Taylor, Margaret E., 1941-

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"Dear Mrs Bland, First a belated but very grateful 'Thank you' for my Christmas box of chocolates. It was a lovely surprise and much appreciated but you really shouldn't have done it! It is I who am in your debt for all your advice and hospitality. I saved the chocolates until the last evening of the school holiday since I had then arranged to take a group of the children (the chief characters in our own school play) to see the production of 'Harding's Luck' at Greenwich..."

Scope and Contents "Dear Mrs. Bland, The delay in sending this thank-you letter is due, not to ingratitude, but to a desire to be able to say that something has been achieved in the week since I visited you. For my own convenience I put the press-cuttings from the wooden box into date[striketrhough] chronological order as I read them. I trust you will approve of the way I have stuck them into the scapbook[sic].It[sic] should preserve them a little longer than if they remained loose. Those remaining un-mounted...

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"Dear Mrs. Bland, Thank you for your kind letter of July 9th giving directions to your home and suggesting I call on Tuesday, July 24th. My apologies for this very delayed reply. The end of the academic year in a primary school is extremely chaotic and the past few weeks have been exceptionally busy ones with my mother retiring after 42 years as an infant teacher. It took us until 7.30pm on Friday to clear her classroom, the children having left at 3.30pm!..."

Scope and Contents "Dear Mrs. Bland, I was given your address by the agents for E. Nesbit, having written originally to Ernest Benn Ltd., the publishers, hoping that they might help me contact any surviving members of the Nesbit-Bland family. May 1974 will see the 50th anniversary of the death of E. Nesbit, whose books still give pleasure to many thousands of children. The Eltham Society (an active local-history group) are planning, in collaboration with our Borough Council, to commemorate this anniversary...

Scope and Contents "Dear Jocelyn, (is that better?) May Julia Briggs and I come to see you on the weekend of October 22nd - 23rd? It seems to be the first date appropriate to all our mutually busy timetables. Remember we're treating you to a meal (or more than one) and won't eat you out of house and home! Mrs Briggs has been to Aberdovey attempting to talk E.N. with Berta Ruck, who is now 99. She apparently felt she'd left the visit too late, sadly. We could perhaps help you go through some of the papers and I...

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"I was too quick! Have now discovered that our Borough's Local History Library "Woodlands" 90, Mycenae Rd., S.E. 3 (in Blackheath's N.E. corner) Tel. 01-858-4631 has recently purchased from an antiquarian book and letter seller a collection including some letters of E. Nesbit, T. Tucker, and notes and letters of H. Bland in very poor h'writing because they are late ones and his eyesight was going or gone..."

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"Dear Julia, Hope these help a little! re. houses Blackheath and Le... Are we meaning 2, Birch Grove; 8, Dorville Road - by either of these? And are you certain? Older houses of the same type remain in both roads, but not, I think, the originals. They have a nasty habit of re-numbering streets to confuse the unwary user of old directories..."

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"Dear Julia, By an odd coincidence I was driving around the Oxford Ring Road on Wednesday afternoon, and arrived home to find your enquiry on the doormat. I'd not passed that way since last October. Yes, I think the reference you want was mine. As I recall, I spent a rushed morning in Oxford when I was supposed to be at an ex-students reunion function at Lady Spencer-Churchill, Wehatley..."