I’m sorry it took me so long but here’s the thread on Radclyffe Hall I promised you

There are lots of things on her life that I want to write about but for now I'll write a short thread on her relationship with Souline. I have to skip some details so you can get the general picture of their relationship and I'll tweet the rest as I read the biographies

I'm not an expert on her so I rely on the introduction to her letters and the chapter about her relationship with Souline in Michael Baker's biography.

Radclyffe Hall was born the 12th of August 1880. We all know her for being the writer of The Well of Loneliness. I know some lesbians and bi girls do not like the book but I think it’s still relevant these days.

Her father abandoned her and her mother before she was born. After her mother found a new partner they completely ignored her. She was an introvert and solitary child.

After her father’s death in 1898 she inherited his fortune, around 10 million in today’s dollars. That gave her a freedom most other lesbians and bi women didn't have.

Her first long term relationship was with Mabel Batten (Ladye). Some of you already know her. Ladye was 51 and she was 27. She called her John and RH would use that name for the rest of her life. She would live near Ladye and then with her for 8 years.

In 1915 she met Ladye’s cousin Una, Lady Troubridge. At that time she was 35, Una 27 and Ladye 58. Una and RH fell in love and RH took her to a cabin she used to go with Ladye. When they came back, Ladye and RH had a fight and two days later Ladye died of a heart attack.

RH and Una felt so guilty that they didn’t have sex for months. Since then they tried to win Ladye’s forgiveness through a medium. They were so sure they were talking to her ghost that they used to ask for Ladye’s advice through that medium.

Una was married to a British admiral back then but she didn't live with him anymore. I should write another thread to tell that story

Since 1915 until 1934 RH and Una had an almost exclusively monogamous relationship.

In 1934, RH was feeling blocked as a writer and she had pain in her right leg, that had been injured thirty years ago when she fell from a horse, so they went to Bagnoles-de l’Orne, a spa in Normandy.

There, Una got sick and RH asked the American Hospital in Paris for a private nurse, and that nurse was Evguenia Souline.
She was described as a “plain woman, moon-faced, bespectacled, with slanting eyes and high cheek-bones". Apparently, there are no pictures of her.

Radclyffe Hall used to sleep in Souline’s room to let Una rest and that’s probably how she fell in love with her. Souline was shy and had doubts at first. She thought that their love was “emotionally wrong” and RH tried to convince her that there was nothing wrong with them.

The only source we have on Souline's life are RH's letters. Only one of Souline's letters has survived.
She was born in 1904 and her father was a general in the Russian Imperial Army. They were wealthy and privileged until de Russian Revolution.

After that Souline's family escaped and lost everything. She was trained as a nurse by the Red Cross and moved to Paris in 1920.

Both Una and RH liked Souline at first because, as Una said, she was "unmistakeably one of our own class"

Of course, Una didn't know that RH had feelings for Souline. Nothing had happened between them yet but RH says that when it was time to say goodbye, she almost lost control and took her in her arms.

The following days they started writing and calling each other and settled a meeting in Paris on July 26:

“My dear.
I shall only be in Paris a short time...
May I come & see u?....
Knowing at least a tiny corner of ur mind, I hear u thinking a very ridiculous thought about ur room being just one room & not an enormous apartment....but one room is large enough for me if it is for u!”

They had lunch together and after that they went to RH's hotel and kissed for the first time.

Una and RH travelled to Italy and she wrote Souline that she had wanted to "take Souline's virginity", as Baker says. RH was more poetic about it but that's what she meant.

A few days later, as Una and RH were on vacation, she confessed to Una her feelings for Souline and she wrote to her that Una had a breakdown and cried hysterically.

Humble as they were, Una said that "inverts" looked upon her and she couldn't do that after standing up for fidelity in "inverted unions".

Una was kinda right tho.

She allowed RH to write and see Souline but forbid her to sleep with Souline.

They had plans to see each other again on October 5 but Souline got scared and said she was moving to the US and RH panicked and went back to Paris on September 22.
She promised not to sleep with her but her letters show that she knew she was going to break that promise.

This is what RH says about her first time with Souline:

Souline's plans to move to the US were never mentioned after that and she was going to visit them in London the Novembre 4. Meanwhile, Una pretended to be ok with it but she obviously wasn't.

Souline arrived in London and she and RH stayed in the Grand Hotel for 3 days, then moved to RH's flat, were Una was staying, so she had to move to the house they had in Rye. But then they decided to move to Rye so Una had to leave her house and go back to London.

She was really unhappy about it and in those days she wrote a lot about how she felt that Ladye was "holding her hand day and night" and helping her. Remember that she felt her and spoke to her ghost through a medium.

Meanwhile, RH felt that those days with Souline were their honeymoon and would remember it for the rest of her life.
After that she had constant quarrels with both Souline and Una. On New Year's Eve Una wrote "The last day of a very unhappy year..."

RH, who made Souline accept an allowance of 100 pounds a year so she could write to her and live comfortably without working to much, increased it to 250 pounds.

In 1935 all three spent almost half a year together, first in Paris, then in the south of France and in Italy and back to Paris.

In Italy, they stayed at a small hotel and each had their own room but RH used to spend the night at Souline's and Una was scared thay they might get caught.

They also supported Mussolini (and did so until 1940), wore wearing Italian ribbons and did the fascist salute.
Back in Paris, RH bought and furnished a flat for Souline.

The three of them quarrelled a lot for any reason, like that time in 1936 when RH and Una saw Natalie and Colette and Souline felt left out, accused RH of hiding her and using her for sex, which was really unfair and so she ended up crying in Una's arms.

One time, Souline was trying to make RH jealous by implying that she had a love affair with a Russian friend and RH got so mad she started smashing every gift she had ever given to her that she could find in Souline's flat.

In 1937 Una and RH moved to Florence and rented 2 apartments, one for them and the other one for Souline. They could travel by train and no car was big enough for the three of them plus the dog and the enormous amount of luggage.

So they hired a turquoise charabanc and removed 15 seats which apparently people thought it was funny because they cheered them all the way to Florence
This is a charabanc (I didn't know ):

Souline refused to join them after RH had paid for the apartments were they wanted to stay for the winter, and so they almost broke up. They made up but RH and Una went back to England. Una was so tired she used to call her own daughter "Evguenia", although her name was Andrea.

Cline's biography of Radclyffe Hall arrived today and it has a picture of Souline I couldn't find anywhere on the internet.
You can't imagine how happy I am