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Hundreds of war love letters turned into new book

Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley
Supplied An old black and white photo dating back to the 1940s of Rex and Margaret at their wedding. Rex is dressed in military uniform and Margaret is wearing a white dress and veil. She is holding a bouquet of flowers. Both of them are looking at the camera and smiling.Supplied
Rex and Margaret married on 14 August 1941 and were separated for years by the war

Hundreds of love letters written during World War Two have been transformed into a new book.

Anne Holland from Devizes in Wiltshire, who is in her 70s, wrote the book based on her parents' letters which depict the highs and lows of their relationship while they were separated by the war.

She said: "I hope more than anything it's going to show how life actually was for those men in the war, and through my mother you get a good idea of what life was like during the war in England."

Her brother Tim Holland, 84, added it should be considered "quite an important social document" of the time period.

Anne Holland Anne holding her book up to the camera and smiling. She is wearing a green t-shirt a pink jumper and a colourful, chunky, acrylic necklace.Anne Holland
Anne wrote the book using 1,000 of her parent's wartime letters to each other

He helped to translate the acronyms in their father's military records, while Anne researched for the book.

"It is indeed a social commentary on that extraordinary period where it was not unusual to get married within a month and not see your husband or wife for a number of years," Tim said.

"I certainly hope they [readers] understand the extraordinary pressure on the home front and on the men."

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Their father, Rex Holland, served in Asia when the Japanese surrendered on 14 August 1945 while her mother, Margaret, was home in England raising their children.

He served in multiple Indian cities before he was stationed in the jungle in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Margaret died in 1989 and Rex died in 1993.

Chislebury Publishing The dust cover of the book including the book title, a bit of blurb on the back and on the inside cover. The book is red.Chislebury Publishing
The book is being released on 13 April

Anne said the letters took her decades to read and described writing the book, called Stand By to Get Married, as an "emotional" experience.

"I've tried to keep the volume of the book fairly detached. But the epilogue is entirely personal, life as I remember with them in later life," she said.

"It was remarkable that the marriage survived in spite of some furious arguments through the letters."

When emotions did turn heated, it helped that sometimes a letter would take five weeks to arrive, she added.

"I think it would make a good film actually - a World War Two love story," Anne added.

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