My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letters - Softcover

Barker, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782115676 ISBN 13: 9781782115670

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

In September 1943, a twenty-nine-year-old postal clerk from North London named Chris Barker found a spare hour to write to a work colleague named Bessie Moore. His letter was innocent enough, but Bessie's response was unexpectedly enthusiastic. By their third exchange, it was clear to both of them they had ignited a passion that would not easily be extinguished. But there were complications, such as not actually seeing each other. When he first wrote, Barker was serving as a signalman in North Africa during the war. Their passionate romance through the mail would have to survive three years of unusual obstacles, including ruined cities, enemy capture, disdain from friends and the army censor. The couple exchanged more than five-hundred letters, some steamy and full of torrents of desire, others stoic or illuminating. This book distils the most alluring, compelling and heartwarming. It's all here: bombs, lust, comical misunderstandings and deep yearning - brought to life in the deft and elegant language that the great poets would struggle to emulate. My Dear Bessie is a moving love story set against the backdrop of war-torn Europe, a remarkable account of life during the war and above all a unique example of the power of letters to transform ordinary lives.

About this title

Product Description:

My Dear Bessie

Review:

* An immensely affecting set of letters Financial Times * These letters are magnificent Daily Mail * Barker and Moore start to fall in love by letter ... And what a sweaty, lusty love it turns out to be Guardian * What, one longs to know, is going to happen next to Chris and Bessie? ... The thrillingly intensive experience that they lived through will continue to resonate for as long as those sheets of paper are read -- DIANA ATHILL Literary Review * With Chris and Bessie it is the sheer, unclouded openness that captivates --John Carey The Sunday Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1782115676
• ISBN 13: 9781782115670
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384