Entertaining Eric: Letters from the Home Front, 1941-44 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330308963 ISBN 13: 9780330308960

Publisher: Pan Books, 1989

Synopsis

Maureen Bolster played a rich and varied part in the war effort, first as a billeting officer in Surrey; then as a Wren courier, delivering secret documents nationwide and finally as a Wren stoker as the Royal Navy geared up for D-Day. As a trained fashion designer, she never lost her eye for lively, colourful detail, evident in the 300 letters she wrote to her boyfriend, Eric Wells, stationed in the Middle East. Once or twice a week she wrote to Eric to tell him about her experiences, to keep him informed of conditions on the home front and to express her hopes and fears for the future. Above all she wrote to amuse him and make him laugh. This book consists of extracts from these letters.

About this title

Review

"Maureen is a candid, natural humorist: sometimes as good as Monica Dickens in her sharp observation" (The Times)

"Gloriously unself-conscious, like a diary emphatically not written for publication, Entertaining Eric recreates a world we have lost - of bath salts and lending libraries, red rubber hotties and black market perfume" (Sunday Times)

"In Entertaining Eric, Maureen comes across as courageous, sensible, humorous, patriotic, often judgemental, one of that breed of women usually referred to as 'the backbone of England'" (Telegraph)

"A fascinating, funny and touching account of one woman's war" (Today)

"Gutsy, humorous and a tiny bit snobby, she's a brilliant correspondent and chronicler of the times." (Sainsbury's Magazine)

From the Publisher

The charming wartime love story of Maureen, a Wren, and her boyfriend Eric, told through her letters to him as he fought abroad during World War II

Edition details

• Publisher: Pan Books
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330308963
• ISBN 13: 9780330308960
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Wells Maureen