London War Letters Of A Separated Family 1940 To 1945

This is the story of an ordinary family living in London during the war years of 1940-1945, a story told through letters to a daughter, Christine Vassar. She was evacuated to the home of President MacCracken of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.A. in August of 1940 at the age of thirteen. Some of these letters took up to ten weeks to arrive and sometimes they were heavily censored. Others may have been lost at sea. After assembling these letters for family members in 2002, Christine read World War II memoirs and histories making clear to her that there is continuing interest in that war - that era - possibly because it may be thought of as The Good War. Or because those who were involved are coming to the end of their lives. The title of Christine's first collection of letters for her family was The Price of War. Though this now sounds pretentious it does say something about the anxieties and fears engendered by the letters: the air raids, the shortages, the barely disguised disruptions of so many kinds. The title at last chosen - London War Letters Of A Separated Family, 1940-1945 - is a better description of why these family members were writing so diligently. This book also includes the story of Christine's evacuation and life with her foster family. A chronology of World War II is added to help the reader follow the course of the war as described in these letters.