BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 15 OCT. 1939
BRACERS 19807. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

[Address] 212 Loring Avenue, Los Angeles, Cal.1
15 Oct. 1939.

Dearest Colette

I was glad to get your little letter of Sep. 1.2 I shall be most grateful if you will write what you can; we hear almost nothing from England, and do not know what our friends are thinking.

It is a great comfort having John3 and Kate4 here,5 and having little Conrad6 out of it, but for ourselves we would rather be at home. Everybody here drives me wild by saying “you must be glad to be over here.” At last I answered “If the person you loved most was dangerously ill, would you be glad to be 6000 miles away?” But they can’t understand that feeling.

I find myself thinking, first, that it was hardly possible for England to avoid the war, and second, that it is desirable we should win. This makes thorough-going pacifism difficult. But all the time I feel I may be wrong; so I hold my tongue.

One keeps waiting for the air raids. Perhaps when this reaches you they will have begun. To us here it is nerve-wracking; in England it must be very hard to bear.

Love from Peter7 and very much from me.

Your
B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200813.

• 2

  your little letter of Sep. 1 In it Colette notes that she has returned to England and her cottage in Blagdon, taking a war job in Bristol (BRACERS 98414). In her letter of 21 December 1939 (BRACERS 98422), she told him she was working on propaganda for the British Army Blood Supply Depot, which had been evacuated to Bristol.

• 3

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

• 4

  Kate Katharine Jane Russell born 29 December 1923 to BR and his wife Dora. Her surname changed to Tait upon her marriage.

• 5

  here John and Kate sailed on the Queen Mary, leaving England on 2 August and arriving in New York on 7 August. They then travelled across the country by train to California.

• 6

  little Conrad BR’s second son, Conrad Sebastian Robert, born 15 April 1937 to BR and his wife Patricia.

• 7

  Peter Patricia (“Peter”) Russell, née Spence (1910–2004). She and BR were married from 1936 until 1952.