121 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 2EQ
2^nd December 1981

Dear Denden

Thank you so much for your letter written in October after you had returned home. I meant to write before but as usual the time slips by without my realising it. We still find it hard to think that Mollie is dead. Who would have thought this time last year that she wouldn't be here this Christmas? There are so many visible signs of her everywhere – the clothes she made, the garden at Farnborough and so on. I think that of the three boys Piers is still the most upset. It took longer to hit him and of course he was the most with her.

The Brunswick Gardens house is on the market now but I don’t suppose many people will be interested at this time of the year. I rather hope not because the spring will be a better time to sort it all out. The people in the basement have been asked by Lee to leave by the end of February as he is terrified they might not go otherwise. The Taylors, of course, want to stay as long as they possibly can and a first cousin of mine who is training with a doctor nearby has just moved into Mollie’s flat and he will stay until we ask him to go. We think Lee is dealing with all the arrangements but he doesn’t tell us much about it. Anyway he seems pretty cheerful. He goes to the cottage fairly frequently and gardens much more than he ever did when Mollie was alive. I think he is glad to have some new interests. He tells us no more than he ever did about his social life, but we know that he spent with a week-end with Margaret Carey, that the Edwardes Jones are asking him next week-end and that he is going to the Messiah with Rosemary because they have told us! Ellen might have come to the cottage last week-end on her own but she had to stay in London for a private view. Sadly we haven’t seen her since you left, but Hugo has spoken to her on the telephone a few times. We shall spend Christmas in London as I think we told you and then go to the cottage for the New Year. We leave for the French Alps on 8^th January.

Our big news is that Inigo managed to pass into Westminster. I think he was probably very border-line (but at least the right side of the line), but he had a good report from his headmaster and the headmaster at the Great School was impressed by the interview he gave him. So that is a great relief and he is delighted. I don’t know where we should have sent him otherwise. He will be a boarder from January so all I hope now is that he will be able to keep up with the work. At least I can now more or less hand that over to his housemaster.

We are all very involved in the children’s opera which takes place the week-end after next. Hugo, who has been rehearsal pianist throughout, is about to be demoted in favour of a professional rock pianist. I think he is a bit fed up about this but I quite understand the conductor’s point of view. Andrew is not in the opera but is playing that weekend in the Christmas Oratorio under a rather famous English conductor who specializes in Bach.

We still hope very much to come to the States next summer but it many well depend on how far the winding up of the estate has got to by then. The children finish school on 16^th July and I imagine that we would hope to come as soon as possible after then, because otherwise we will clash with Andrew’s chamber music course. Hugo’s idea would be to hire a car and travel around a bit but it would also be nice to see as many relations as possible.

Miranda has just telephoned me to say that her mother-in-law who lives in Scotland has just had a stroke. Apparently the ‘understanding’ part of the brain has gone. There is a 50/50 chance that it might come back and they should know within a fortnight. She had just had a gall bladder operation and was making a good recovery. I must say it has been a bad year.

Much love from us all to you and a Happy Christmas. Please also send our love to Joan and family, Johnny and John (so glad to have seen them in England) and anyone else who knows us.