BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 27 APR. 1921
BRACERS 19731. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

German Hospital Pekin1
27 April 1921

Colette my Beloved

Do not freeze or imprison your love for me — it is not necessary — I still feel you my Heart’s Comrade2 — When I come home, if you are willing, we can still have times together as wonderful as the old times — perhaps not so often, but that is a minor matter — This is the first letter I have written since my illness3 with my own hand — it is difficult. Glad you and C.A. saw Italy together.4

My illness5 was a strange experience. I ought now to be out of bed in a week. I had 3 weeks’ delirium, which I have almost totally forgotten.a

My Heart’s Life I want your love, and your comradeship in some deep things I can share with no one else.6

Too tired for more.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200734.

• 2

  Heart’s Comrade For information on the use of the term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.

• 3

  first letter I have written since my illness It is written with a shaking hand in pencil. Colette did not receive this letter until 10 June 1921 (BRACERS 116450).

• 4

  saw Italy together Clifford Allen was staying in Rome with Lady Ottoline Morrell; Colette joined them there. Colette and Allen travelled together to nearby Tivoli for a few days, so they saw little of Rome (BRACERS 116443). According to Michael Barratt Brown, his father, Alfred, told him that Clifford Allen had had an affair with Colette. Alfred called Colette “Conny”, a shortened form of her given name Constance (email, M. Barratt Brown to Tony Simpson, 22 Feb. 2013; forwarded to S. Turcon). It was not a name that Colette appeared to have used herself. She never wrote about this affair either; perhaps it began during this time in Italy.

• 5

  My illness Early in March BR became ill after bathing in some hot-springs which were a two-hour drive from Peking. Because of car trouble and other delays, many hours passed before BR could be admitted to the German Hospital where he was diagnosed with double pneumonia. His condition was critical and he hovered near death. In fact, his death was reported in the Japanese press, and then picked up by other newspapers. See Kirk Willis, “Russell and His Obituarists”, Russell, 26 (2006): 9–13 and Sheila Turcon’s response, “What Did Colette Know and When Did She Know It”, Russell, 30 (2010): 149–50. She notes that Colette was writing to BR in Shanghai without noting that the reason she was doing so was that BR had asked her to (2 Feb. 1921; BRACERS 19727).

• 6

  some deep things I can share with no one else Colette printed this in her book In the North (London: Gollancz, 1946), p. 75n.

Textual Notes

• a

  forgotten corrected editorially from forgotton