BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 23 FEB. 1920
BRACERS 19621. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
23.2.20

My Darling

Thank you for your letter on Sat.3 which came this morning. I am glad you are getting on so well with your writing,4 and I am amazed by your thrift!5 I am longing to see what you have written.

It is very exciting that you will be in town March 4a–15.6 Unluckily I shall be in Scotland7 part of that time — 6th to 9th. I get home on the 9th and then have nothing to do. Could we go away somewhere for two days or even more? It may be the last chance for ages as I may go to Spain and thence to Russia,8 and not return till the end of September — Lansbury’s success9 in getting to Russia made me feel it possible — and if it is possible, I want to be there long enough to get some real knowledge of how things work. So do think whether you would be willing to come away. Of course Ashford10 is what I should like. I could come there straight from Glasgow and we could be there 9th to 15th. Why are you losing your looks?11 I should always go on thinking you beautiful, if you became as hideous as Medusa — I do love you, my Heart’s Life —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200614.

• 2

  [envelope] Miss Colette O’Niel | c/o F. Forbes-Robertson Esq | “Mice and Men” Co. | Blackburn | Lancs. Pmk: BATTERSEA S.W.11 | 4.30 PM | 23 FEB 20

• 3

  your letter on Sat. Her letter of 21 February 1920 (BRACERS 13196).

• 4

  so well with your writing Colette had written 2,000 words and promised to get them typed and sent to him. This work was presumably “Letters Posted and Unposted”. For information, see BRACERS 19580, n.3.

• 5

  your thrift She had put some money in a savings bank.

• 6

  March 4–15 Colette had written on 23 Feb. “I do hope I’ll see you at Oxford, roughly 4–15 March (BRACERS 113197).

• 7

  I shall be in Scotland BR spoke on 6–8 March to the Union of Democratic Control in various Scottish cities. His topic was “Lessons of the Russian Revolution”.

• 8

  Spain … Russia BR lectured in Barcelona then vacationed with Dora Black in Majorca, 24 March–19 April.

• 9

  Lansbury’s success George Lansbury had left England in January and did not return until 19 March. He wrote about his time there in What I Saw in Russia (London: Leonard Parsons, 1920) which was published later in 1920 as was BR’s book, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (B&R A34).

• 10

  Ashford See BRACERS 19217, n.4.

• 11

  Why are you losing your looks? Colette, who in 1920 was only 25, had written on 21 February (BRACERS 113196) that she was “losing any looks I ever had”.

Textual Notes

• a4 written over 5