Description
Book SynopsisAS HEARD ON RADIO 4
'Utterly wonderful' NINA STIBBE, author of Love, Nina
Twenty hours have gone since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you. I shall think of you until I post this, and until you get it. Can you feel, as you read these words, that I am thinking of you now; aglow, alive, alert at the thought that you are in the same world, and by some strange chance loving me.
In September 1943, Chris Barker was serving as a signalman in North Africa when he decided to brighten the long days of war by writing to old friends. One of these was Bessie Moore, a former work colleague. The unexpected warmth of Bessie's reply changed their lives forever. Crossing continents and years, their funny, affectionate and intensely personal letters are a remarkable portrait of a love played out against the backdrop of the Second World War. Above all, their story is a stirring example of the power of letters to transform ordinary lives.
Trade ReviewUtterly wonderful -- NINA STIBBE * * author of LOVE, NINA * *
The modern reader is swept along in a gushing sea of yearning, lust, fear, regret and relentlessly candid emotion, and is constantly reminded of the enduring power of letters to transform ordinary lives * * Daily Telegraph * *
An immensely affecting set of letters * * Financial Times * *
A record - spontaneous, immediate and unassuming - of the implacable triumph of love -- John Carey * * Sunday Times * *
These letters are magnificent * * Daily Mail * *
Barker and Moore start to fall in love by letter . . . And what a sweaty, lusty love it turns out to be * * Guardian * *
What, one longs to know, is going to happen next to Chris and Bessie? . . . The thrillingly intensive experience that they lived through will continue to resonate for as long as those sheets of paper are read -- DIANA ATHILL * * Literary Review * *
It's a delight, from the hesitancy of the first letters to the deep, fervent and repeated declarations of love and affection later . . . But it is the openness of the letters that leaves the lasting impression - you get a sense that writing these letters was an opportunity to communicate more freely and deeply than would have been possible elsewhere, even in the most intimate whisperings of pillow talk * * Skinny * *
The sheer intensity of their mutual passion, set against the volatility of the war, is heady stuff indeed * * Good Book Guide * *
Anyone who has ever got a date using Facebook or Tinder should read this and see what romance really looks like * * Sun * *
