BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 4 JAN. 1965
BRACERS 19914. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Plas Penrhyn,
Penrhyndeudraeth,
Merioneth.1^, 2
4 Jan. 1965

Dearest Colette

Nalle Kielland3 writes to me to say4 she believes you have difficulty in paying your hospital expenses. She wants to know if she should contribute. If there is difficulty, I will gladly pay the whole or any appropriate part.

Could you get somebody at the hospital5 to let me know how are you are progressing. I hope, well.

Much love. Yours ever
B

• 1

  [document] Document 200918.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | St. Mary’s Hospital | Bury St Edmund’s | Suffolk. Pmk: PORTMADOC | 6 – PM | 5 JAN | 1965 | CAERNARVONSHIRE

• 3

  Nalle Kielland BR met Nalle Kielland when her children went to Beacon Hill School. When he travelled to Norway in October 1948 they met again and began an affair. Nalle’s husband would not have approved, so the affair was conducted in secrecy. Colette was staying in BR’s cottage, Ffestiniog, in North Wales in 1949 when a typed copy of his autobiography arrived which had been read by Nalle. She took it upon herself to let Nalle know that BR’s wife, Peter, was in a difficult and unpredictable mood with regard to her husband. Colette and Nalle became friends through correspondence — their friendship would last for decades.

• 4

  writes me to say Her letter of 2 January 1965 (BRACERS 4216).

• 5

  at the hospital Colette was at St. Mary’s Hospital in Bury St. Edmonds after suffering a stroke in November 1964.