Dora writes about Ronald Clark's biography of BR. "It was written in close contact with Colette, who as I knew, was editing her correspondence with Russell with a view to later publication. I had no knowledge whatever of how Colette kept touch with him, both during our marriage and later when he was married to Peter Spence. She nearly succeeded in breaking up that later marriage.

"All her life she continued to think that Russell should have married her and must have been savagely jealous of and hostile to me. So that Clark made it appear that I was merely made use of to bear a child, which Colette did not want to do." She agreed with John sitting in the House of Lords because it "would help him get over the sense of inferiority to a father who, in fact did not treat him at all well."

"By the way, I don't think Russell had the least idea of how to bring up children."