BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 13 APR. 1931
BRACERS 19796. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Telegraph House
Harting, Petersfield.1
13.4.31

My dearest Colette

I have been away with Dora2 for the Easter holidays3 so your letter of April 1 didn’t reach me till I got back. I am in difficulties about a meeting, because I gathered that it is not good for you to come to London, and it is difficult for me to go away to any other place in term time. I am busy with a book, and go to London two days a week to write it. But except for some reason of that kind, I don’t like to be away from here during the term. If you were ever going to be in London for a night or two, I could see you there and work in the day-time. Or I could come for a night to any place near London almost any Tuesday or Wednesday. But I can’t manage more because of my damned book.

For the summer we are going to Hendaye,4 in the S.W. corner of France. We close the school5 at the end of June. Our future is vague as yet. We should like to let Telegraph House6 for the 6 remaining years of our lease, but if we can’t we shall have to live here.

Dora is not very well, and I am rather worried about her.

I am sorry everything is so unsatisfactory. Love.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200802.

• 2

  Dora Dora Russell, née Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For information on her, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.

• 3

  the Easter holidays BR and Dora had spent the Easter holiday finding a villa for their summer holiday, staying for part of the time at the Hotel Eskualduna in Saint-Martin-d’Arrosssa, in the French Pyrénées. The villa had to be large enough to accommodate BR and his lover Patricia, Dora, Griffin Barry and their daughter Harriet, as well as BR and Dora’s children, John and Kate.

• 4

  Hendaye A town in the French Pyrénées near the Spanish border. The Russells rented the Villa Costa Loria for their summer holiday in 1931. “It faced the estuary rather than the sea; one could open the shutters to the morning sun and a wide view of the River Bidassoa, framed by the mountains, and just at the edge, by the exquisite spires of Fontarabia, perched on its hill, sounding the rich music of its bells across the water.” Hendaye’s waterfront was planted with tamarisk trees (Tamarisk Tree [London: Virago, 1975], p. 235).

• 5

  close the school Beacon Hill School was not closed in June 1931. Although BR left the school in 1932, Dora kept it open until 1943 in various locations. See Deborah Gorham, “Dora and Bertrand Russell and Beacon Hill School,” Russell 25, no. 1 (Summer 2005): 39–76.

• 6

  Telegraph House Their current residence located near Petersfield, Hants. It also housed the school.