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Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon to Anne O’Mara. Kate thanks Anne for her present of cosmetics. She is upset, having had her thank-you letter to Aunt Fan returned from the censor’s office with a printed admonition. She is pleased to hear glowing reports of Clare’s holiday in Ireland and is looking forward to meeting her the following weekend. She thanks Anne for relating to her Dr Browne’s praise of her book. She asks for family news.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 10 Buckingham Street, London WC2 to Anne O’Mara. Kate’s play has had a mixed reception from the press, but the audience seem to like it. Unfortunately, the appearance of the flying bomb [pilotless aircraft] in London has doomed ticket sales. However, it has made Kate some money and there have been cautious enquiries about film rights. She plans to retreat to the country to attend to her neglected novel [That Lady]. She mentions her new friends Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, who know her novels practically by heart and are full of theatrical plots. She is angered by Ivor Brown’s comments about life in Ireland, having herself for many years tried to propagate civilised Irish life in her novels.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 34 Beaufort Gardens, [Brompton Road, London] SW1 [sic] to Anne O’Mara. Kate is pleased to relate that That Lady is the Book Society’s choice for May, which means an extra printing of some 16,000 copies, some extra money for Kate and a very good advertisement for the book. She is having a busy time with movie people circling in and has been invited to supper with Carol Brandt, the chief story buyer of Metro-Goldwyn.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, [177 The Street], Boughton, [Faversham, Kent] to Anne O’Mara. Kate discusses her work prospects in some detail and in a positive vein. She is sorry to see the obituary notices of five friends in The Times in the last ten days. She is working on two books, but finds them hard to write and acknowledges that they are very old-fashioned.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien to Anne O’Mara. Kate encloses a letter from Aunt Fan (now not present). She regrets not having written, but she is alarmed at her slow progress with the new book [The Last of Summer], for which Heinemann are clamouring. She would have expected them to be merciful after the success of The Land of Spices, but they keep on bullying her. She is grateful for the lovely weather, which somehow makes the war news easier to take.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon to Anne O’Mara. Kate thanks Anne for her cheque. She is sorry to hear of K[athleen] O’Riordan’s death. She discusses Maura Laverty and her new book, Never No More, which she recently reviewed for the Spectator.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to Anne O’Mara. Kate discusses books, including Never No More by Mary Laverty, A Farm on Lough Gur by Lady Carbery and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon [by Rebecca West]. She is working on her new book, which is set in the Castleconnell area in the summer of 1939. She is thinking of calling it ‘The Last of Summer’ and asks Anne’s opinion on the title. When she has finished writing it, she intends to finish the Spanish novel about Ana de Mendoza [That Lady]. She deems it a good story, but difficult to write. Kate is considering the prospect of staying on in Devon as a paying guest to the Dashwoods, partly because Elizabeth sets such a shining example as an industrious and methodical author for her to emulate.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to Anne O’Mara. Kate is very busy with English Diarists [English Diaries and Journals], writing various things for the Ministry of Information and trying to get a new novel [That Lady] going. She mentions that Elizabeth Dashwood [E. M. Delafield] is recovering from a severe chill, which has made her even thinner than she already is.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to Anne O’Mara. Kate gives an account of her Christmas with the Dashwoods. She is excited about her book [The Last of Summer] being the Book Society Choice for March, which gives it great send-off and will stimulates sales. She has been asked by the BBC to participate in a series called ‘The Living Image’, but had to postpone her joining in as she must finish her book on diaries [English Diaries and Journals] before the end of the month. Three small sections of the first sheet have been removed by the censor.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to Anne O’Mara. Kate has returned to Devon from a trip to London and found Elizabeth Dashwood gravely ill with an acute stoppage of the intestine. The Irish maid has arrived and is well liked by everyone. Kate has developed a carbuncle on her forehead and, being bandaged up, looks like a hero of Dunkirk. She has taken a lease of a small flat in London, where she intends to return towards the end of the month. She has just received a press cutting from the New York Times, according to which The Last of Summer is the Catholic Book Club choice in the USA. Part of the first sheet has been removed by the censor.