Box 1

"Dear Julia, Many thanks for your letter. I was relieved that your publisher thought the list O.K. I enclose the Guardian ref. I am not surprised you couldn't find it! It is rather tucked away. I love the idea of several copies of the book. I tend to give copies of any books in which I am involved to members of the family at Christmas, and it can get a mite expensive (the Steadman Alice retails at £15 - that multiplied a few times can certainly add up)..."

"Dear Julia, I do hope the package got to you in time for the meeting with the publisher. I must apologise for my rather incoherent letter that accompanied it - but I wrote it at about 1 am after we had had a dinner party - I knew I had to do it then, as I was due at Surgery at 9 in the morning, and had to have it ready for the post before that..."

Letter may be incomplete, as Selwyn Goodacre was consistent about signing the bottom of his correspondence, and this does not contain a signature.

"Dear Dr Briggs, Many thanks for your card. It was a great delight to meet yo in June, and I am only glad that I was able to be of some help. As promised I can now enclose my copy of Bunny Tales, for you to borrow for a while. There is no rush at all for its return. I have had a slide made of it for my talk at the Beatrix Potter conference this week-end, so it is now 'free'!..."

Note written on a scrap of paper.

"Dear Julia, Many thanks for your letter. I much look forward to coming down to Oxford on Friday. I'll let you know about my wife Janet as soon as possible, it depends a bit on what Mark wants to do, and Alice Society punts down the river and so on! The list looks fine. My only comments are really just points of 'tidying up', so I'll list them here:..."

Transcribed copy of the original letter.

"Dear Mrs. Doris Langley Moore, Thank you very much indeed for your kind gift of the E. Nesbit book, and the inscription, which I value very much. I did not acknowledge the book immediately because I was just going off into the country, and I took it with me to read..."

"Dear Mrs. Moore, Very many thanks indeed for letting me see the two extracts, which I herewith return. There is, of course, nothing that I could wish altered. I can to a certain extent appreciate the labours in which you have been involved, and I certainly hope the success of the book will be commensurate with the amount of work you have put into it!..."

"Dear Mrs. Langley Moore, Very many thanks for your letter. You cannot think how much flattered I am at being called a classical scholar! I am afraid I was never in any real sense that, and have not kept up what little I knew. I envy you that you can keep it up!..."