THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Dorking

Nov 2 [1940s]

Dearest Grace
Welcome home to London.
I shd love to come & see you one day when & if possible – but I hardly ever go to London now – & when I do go I rush up to a c^tee meeting and back again
But we might meet in Central London & have a meal.
I now belong to a one horse club called the M.M. Club¹ we might meet there
As regards Betty² I don’t know what to do – she’s known at the BBC & to H.J.W.³ & has a publisher to push her.
– I think we must recognize that her kind of music does not make a sensation like say Britten – she is Wordsworth to his Byron & therefore cannot expect to take the world by storm but be deeply loved by a few.
But if there is anything you think I could do, do suggest it – I’m not very good at pushing, as you know
all my love
Uncle Ralph

1, The M.M. (Mainly Musicians) Club was founded by the cellist May Mukle. It was a converted basement near Oxford Circus underground station, and provided a meeting place and air-raid shelter for musicians during the early years of the war.
2. Elizabeth Maconchy
3. Henry Wood, the conductor of the Promenade Concerts.