A review by lucyhargrave
My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letters by Chris Barker, Bessie Moore, Simon Garfield
5.0
I loved reading My Dear Bessie for the romance it contained, for the way it humanised the War experience and for the glimpse it offers the reader into the past. When Chris and Bessie first start corresponding they are merely friends and yet it was Bessie’s first crucial reply that would change both of their lives forever.
‘I was quite OK before I got your first letter. I was rational, objective. But now that you have my ear – I must give you my heart as well! No doubt it is wrong, certainly it is indiscreet, to blurt out such things when the future laughs that only presents conditions make me like this. But I am like this.’
Due to practical reasons explained in the books introduction the majority of the letters in My Dear Bessie are written by Chris and yet the reader is able to gain such an insight in to both Chris and Bessie’s personalities. Both are strong Labour supporters; Chris leans heavily towards Socialism even during the Greece occupation and Bessie helps Labour with the 1945 election. They are pragmatic yet romantic, youthful yet mature, unconventional yet traditional...
Full review can be found on at www.forgettheclassicsireadromance.blogspot.co.uk
‘I was quite OK before I got your first letter. I was rational, objective. But now that you have my ear – I must give you my heart as well! No doubt it is wrong, certainly it is indiscreet, to blurt out such things when the future laughs that only presents conditions make me like this. But I am like this.’
Due to practical reasons explained in the books introduction the majority of the letters in My Dear Bessie are written by Chris and yet the reader is able to gain such an insight in to both Chris and Bessie’s personalities. Both are strong Labour supporters; Chris leans heavily towards Socialism even during the Greece occupation and Bessie helps Labour with the 1945 election. They are pragmatic yet romantic, youthful yet mature, unconventional yet traditional...
Full review can be found on at www.forgettheclassicsireadromance.blogspot.co.uk