Page:FM Bailey letters from LA Bethell.pdf/19



37, Paternoster Row, E.C.

20 . 1 . 36

My dear Bailey,

Many thanks for yours of December 29th from Government House, Calcutta. It was a relief to know that I had not made life complicated for you (officially, socially etc) by “Barclays” doings in “Adedoids”. Lacking an exact perception of your contacts, I might have landed you into something awkward: a poor return for all the varied ideas with which you, often unconsciously, have provided me, in the past – and which I have turned into print.

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There was a good group of you and your Nepal royalties in a recent number of the Illustrated London News: you've probably had a copy sent you.

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I read out extracts of your letter to Jim B. especially the part about the paper “forward” and its suggestion of H.E.’s recipe for longevity! He loves a good story – especially one with a mischievous bit of fun

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in it – like this. He has the most infectious laugh of anyone I know – and is in many other ways a most delightful man to work for – and with.

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Yes, so far as I know, my job here is permanent. The man whose death caused the vacancy, died of old age, and I propose to do the same. There is however one great drawback: the practically complete hanging up of one's own writing – no time for it, and, at the end of the normally by no means easy day, no energy. However, I wouldn't be without the job for worlds; the absolute plum of all things literary and really worthwhile.

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Thanks so much for the cuttings. The Oxford University Press have now taken over the book: I have no time for running it, and you may find it in their catalogues sandwiched between a new printing of the Book of Common Prayer and a volume of Dean

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Inge’s commentaries on Plato. Hardly the place to look for a manual on post retirement finance: however, I can't complain: they offered me 15% of takings to begin with – but I stuck out for 50: and after a fortnight's cogitation they most unexpectedly surrendered. Their big noise, Humphrey Mitford, was knighted in the New Year's honours – where, by the way, I looked long and closely for your name, and, to my surprise as much as my disappointment, failed to find it.

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