BR TO GILBERT MURRAY, 3 NOV. 1955
BRACERS 52446. TLS. Murray papers, Bodleian
Edited by W. Bruneau. Proofread by A.G. Bone

<letterhead>
Queen’s Road
Richmond
Surrey
3 November, 1955.

Dear Gilbert,

I am writing to congratulate you on your letter about Princess Margaret. It was almost the only sensible and forthright statement made. Everybody else treats bigotted cruelty with too much respect. I have not ventured to express my own sentiments, which would have been as follows:

“Sir, According to a totally unreliable tradition, a certain ignorant young unmarried Jew who lived nearly two thousand years ago made two contradictory pronouncements on the subject of divorce. One of these was fairly sane; the other embodied only cruelty based on superstition. The Church, as might be expected, has concentrated on the more illiberal pronouncement and, on this basis, demands the right to inflict either unhappiness or obloquy. It is time for sensible people to rebel against this senseless sadism. Yours, etc.”

If I could get such a letter printed, I should be liable to be sent to prison; and if my name were Mr. Gott, I should actually be sent there.

Yours ever,
B.R.