DW probably having alerted Dudley Clarke to the publication of ‘The Man Who Never Was’

My dear Dennis,

I have read the enclosed with the very greatest interest – and no small enlightenment. I am sending it back in case you wanted it. Thank you so much for letting me see it.

Thank you too for your very charming letter. I was only too pleased to have the chance of seeing you and Joan again.

I go off to France for about 3 weeks at the end of the month, but when I come back again I shall very much look forward to accepting your very kind invitation to pay another visit to Grove Place.

Many thanks for the note re Sangorski – I will go and see them in the near future.

Dudley Clarke on possibly writing a joint ‘Eighth Assignment’ with DW – and being discouraged in the strongest terms

My dear Dennis,

Enclosed is a copy of the paper now in the hands of Drew & Co. All rough and vague, as you will see, but sufficient to explain the first thoughts.

Thank you so much for a thoroughly enjoyable luncheon party – though it did not encourage any great energies in my subsequent brief visit to my office! It was very good to have the chance of seeing Johnny and Ronald again.

I meant to ask if you are going to have your operation in London? If so, where? Let me know, so that I can come and eat your grapes!

Scarcely had I written this letter, when John Drew rang me up - right out of the blue. So I held up posting it until I could hear what he had to say.

He came to see me here this afternoon, and his report on Whitehall feelings was about as discouraging as it could be. He had found Brownjohn, Chief of Staff at Min. of Defence, much inclined against publication. The door, apparently, is not entirely closed – but it’s a hell of a way from being wide open!

Drew himself would not object to publication (under scrutiny by his Dept.) and reckons everything will have been “blown” in one way or the other within the next few years in any case. But, he says, the other “secret societies” will strongly oppose any publications in principle, and each will support the other – for once – on that matter.

What with the Cicero’s, North Poles – and three different kinds of Mincemeat, they have had about their fill for the moment and are feeling pretty touchy over books in general. So it does seem pretty clear that whatever the final decision, we might be making a serious timing error in spreading our feelers any further just at present.

I gave Drew an outline of the talk we had yesterday, and his prompt answer was:–

“Whatever the difficulties of getting permission for an ‘Eighth Assignment’ story may be, they would be two or three times greater if the prospect were of a still more authoritative work covering the wider field.

So, for the moment, it seems to me we are brought to a standstill – though I have a feeling that the last word has by no means been spoken yet.

Will tell you more of this when next we meet.