   Nothing in particular happened today. [We had Chemistry, Physics, Divinity and Biology as usual, then] I came home with Kipper.

   [I bought Picture Show as usual. It has Mitzi Gaynor & Bob Graham in The ‘I Don’t Care’ Girl on the cover, and there is a review of Night Beauties which I may go to see if it comes round; it is adapted from Rene Clair’s Les Belles de Nuit.

   One of the other films reviewed is The Final Test, written by Terence Rattigan, in which Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton, Godfrey Evans, Jim Laker and Alec Bedser appear.]

   I did prep. during the afternoon and evening until 9.30pm when I watched Shirley Abicair [playing her zither] in her fifteen-minute programme.

   I cycled to school this morning so as to be there at 8.50am for a Bass practice.

   In Biology this term we have so far studied Cystopus and Mucor and now we are doing Yeast.

   There was an N.C.O.s Parade at 1 o’clock.

   In Chemistry we did another H.S.C. volumetric [analysis] question.

   After school I went to the Christian Union. A Technicolor sound film “Dust or Destiny” was shown. It was very good. This film was one of a series attempting to introduce men to God through science.

   I watched TV for 90 minutes tonight. There was a very enjoyable “Before Your Very Eyes” [with Arthur Askey] at 8.15pm, then Dobson and Young “On Active Leisure” in a programme from Manchester, and in Wednesday Theatre Max Beerbohm’s play “A Social Success”.

   Nothing in particular happened at school today. I spent most of Practical Physics working on my book [to be entered for the Bowater Prize], which I have decided to call “The Birds of Birmingham County” [i.e. within a 10-mile radius from the city centre].

   I came home through town. I took a film to Jerome’s for developing and printing.

   I spent much of the afternoon and evening doing Chemistry questions for a test tomorrow.