LETTER: Autograph letter signed to Massingham re Profumo affair.
VIOLET BONHAM CARTER TO HER SON MARK BONHAM CARTER
1939-1956
Carter, Violet Bonham. Autograph letter signed, “Violet Bonham Carter,” to Hugh
Massingham, June 12, 1963, in response to the Profumo affair; four pages of 21 Hyde Park
Square, W2, letterhead. In full:
I must write you a line of glowing congratulation on your brilliant article in last Sunday's
Telegraph. I have read it to myself, I have read it aloud to others. I have cut it out - & I
feel like framing it! My favourite passage is the dialogue at the end when the bees &
flowers are used by a well-wisher to break “the facts of life” to the Prime Minister. What
an astonishing[underlined] & sordid situation. Four Ministers (so we are told) had read
Profumo's billet doux to Miss Keeler before[underlined] his[de'menti? meaning perhaps
lying speech?] to the H[ouse] of C[ommons] What did they think he went to see her
for?[sentence underlined] To talk about bo s? Shakespeare & the musical glasses? | The
Gov[ernmen]t have been “accident-prone” for a long time - but this really is the climax &
should[underlined] be the finale. But I daresay it wont. No straws - not even the haystack
- first or last can break the back of a “loyal” Tory majority fighting for its life. ... P.S. I
checked that quotation with Rab & he did[underlined] say it.
(#4655967)
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