Entertaining Eric: A Wartime Love Story

(Paperback)

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Description

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 In 1941, as the Second World War raged on, 20-year-old Maureen Bolster began writing to her boyfriend Eric Wells. He was stationed in the Middle East while Maureen remained on the Home Front. Their letters would be the only communication between the young love-struck couple for four long years. Filled with warmth and humour, this charming collection of Maureen's letters describes her life working for the war effort back home. Uproarious incidents occur when she encounters lecherous GIs, immoral lodgers and irascible landladies in her work first as a billeting officer; then as a Wren courier, bravely delivering secret documents by trains, boats and planes; and finally as a Wren stoker. But all the while her thoughts are with her sweetheart Eric as he fights for his country in such far away places as Bahrian, Cairo, Mosul and Beirut. Funny, touching and romantic, Entertaining Eric tells the true story of a love that survived war and separation - against all odds.

Reviews

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 *

Author Bio

At the end of June 1944 Squadron Leader Eric Wells returned to England on a posting to the Air Ministry. On 8 July, he and Maureen were married. After the war Eric and Maureen emigrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne. They had a son, three daughters, and three grandchildren. In 2000, deeply grateful for his interesting and very happy life and 56 years of marriage with Maureen, Eric died, aged 85, after a short illness. He is greatly missed by Maureen, who continues to live in Australia.