20 November

20 November 1920

Villa Isola Bella, Menton, France

Dearest Bogey
Thank you very much for all my little drawings. The nicest you ever made was the hobgoblin with the fork dashing off to eat that sole. "Be sprightly - thou'rt among friends" he seemed to be saying.
I am very glad you liked Miss Brill. I liked her, too. One writes (one reason why is) because one does care so passionately that one must show it - one must declare ones love. But oh - there are so many stories to write and they are all so different.
The paper came this morning & 2 Newses & the Literary Supplement. The News is sordid; theres no other word for it - and such sordid news. Dreadful people behaving in such an odious way. One feels - not frightened but that never never will one return to such a city.
The paper . . . wasn't a very good number was it? In fact I think you must have driven your cold into it & there it rages. Poor Athenaeum! Let me be frank. The tone isn't quite certain, either. "A trumpet to the soul of the nation". That doesn't ring: its common property: it has been blown by so many writers that its gone dull. Perhaps Im out of sympathy. I suppose those leading pars must be topical - now Im referring to the later ones. Beresfords story was just so bad that I could hardly credit it!
I had been waiting for the review of the Grenfell brothers. This book must have been an astonishing document; but no one has discovered it. The quotations in the A. are enough to make one glimpse what a feast was there. But C. F. Ye - Gods - in the name of Psychology what balderdash is this! I think its far the worst review thats been in the paper.
[To J. M. Murry in Collected Letters, 21 November 1920]