BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 1 FEB. 1919
BRACERS 19426. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Garsington>
Sat evg Feb 1. 1919.1^,2

My dearest Darling

It was a dear little letter3 you wrote me yesterday, in spite of hurry. I hope your tea-party was a success. What did C.A.4 say about Hindle?5

It is useless posting this today as it reaches you no sooner. Mrs Hamilton6 is coming for week-end, and tomorrow 1000000 people come to tea — the Bishop,7 Sassoon,8 etc. O.9 is anxious to know whether I shall be here next week-end — Would you wire Monday morning, so that I can tell her — She wants to ask some people if I am here, not otherwise. What I should like would be the plan we made, of a day or two immediately after Tagore’s play,10 for which I am coming up. I think I must dine with Eliot11 that night, otherwise I shall never get my Marlow things.12 Unless Priscilla13 is prepared to put me up, I will sleep at G. Sq. that night — it isn’t really so dreadful.

What do people say about Glasgow strikers?14

I have been working like a nigger,15 hugely happy — so relieved to find I have not grown permanently stupid. It is all Lynton16 that has restored my poor enfeebled intellect! I wonder how your rehearsals17 go — what prospects of work you have — etc. — There are masses of things I want to know — I long to be with you, I feel so full of love, and such a nice person! You would quite like me as I am now! But with your rehearsals and my work it seems impossible. If you have a free day, let us seize it. Paddington dp 10.30. High Wycombe arr 11.5. Goodnight, Beloved.

Sunday. Letter just come and post going — Very sorry about Priscilla and Mitchell18 — There is a lot of misery in the world — All Love — No time.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200416.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Str. | W.C.1. Pmk: 19 | OXFORD

• 3

  dear little letter It is either not extant or has been edited to remove any mention of a tea party.

• 4

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 5

  HindleHindle Wakes, the film that Colette made in 1917. On 31 January 1919 (BRACERS 113171) Colette wrote that Clifford Allen was coming to dine and then to see her film. In response to the query posed here by BR, Colette replied on 1 Feb. (BRACERS 113172) that Allen had seemed to enjoy the film. No known copies of the film exist, although there are copies of a second version that was made by the same director, Maurice Elvey, ten years later. Colette did not appear in that version. The release date of the original version is not known. BR noted the name of the film in his pocket diary on 13 November 1918, which is a year after filming ended. On 4 February 1919 the Daily Mirror had a photograph of Colette in her role of Fanny (BRACERS 19428). No reviews of the first version of the film have been found.

• 6

  Mrs Hamilton Mary Agnes (“Molly”) Hamilton (1882–1966), politician and broadcaster, one of the original members of the Union of Democratic Control.

• 7

  Bishop Charles Gore (1853–1932), Bishop of Oxford from 1911. He retired in March 1919. He has been called “the most fascinating and influential bishop of the Church of England in the twentieth century” (DNB).

• 8

  Sassoon Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), poet. Sassoon served in the military in 1917; that year BR was involved in the campaign to draw attention to Sassoon’s anti-war protest. For further information on Sassoon, see BRACERS 19182, n.12.

• 9

  O. Lady Ottoline Morrell, née Cavendish-Bentinck (1873–1938). For information on her, see BRACERS 19077, n.5.

• 10

  Tagore’s playThe King and Queen by Rabindranath Tagore, which was performed on 12 February 1919 in London.

• 11

  Eliot T.S. Eliot (1888–1965), the poet. For information on him, see BRACERS 19062, n.5.

• 12

  Marlow things BR’s furnishings that were still in the house in Marlow rented by T.S. Eliot and his wife, Vivien.

• 13

  Priscilla Priscilla, Lady Annesley (1870–1941), the second wife of Hugh Annesley, the 5th Earl of Annesley (1831–1908). Colette describes her mother as “among the most beautiful women of her day” with a love of bright colours and walking (After Ten Years, London: Cape, 1931, pp. 12–14).

• 14

  Glasgow strikers Colette had asked in her letter written earlier that day what BR thought of the strike in Glasgow (BRACERS 113172). The strike was called by the Clyde Workers’ Committee in late January 1919. Its main objective was to achieve a 40-hour work week which would help to allow demobilized soldiers re-enter the work force. On 31 January tens of thousands of strikers gathered in George Square were confronted by the police; a riot followed and the day came to be known as “Bloody Friday”. English troops were sent into the city, and on 10 February the strike was called off without the 40-hour work week being achieved (“1919: The 40-hours strike” [libcom.org/history|peopleshistory.co.uk]).

• 15

  working like a nigger BR used this expression to mean he had been working hard.

• 16

  Lynton BR, Colette and Clifford Allen had spent the Christmas season at the Cottage Hotel in Lynton.

• 17

  your rehearsals for The King and Queen by Rabindranath Tagore.

• 18

  sorry about Priscilla and Mitchell Colette’s mother was unhappy. According to Priscilla, Colonel Mitchell’s young woman had run off with the French military attaché; Mitchell himself had gone to Liverpool. Colette was unsure whether he would be returning to the United States (BRACERS 113172). For more information on Mitchell, see BRACERS 19366, n.4.