Raymond Asquith to Lady Diana Cooper, from the Western Front, November 25, 1915:
“Out here one’s outlook on life, military life I mean, changes very rapidly—every now and then moments of excitement and almost of happiness even in the trenches, occasionally a moment almost of ecstasy when one marches in late at night after a week of dirt and bullets and finds a feather bed and a bottle of the Boy* awaiting one; then horrible reactions of boredom and nausea as one’s mind collapses under the pressure of prospect and retrospect and the monotony of a great desert of discomfort and danger with no visible horizon. But usually one is very equable, looking no further ahead than the next meal and feeling that really life is very much the same everywhere, war or no war.”
*Bollinger champagne, from Edward VII‘s habit of asking his valet for a bottle by shouting “Boy!” when thirsty.
