BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 22 OCT. 1961
BRACERS 19904. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #572
Edited by S. Turcon and N. Griffin. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Plas Penrhyn,
Penrhyndeudraeth,
Merioneth.1^, 2
October 22, 1961

Dearest Colette,

Ever since I got your letter at the end of May3 I have meant to write to you, but as you may have gathered from the papers, I have been pretty fully occupied.4 Everything is so reminiscent of 45 years ago. The danger to the world is vastly greater than then, but the opposition one encounters is much less fierce, and except from politicians one gets much more public support. Claire5 is with us, but I have not yet come across her.

Your nephew’s meanness6 is incredibly shocking. I cannot think how you manage to keep your feelings towards him within the bounds of reason and moderation.

When I got to Brixton7 all the officials remarked gleefully “you’ve been here before”, and I wanted to reply “Yes you’re welcoming an old lag”.8 They were all friendly.

Your pictures of the Mourne9 mountains are quite extraordinarily beautiful. It was good of you to send them. I too feel very sad that I have never seen them.

A new book by me, Fact and Fiction10 is coming out in a few days. The fiction part is light-hearted fun. I feel the need of fun when I think that everything and everyone that one has ever loved may be wiped out at any minute.

Dearest Colette, you know that you are enshrined in my memory11 quite unshakably.

My fond love,
B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200908.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | Sundborn | Sweden. The address is lined out and replaced with Suffolk | Lavenham | England. Pmk: PORTMADOC | 3 – PM |  23 OCT | 1961 | CAERNARVONSHIRE

• 3

  your letter at the end of May 28 May 1961 from Sundborn, Sweden (BRACERS 98461).

• 4

  pretty fully occupied BR led a campaign of mass civil disobedience in support of unilateral nuclear disarmament through the Committee of 100, a break-away group of CND.

• 5

  Claire Clare Annesley (1893–1980), Colette’s sister. Clare was a pacifist who supported the anti-nuclear campaign.

• 6

  nephew’s meanness Her nephew, Gerald Francis (Sowerby) Annesley (1904–1992), the son of her half-sister Mabel and her husband, Gerald Sowerby. The nephew had cut off her £7 weekly allowance — she managed to get though the summer only by selling some of her limited editions at Sothebys. Then the estate accountants at Castlewellan, the family’s Irish estate, found a mistake had been made and her allowance was restored. Throughout this difficult time, Colette wrote that she was able to keep peace with her nephew.

• 7

  got to Brixton BR was arrested for inciting a breach of the peace in September 1961 and spent a week in the Brixton Prison hospital. See BRACERS 20274, n.2.

• 8

  an old lag British slang for a habitual criminal. BR was previously at Brixton in 1918 when he opposed World War I.

• 9

  pictures of the Mourne mountains Near Castlewellan Castle in Ireland where Colette grew up.

• 10

  Fact and Fiction  A collection of essays, speeches, and divertissements, published on 26 October 1961 (B&R A120).

• 11

  you are enshrined in my memory Colette had written about Mecklenburgh Square where she had danced a jig upon BR’s return from Russia: “Those lovely Georgian houses are all pulled down, but not in the memory of Colette” (28 May 1961, BRACERS 98461).