Pièce 46 - Letter from E. M. Forster to Elizabeth Trevelyan

1 sheet

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.

The Celestial Omnibus was broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 1 Sept 1942, in an adaptation by Leonard Cottrell.