BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 19 APR. 1919
BRACERS 19468. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1 ^, 2
19.4.19

Beloved

It was a heavenly day yesterday — I felt too happy to say much. You were so loving and dear — and Priscilla3 was most kind.

I got home at 114 and tumbled into bed and slept till I was called — I hope your cold is better and your neuralgia not troublesome. Good luck to the novel!5

Goodbye my sweet love —

B —

Notes

• 1

  [document] Document 200456.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | The Cottage | Cox Green | Maidenhead. Pmk: BATTERSEA S.W.11 | 2.15 PM | 19 APR 19

• 3

  Priscilla Priscilla, Lady Annesley (1870–1941), the second wife of Hugh Annesley, the fifth 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: J. Cape, 1931], pp. 12–14).

• 4

  home at 11 BR had spent the day with Priscilla and Colette at Priscilla’s country cottage.

• 5

  to the novel! Colette must have told BR she planned on writing a novel. That summer her writing career did begin when BR helped her to place a short story, “The End”, using the pseudonym Christine Harte in The English Review 29 (Sept. 1919): 235–8. She did not publish her first novel, The Coming Back, until 1933.