Lady Constance Malleson

Lady Constance Malleson
Lady Constance Malleson in 1922
Born	Constance Mary Annesley (1895-10-24)24 October 1895 Castlewellan Castle
Died	5 October 1975(1975-10-05) (aged 79) Bury St Edmunds
Nationality	British
Other names	Colette O'Niel
Occupation	writer and actress

Lady Constance Malleson (24 October 1895 – 5 October 1975) was a British writer and actress (appearing as Colette O'Niel). The daughter of Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley, Malleson studied at the Royal Academy of Drama Art and was a popular theater performer.

During her twenty year acting career she appeared in numerous productions across the United Kingdom including several productions at prominent theaters in London's West End and in Maurice Elvey's 1918 silent film Hindle Wakes. Before retiring from acting Malleson wrote and produced The Way a three act starring Una O'Connor, Charles Carson, and Moyna Macgill.

Active in pacifist and social reform efforts, Malleson spent the remainder of her career traveling and writing. She released several novels and autobiographical accounts, including In the north : autobiographical fragments in Norway, Sweden, Finland, 1936-1946 about her experiences in Scandinavia administering relief efforts in response to the Russo-Finnish War. Among her most notable releases is the 1933 novel The Coming Back. Though she denied the suggestion, it is understood as a roman à clef regarding Malleson's relationship with philosopher and political activist Bertrand Russell, with whom she shared an interest in pacifism. Friends until Russell's death, the pair were romantically involved from 1916 to 1920, during Mallerson's mutually open marriage to actor Miles Malleson.

Malleson was born Constance Mary Annesley on 24 October 1895 at Castlewellan Castle in Castlewellan, Northern Ireland. She was the youngest child of Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley and his second wife Priscilla Cecilia Armytage-Moore. Annesley's sister, Lady Clare Annesley, was a feminist and pacifist who stood as a Labour Party parliamentary candidate in the 1920s and 1930s. She also had two half siblings, Lady Mabel Annesley and Francis Annesley, 6th Earl Annesley, from her father's first marriage to Mabel Wilhelmina Frances Markham. Malleson was home schooled by tutors until her father's death in 1908, at which time she was sent to at Down House in Kent. Unimpressed with the school, she referred to it in her 1931 autobiography, After Ten, as "Damned Hell", demonstrating an early contempt for aristocratic decorum.