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Back The Black Earth Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. THE BLACK EARTH
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. BOOK I
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. BOOK II
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. BOOK III
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. BOOK IV
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. About the Author
  55. By Philip Kazan
  56. Copyright

I realise that jumping out of aeroplanes doesn’t fall under the rubric of ‘be careful’, but, well, nothing makes much sense any more and this makes about as much sense as anything else. And it is rather spectacular. At first you are winched up in a barrage balloon, not very high but quite bloody high enough. You can see the curve of the horizon and the light … You know I can talk about this sort of thing for hours, and write about it too. I’ll just say that the light, when you are up high, is clear and buoyant and seems to hold the promise of release. Of escape. And then you jump, and the ground comes up very fast and very solid. No escape after all. Yesterday I jumped out of an aeroplane for the first time. It should have been frightening but it actually felt rather ordinary. Like being on a crowded Tube train at rush hour and then suddenly pushed out onto an empty platform. I should have been more worried, I suppose. The day before, my unit was watching another lot make their first jump. The plane flew over the drop zone and one chap’s parachute failed to open properly. He hurtled to earth with his parachute streaming up above him. Rather poetically, the instructors call this a ‘Roman candle’. We ran across to him: he looked perfectly peaceful, as if he’d left himself behind in the light.

This is all a bit morbid, but it’s all quite happy here. I worry continuously, though: not about the parachuting business, but about you. There hasn’t been anything in the papers about Greece since we heard that the supply ships were getting through. It’s so hard not knowing if you’re hungry, or in good health, let alone good spirits. I imagine you singing – I can’t imagine you not singing – but then I worry that there might really be nothing, at all, to sing about. That will change, my darling.

With all my love,

Tom

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

London, 9th December 1942

My darling Zoë,

Tomorrow, or the day after, I will be a little closer to you. At the wrong end of the Mediterranean Sea, but it isn’t a very big sea after all, is it? I’ve had to spend a lot of time looking at maps lately, and the Mediterranean, if compared to a proper ocean, like the Atlantic, isn’t much more than a big lake. So I’ll be at one end and you’ll be at the other. If you stand on the harbour at Piraeus, you’ll be looking at the same water I am. Perhaps I should put a message in a bottle, a nice brown army beer bottle, and give it a shove eastward. Keep a lookout!