LETTERS: Letters to Her Son, Mark.
VIOLET BONHAM CARTER TO HER SON MARK BONHAM CARTER
1939-1956
[MBC = her elder son Mark Bonham Carter; RBC = her younger son Raymond Bonham Carter]
A collection of vividly-written, intelligent and energetic letters from a member of one of the
leading British political dynasties of the twentieth century to her son, casting much political and
personal light at a turbulent period in world history. None of these letters has been published,
either in the three recent volumes of ´ions from VBC’s diaries and letters (Lantern Slides, 1996;
Champion Redoubtable, 1998; and Daring to Hope, 2000) or elsewhere.
Violet Bonham Carter (“VBC”) was a staunch friend friend and supporter of Churchill (even in
the Wilderness Years) who described her as “a champion redoubtable even in the first rank of
Party orators.” And she moved freely in the Corridors of Power.
Violet Bonham Carter (née Helen Violet Asquith), Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury (1887-1969),
was the daughter of the Liberal politician Herbert Henry Asquith (1852–1928), British Prime
Minister from 1908 to 1916, and from 1925 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith. From an early age
Violet and her father shared what her biographer Mark Pottle has described as “an extraordinarily
close filial relationship’, with “politics at its core.” Violet was blessed with a precocious intellect,
and later recalled that her father spoke to her “on even terms, as though to a contemporary.” In
1915 she married his private secretary, Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, by whom she had four
children.
It is to her sons Mark (“MB”) (1922-1994) and Raymond (“RBC”) (1929-2004) that the letters in
this collection are addressed. The only letter to Raymond, written to him at the start of the Second
World War, indicates his mother’s qualities as a woman and a letter-writer: she is intelligent,
observant, kind, considerate, concerned, earnest, and never condescending, with the
overwhelming assumption that even her ten-year-old son must take an active interest in politics
and world affairs. The same qualities shine through in VBC’s letters to MBC, who was seven
years older than his brother, and seventeen years old at the time of VBC’s first letter to him, also
in 1939.
The 33 letters to MBC convey VBC’s response to a number of events, both personal and political.
Topics include: her brother’s final illness (‘infinitely tragic to watch’); the German declaration of
war on Poland (‘It is strange to see this happen twice in a lifetime. But it feels so different this
time - & so much worse’); her husband’s and her own efforts to assist the war effort (him as an
ARP Warden and her “at my 1st Aid Post’); the progress of the war; home news to MBC during
his imprisonment in Italy; his subsequent service in Europe at the time of the allied invasion; her
post-war activities on behalf of the Liberal Party (serving on committees, making speeches). As
the correspondence proceeds VBC becomes increasingly dispirited (things lo “unspeakably bleak
– the country – the world – no prospect pleases’), complaining of “family problems” including
alcoholism. In 1946 she describes a visit to the Royal Ballet at J. M. Keynes invitation, where she
sees the Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (‘He ought to have been at the Foreign Affairs debate –
but was announced as being “too busy”!’). She considers Bevin “magnificent’, and gives a
valuable eyewitness account of his activities during the inaugural United Nations Security
Council meeting in London in 1946. Her old friend Winston Churchill fares rather more badly. In
1939 she considers the “only bright spot is Winston in the Cabinet', but by the end of the war she
considers his reply to a conciliatory letter by her “that of a sulky child! He is clearly feeling very
embittered – quite unreasonably so.” Throughout the correspondence VBC’s enormous love for
her son shines through: she commiserates with him on his lack of success at Oxford, suggests
future plans, and in the fi
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