BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 17 NOV. 1926
BRACERS 19753. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Edited by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
31 Sydney Street
London. S.W.3.1
17 November 1926

My dear Colette,

The engine2 gave John3 all the delight you could possibly have hoped for. He is quite wild with joy about it — parades along the pavements to the indignation of pompous old ladies who have to skip out of the way — He is going to write to you himself about it — He has a very vivid recollection of you.  The other day he built a house and I asked him where it was. He said “in Somerset”: I said “why”.  “Because Auntie Colette lives there” he said. Nobody had spoken of you to him for a long time.

Will you be in London4 any time during the winter?

With love.
Your
B

• 1

  [document] Document 200760.

• 2

  engine Colette had commissioned a “large green engine to be created which he will be able to sit in and propel about the world: It’s to be picked out in bright yellow and to have a seat of russet brown suede leather and a whistle and proper disc wheels” (14 Sept. 1926, BRACERS 98405). There is a photograph of John in the Dora Russell papers (Box 7.30) on what may be this engine.

• 3

  John John Conrad Russell, born 16 November 1921 to BR and his wife Dora.

• 4

  be in London She replied that she did not expect to be in London until the spring (27 Nov. 1926, BRACERS 98396).