LOVE IN THE BLITZ

Sub-titled 'The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front', on July 17th 1939, Eileen Alexander, a bright young woman recently graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, begins a correspondence with fellow Cambridge student Gershon Ellenbogen that lasts five years and spans many hundreds of letters. As the relationship flourished from friendship and admiration into passion and love, the tensions between Germany, Russia and the rest of Europe reached a crescendo. When war is declared, Gershon heads for Cairo and Eileen forgoes her studies to work in the Air Ministry. As the Luftwaffe begins its bombardment of England, Eileen, like her fellow Britons, carries on while her loved ones are called up to fight. Gossipy, amusingly observant, 'blue stocking' Eileen's love letters run the gamut of sometimes catty and chatty, to ruminative, plaintive and frank, and all bookworms will appreciate her breadth of literary knowledge and unique style of expression. 'Darling, I've watched this relationship from the beginning and although Robert is a man of immense charm and intellect I think he is more selfish than anyone I have ever known. He mixes in a set of people who have no standards and above all, no sense of emotional responsibility... But Joan is not like that - she needs her friends and her family and he wants to uproot her...' 474pp, remainder mark, well illustrated with archive and family photos.