Goodbye to the Devil’s Decade

Finally the two big chapters on the 1930s – surely Fairey’s decade – are in near final form.  All I need to do is consult: the files on sailing at Bossington, not least so I can see CRF’s correspondence with the New York Yacht Club in 1933 and 1935-7 re switching from the J-Class to firstly 12-metre Class and secondly a new ‘K-Class’; a file at the National Archives re the action with a U-boat off Bermuda in late 1944 which Fairey’s motor yacht, Evadne, was involved in; and any material at Kew which indicates involvement of my man with security services re the Soviet Union in the 1930s.  Now on to a chapter on 1940-45, for which I have already undertaken quite a lot of research, re CRF’s wartime work in Washington with the British Air Commission.  Then a penultimate chapter on the last decade, and a conclusion.  So, around 120K words written and roughly another 40K to go.  At last, in this unexpectedly long saga, the end is in sight.  After which, back to Mountbatten with Slim in Burma, but that’s another story… Finally the two big chapters on the 1930s – surely Fairey’s decade – are in near final form.  All I need to do is consult: the files on sailing at Bossington, not least so I can see CRF’s correspondence with the New York Yacht Club in 1933 and 1935-7 re switching from the J-Class to firstly 12-metre Class and secondly a new ‘K-Class’; a file at the National Archives re the action with a U-boat off Bermuda in late 1944 which Fairey’s motor yacht, Evadne, was involved in; and any material at Kew which indicates involvement of my man with security services re the Soviet Union in the 1930s.  Now on to a chapter on 1940-45, for which I have already undertaken quite a lot of research, re CRF’s wartime work in Washington with the British Air Commission.  Then a penultimate chapter on the last decade, and a conclusion.  So, around 120K words written and roughly another 40K to go.  At last, in this unexpectedly long saga, the end is in sight.  After which, back to Mountbatten with Slim in Burma, but that’s another story…