I had hoped that we were hurling a wild cat on to the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.

Normally I wake up buoyant to face the new day. Then [summer 1940] I awoke with dread in my heart.

A fearful game of chess proceeds from check to mate by which the unhappy players seem to be inexorably bound...the fact that the British Empire stands invincible, and that Nazidom is still being resisted, will kindle again the spark of hope in the breasts of hundreds of millions of down-trodden or despairing men and women throughout Europe, and far beyond its bounds, and that from these sparks there will presently come a cleansing and devouring flame.

Man-power-and when I say that I intend of course woman-power-is at a pitch of intensity at the present time in this country which was never reached before, not even in the last war, and certainly not in this. I believe our man-power is not only fully extended, but applied on the whole to the best advantage. I have a feeling that the community in this Island is running at a very high level, with a good rhythm, and that if we can only keep our momentum-we cannot increase our pace-that very fact will enable us to outclass our enemies and possibly even our friends.

When imagining the horrors of a Hun invasion, there rose that last consoling thought which rises naturally in unconquerable races and in unenslavable men resolved to go down fighting-"you can always take one with you."

We have come to the conclusion that this particular method of warning [church bells] was redundant and not in itself well adapted to the present conditions of war. For myself, I cannot help feeling that anything like a serious invasion would be bound to leak out.