Mostrando 3 resultados

Sent to Bessie at The Shiffolds; postmarked Dorking. - Thinks she and Bob know that [his short story] The Celestial Omnibus is 'to be broadcast as a play' but sends a reminder in case they 'care to listen'. It will be broadcast on Tuesday Sept 1st, 'at the unearthly hour of 10.35 P. M.'.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Thanks Bessie for her letter about The Celestial Omnibus [an adaptation of his short story broadcast on BBC radio, see TRER/ADD/45], with which he 'disagree[s] pretty completely!'. Acknowledges that 'one can pick holes in the production, as in everything', but thought that it was generally 'intelligent and in good taste, and the boy, with his unpriggishness and unsophistication couldn't have been better'. Asks if he is 'being nasty now'. Encloses Florence [a letter by Florence Barger]; his mother and aunt [Rosalie] agree with her, as does Kathleen Kennet, 'who started listening with the utmost hostility' and 'Mr Herbert E. Gibbs, otherwise unknown'. He will, with his 'noted fairmindedness' forward Bessie's letter to Florence and 'extend this salutary disquiet'.

Hopes that later in the month, after the 20th, she might be able to visit them 'unsupervised by Molly [Trevelyan?]' for coffee and tea. Postscript conveying his mother's love.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Bessie ‘cannot imagine how consoling’ her letter was, ‘nor Bob how well placed his flounce. The whole thing was done without my knowledge [the adaptation and broadcast of his story The Eternal Moment], and the first news he had of it was ‘the ghastly sketch in the Radio Times’. As she may imagine, ‘rows are in progress’: with his publishers, who gave permission without consulting him, as they are bound to do by the terms of the contract; and with the producer [Howard Rose] ‘for his discourtesy in ignoring me, and for supposing that an author doesn’t know anything [crossed through] can’t help over his own book’.

The contrast between ‘this insensitive hack’ and Leonard Cottrell, producer of The Celestial Omnibus, is ‘extraordinary’; Cottrell consulted him throughout, and invited him to Manchester for the rehearsal. Will let her see the letters if she likes. Is ‘taking it all to the Society of Authors’, and then will ‘ask for an interview with someone in the B.B.C., as this sort of thing must be stopped’. Notes that they acted legally [in obtaining permission from his publishers].

Looks forward to visiting soon. The cold has been ‘terrible’, and they are ‘still not feeling the better for it’. Chi’en was ‘nice’, but Forster criticises his English: ‘I once ventured to Chi’en that his lectures were becoming difficult to follow. He beamed and continues to deteriorate. Something is wrong with the Chinese after all, I fancy’. Went to Cambridge last week ‘to speak to Indians’; did not see Bertie [Bertrand Russell], but his lectures ‘continue a huge success, and the other dons are most critical: - jealousy partly, partly the uneasy knowledge that he upholds humanism in a community which has betrayed it’. His mother sends her love.