Something beautiful

An act of great generosity and kindness from a subscriber

Yesterday, I received this letter.

Graham,

I have an 8-page letter handwritten by Margot Fonteyn in the early 50’s to a (gay) male dancing colleague kindly declining his proposal of marriage. It’s worth a fair bit. I put it into an auction a few years ago for a suggested price of £600, but someone advised me I could probably find a devotee who’d pay much more. Anyway, if you’re interested, I’d like you to have it to give your income a bit of a boost. Let me know.

All good wishes

Andrew

Here is the text of the letter.

Having overcome the mixture of shock, delight and gratitude I felt, I decided I couldn’t accept the offer. A beautiful thing like this letter should remain a beautiful thing, and exchanging it for cash would haunt me forever. Instead, I suggested we send the letter and contents (see photos) to Fred Sargeant as a valuable piece of gay history, or at the very least, a symbol of allyship and kindness.

Andrew, thank you, this made my year, and Fred, keep an eye out for the mailman.