Job done

Monday, January 28th., Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken.

Today at lunchtime I finished my novel "The Pretty Lady" - about 80,000 words. The close seemed to me to be rather ingenious, well-executed and effective. In fact I am pleased with the whole thing and I hope the war scenes will be of interest and help it sell. It is a marvel that I have finished it at all with so much else to do, not to mention domestic anxieties. I believe it to be good but for years past I have ceased to try to judge the value of a novel until it has been pubished for a year or two - one of my own I mean. I thought "The Old Wives' Tale" was dull when I finished it.

Wilson's 14-point plan for post-war peace seems to me to be entirely laudable, indeed plain common sense, but it doesn't appear to be gathering momentum. I hear too many people who should know better saying "The Germans must be punished", or "Only an unconditional surrender will do". Not people who have had to do any fighting needless to say. It makes no sense to desolate Germany; the only consequence will be resentment and an urge for revenge. Sometimes I despair. 

I was musing today and trying to decide if people are by nature (the majority of people I mean, especially men) amoral but constrained by law and social conventions, or 'good' but forced to behave badly by the social conditions in which they are brought up and live. I am inclined to the former but not entirely sure.