BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [13 NOV. 1919]
BRACERS 19580. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2^,3

My Beloved

Thank you so much for the 2 seats4 — I find Allen5 can’t possibly go, so if you wish I will leave one set at the Box Office to be given to any friend of yours you like —

How tremendously interesting about the series of letters you are writing6 — blessings on you my Darling — I hope it will go well.

Good luck to you tomorrow — Good news about Troy!7

It would be nice to see you again this side of the grave —

All love my heart’s Life —

Your
B

• 1

  [document] Document 200570.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | W.C.1. Pmk: BATTERSEA S.W. | 1.15 PM | 13 NOV 19

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from the envelope’s postmark.

• 4

  for the 2 seats To the play Shakuntala that she was acting in.

• 5

  Allen (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 6

  the series of letters you are writing This must be her “Letters Posted and Unposted” which told the story of a love triangle. It ran as a series in The English Review from September 1920 to March 1921. There are 56 letters in total in vol. 31 (Sept. 1920): 261–6; (Oct. 1920): 320–6; (Nov. 1920): 425–30; (Dec. 1920): 500–5; vol. 32 (Jan. 1921): 26–30; (Feb. 1921): 142–6; (March 1921): 244–7. Colette appears as Moya Moore and writes from Edwardes Sq. This address and the initial “M” were used in her literary correspondence with BR. The other characters which appear: the actor Moya is writing to Dear, Dear One, Blessed One, Dear Heart (in real life, Lewis Casson); the actor’s wife Anne (in real life Casson’s wife, Sybil Thorndike); the wife’s lover, Moya’s husband Dennis; and Maurice Maynard, who goes with Moya to Lynmouth. The series was published under her own name, Constance Malleson, unlike the short story published in September 1919 in the English Review for which she used a pseudonym, Christine Harte.

• 7

  Good news about Troy! This refers to further performances of The Trojan Women. Lewis Casson had been able to arrange financing to put the play on at the Holborn Empire.