Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, Mumbai, India, 1969 December 17 : autograph manuscript signed.

Relating an "awful lesson" she took from the audience reaction in a recent screening of "If" in Delhi, where a man exclaimed at the sight of a nude middle-aged woman-- "Not, you see, because she was naked but because she was middle-aged"; warning him to "be careful with Jennifer" [on the upcoming "Bombay Talkie" shoot] and cautioning against nude scenes in general; relating that "Shashi just phoned and mentioned among other things that Subrata wanted Jennifer to stop slimming [i.e. dieting to lose weight]"; maintaining that "slimming" isn't a good idea beyond a certain age anyway; saying she has "nothing interesting to tell you," and hoping some new books she's been given will "turn out to be marvellous"; telling him that, for her, "reading a new person has become what meeting a new person once used to be"; pointing out, however, that "I have met one nice new person, though"-- Hallam Murray, the 19 year-old son of Jock Murray (John Murray VI)-- and describing the young man, "very interesting with his long narrow pink-and-white-complexioned face as if he'd stepped straight out of a frame in the National Portrait Gallery"; describing the young man in great detail, and saying he reminds her of her brother Siegbert's late son David; musing on the many "qualities" of the English-- "really first-rate sterling marvellous qualities very often kept hidden under the most unpromising exterior personality"; recalling an Irish writer they met in John Murray's office named Dervla Murphy, who Hallam has told her has had a baby out of wedlock; also reporting that a safe full of precious manuscripts was stolen from John Murray's offices; relating the tale of Nirad Chaudhuri's birthday party in his "cultured little Bengali bower for a cultured Bengali gentleman of traditional tastes"; reporting that a Wedgewood vase chosen by Ivory was "the great success of the evening"-- "And to think it had been rotting in our cupboard for more than a year"; noting that Merchant is arriving [presumably in Delhi] tonight, and Shashi has told her they plan to begin shooting ["Bombay Talkie"] January 15; asking what he thinks of the title she proposed for the film-- "Thirst for Love"; asking if he has received a parcel she sent.