The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell

Understanding Bertrand Russell as one person rather than a committee is obviously valuable enterprise in some sense, but does it actually help us understand the philosophy? I think it does, but in a different way to Wittgenstein. There will be aspects of Russell's philosophy on which it sheds no light whatsoever. Whether the proofs in Principia Mathematica are valid or not will in no way depend on what one thinks about the way he treats his third wife.