'I have just returned from Clarence where I found only a few Mothers, but some very agreeable ladies amongst them. I read them "Barbara T[t]hwaite" by which they were much moved. Mrs Milburn said she had read in one of the papers that it was a story of yours, so I confessed it was to their great interest. I told them I proposed reading them "Will o' the Wisp". I walked back with a very friendly lady — I wonder who she was, she lives in the New Cottages and only comes up to the other end of Clarence for the Mothers' Meetings and for confinements!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
'First I must tell you that I have read, with immense satisfaction, the "Minor Moralist". It is excellent. I think perhaps the best of all is the essay on Manners. In my opinion, as the Babu says, it could not be surpassed. It's so deliciously pointed, every sentence tells; and so full of admirable sense. It seems to me to hit the exact point of warning and advice before they become too didactic. But that's true of them all. I delight in the preface — the passage about the Oriental and what we call Late is perfect. I admired it very much when I first read it, I remember. The one I like next best is perhaps Thrift. It's extremely good and wise. One thing that strikes me about the whole book is that the style of it is so admirably suited to the matter. It doesn't remind me of anybody, not even I might almost say, of you in your other works. But it reads like the style of someone who knows the good things well - which is not surprising. It's wonderfully simple and yet it has so sharp an edge. While I read it I purr all the time. It makes me feel just what a cat feels when you stroke his back - not that you ever would stroke his back, of course, but you take my meaning? Do keep us au courant of what the critics say. The "Spectator" will give you a leader, or I'm the more mistaken. I predict an immense success. It's absurd to compare the two, but it seems to me, except "Alan's Wife", the best thing you've done. Thank you so much for Wisdom while you Wait. It is funny! I've laughed a great deal over it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
'Thank you for the delightful little book and for the far too delightful inscription you put into it. I opened it after breakfast at the vocabulary essay and read that again with the utmost delight. A charming paper! so amusing — and so just! I shall read the others tonight.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
'As for Mother I'm as usual lost in amazement at the amount she gets through without turning a hair. The "Cat and the Fiddle book" I thought a masterpiece — she would have been pleased to see me giggling over it. Fortunately just as I had decided that I was ill there came an excellent batch of books including "Vera" and "Mr Waddington of Wyck" — how clever both of them in their way!
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell Print: Book
