Kiss but not tell
From Mr Hugh Axton Sir: Violet Bonham Carter may well have wanted Roy Jenkins to make no mention of her father's affair with Venetia Stanley, but this could not have been because 'she knew nothing of it at the time', as Alan Watkins maintains (Books, 19 August). The second volume of Dame Violet's letters contains a letter from Margot Asquith to Violet writ- ten on 7 June 1914. In it she wrote:
Father is happier over V's marriage tho' not converted — he thinks he would mind less were it anyone else but I tell him whoever she married he would mind deeply as he has been very much in love, . .
Violet may well have been unhappy that the affair should be made public; after all, Jenkins's book was first published when these matters were still kept private; but it was not because she knew nothing about it — more likely she did not feel it necessary for the truth to be published. Just imagine the fun the press would have today if it was learnt that the Prime Minister was writing two or three letters a day to a very attrac- tive young woman, young enough to be his daughter, and that he was visiting her father's house for weekends once a month and going for a private drive with her each Friday. We live in dull times.
Hugh Axton
Walmer,
Kent
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