BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 20 NOV. 1947
BRACERS 19843. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1
20 Nov. 1947.

My very dearest Colette

At last I have had a letter from Hansson2 which is on the whole satisfactory. He does not quite realize the difficulties of permits etc., but I have written to him and I expect he will do what is necessary. So we may hope to meet about May 28. I count on your coming to whatever hotel I stay at in Stockholm, for all the time of my stay — of course at my expense. I got your £20,3 which was correct. Thank you.

Miles’s Jewish wife4 is beautiful, silly, and sentimental. I don’t think he is as fond of her as he thinks he is. He doesn’t seem happy. But who is?

I haven’t written before because I kept expecting a letter from Hansson.

John and his wife and his daughter and step-daughter5 are in London. I like the wife, chiefly because she loves John. Kate is engaged6 to a man I dislike. Conrad7 flourishes exceedingly.

A time with you will be a happiness beyond imagination.

All my love.
B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200849.

• 2

  letter from Hansson Letter of 13 November 1947 from Johan Hansson, BR’s Swedish publisher (BRACERS 55290).

• 3

  I got your £20 Since Colette was short of funds and BR was trying to get money to her this remark is puzzling.

• 4

  Miles’s Jewish wife Actress Tatiana Lieven (née Silbermann), who married Miles on 19 January 1946. She had been married to the German actor Albert Lieven. She and Miles Malleson remained married until his death in 1969.

• 5

  John and his wife and his daughter and step-daughter His son John and wife Susan (née Lindsay) and their children, Felicity Anne and Sarah Elizabeth. They had recently arrived from the United States. John adopted Anne, a daughter whom Susan had from a previous relationship.

• 6

  Kate is engaged Katharine Jane Russell, born 29 December 1923 to BR and his wife Dora. The engagement to Amiel von Teslaar was short-lived. Her surname became Tait when she married Charles Tait in 1948.

• 7

  Conrad Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, born 15 April 1937 to BR and his wife Patricia.