BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [after 17 MAR. 1949]
BRACERS 19862. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #485
Edited by S. Turcon and N. Griffin. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
18a Dorset House
Gloucester Place
N.W.11^, 2

Dearest Colette

Peter3 adheres to her plan of letting the cottage.4 She won’t sell or let it to me. But the future remains quite unpredictable. She is now full of love and has dropped her grievances. But that also may be temporary. Meanwhile, for practical purposes, you had better assume that the cottage will be let in June and July and after August, and that I shall not be much in Wales. This flat turned out useless,5 as she says she would be glad never to see it again.

I am sorry I was so perturbed while I was in Wales, but even so it was lovely to be with you. Please write to me

c/o Miss Daphne Phelps6
Casa Cuseni [CUSENI]7
Taormina, Sicily.

Peter is in the London Clinic, Devonshire Place, W.1, and is not coming with Conrad8 and me. It is possible, but unlikely, that she will come later. Much love, dear Colette.

Your
B

• 1

  [document] Document 200869. Colette annotated this letter, indicating that it was the first one to reach her after BR left Wales on 17 March 1949.

• 2

  [date] The date has been assigned based on Colette’s note on the letter.

• 3

  Peter Patricia (“Peter”) Russell, née Spence (1910–2004). She and BR were married from 1936 until 1952.

• 4

  letting the cottage Penralltgoch, Llan Ffestiniog, the Russells’ Welsh holiday home for the past couple of years. Problems with domestic staff at the cottage upset Peter. She poured out some of her frustrations in letters to Elizabeth Crawshay-Williams (19 Feb. and 2 April 1949, BRACERS 131561 and 131562). But the decision to let the cottage was motivated by more than domestic staff issues; she and BR had hit another rough patch in their marriage. BR had paid for the cottage but then signed it over to his wife to avoid death duties (“Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969”, pt. 2, p. 115).

• 5

  This flat turned out useless 18 Dorset House. Beginning in January 1947 the Russells had rented number 27 in the same building. Then early in 1949 they moved to number 18. Why it was “useless” is not known, but one may speculate it was useless for their marriage.

• 6

  Miss Daphne Phelps The Russells had met Daphne Phelps, a fellow Briton stranded by World War II, when they were living in America. She stayed with them, both at Lake Tahoe in Nevada and also in Malvern, Pennsylvania. In 1947 she inherited Casa Cuseni in Taormina, Sicily and ran it as a pensione. See A House in Sicily (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1999); there is a chapter on BR.

• 7

  CUSENI BR printed the name to make the spelling clear.

• 8

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

Textual Notes

• a

  18 above deleted 27