With Love: The 1950s observed through the letters of two sisters (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

With Love is a compelling, true story of family life in the 1950s, told through the correspondence of two sisters as they come of age in a decade often dismissed as dull and grey. As these young women forge careers and travel the world, the letters of Gloria Geeve and Laura Ford reveal fascinating details of social history and domestic concerns, often against a background of national and world events, which are set in context by Piers Ford’s intimate commentary. At the peak of their exchanges in 1956, Gloria is teaching in Alexandria when the Suez crisis boils over. She ends up under house arrest while the Egyptian government ponders the fate of the foreigners. Her letters home give a vivid account of the period, contrasting the star-dusted life of the ex-pat (she and her colleagues danced the night away with Tito and his entourage) with the growing tensions. Not to be outdone – and somewhat ahead of her time in taking a gap year - Laura then takes herself off on a six-month trip to America. Her exposure to the booming world of consumerism compared with the day-to-day scrimping and saving at home leads to some piquant observations in her equally evocative descriptions. Even after all that, with Gloria coming home to teach Hungarian miners English in Barnsley before heading off again to the forces schools in West Germany, and Laura embarking on a career in publishing that gives her a strong taste of literary London in the late 1950s, there is still plenty to write about. In a world before technology rendered communication almost mundane, they nurtured, cajoled and supported each other with their ability to capture thoughts, feelings and moments in letters that were regularly fired off between tasks -- whether Gloria was teaching in Alexandria or Laura was moonlighting in Manhattan. As Ronald Blythe writes in his foreword, "We, the inheritors of this regular correspondence, are the benefactors. They admit us to a private realm that tells us much about our own existence and reminds some of us of what we ourselves saw and heard, but have long forgotten, and puts the record straight for those who have been taught to write-off the 1950s as a non-event."