Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
In September 1939, with the outbreak of war, Stanley and Peggy Allen’s courtship is suddenly disrupted, Stanley being called up and Peggy continuing her nursing training at Bart’s hospital. Married in January 1941, they manage to see each other during his occasional periods of leave and fleeting visits. However, their relationship throughout this time, until June 1944, and with extraordinary intensity after he departs for Normandy, is largely conducted through their correspondence which they resolve to retain, anticipating its potential interest to their family, and to posterity. When Stanley died in 2013, the correspondence - several hundred letters - found in a cupboard, revealed a compelling account of their relationship, enduring the stresses of enforced separation and the anxiety of war, as well as a graphic account of life at the time. Stanley’s letters also narrate his progress across Europe, with dramatic insights into the intensity of battles and the privations of life in an army at war, the final phase, of occupation of Germany, a time of increasing disenchantment and desperation to return home and begin a life of peace.
