Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963

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As people take sides and to the streets to call for an end to human suffering they should be applauded, lauded and commended. But a caveat to this well-intentioned and honourable endeavour should be added to that outcry and righteous anger. And that is, it should not, however justified they feel, become an outpouring of vitriol and hate. It is all too human to see events through a veil of incandescent rage and anger at what we see but it blinds us from demanding what is needed – meaningful dialogue and action that could lead to a significant and permanent cessation of hostilities. And what social history is here. You can almost smell it. This is a realm, now entirely disappeared, in which Louis Armstrong plays Bridlington, every posh dinner begins with celery soup, and little girls still keep their bedclothes in nightdress cases, as Kitty once did. It’s like visiting another planet – a chilly one, where the immersion heater is on only very rarely. Esta recopilación de la correspondencia que mantuvieron Sylvia Plath y su madre es fabulosa. Comienza a los dieciocho años de la autora, cuando comienza la aventura de sus estudios universitarios en Smith College. Después de varios éxitos vendiendo poemas y relatos cortos a distintas revistas de su país, Sylvia comienza a estresarse y a querer cosechar más éxitos. No obstante, el rechazo de algunos de sus trabajos conducen a la autora a su primer intento de suicidio. Tras su recuperación, continúa más tranquila sus estudios, y al terminar el curso decide acabar su carrera en Europa. Por ello, llega a Cambridge, donde conocerá a gente muy interesante, y relatará toda clase de aventuras a su madre. Reading Noky’s letter to her, Olivia says: “To my best friend, from the second I was born I have looked up to you in every single way – we were meant to be sisters.”

Receiving letters from family and friends was also vital to morale, keeping men and women connected to the homes they had left behind. Letters written on the home front to family and friends are today a fascinating source of information about everyday life in wartime Britain.

She reassures herself of hope, she outlines the future because there is one!, and she ensures that everyone knows how excited the world makes her, how inspiring life is, and how much time she pours into her writing, as well as how joyful poetry makes her. Housemates are gathered in the lounge and Big Brother says: “Housemates. Before the gates of heaven close for the day, I wanted to give you all the ultimate heavenly gift – your letters from home.” Headteacher’s end of term letter to families (with letter from Haringey Public Health) 17th December 2020 The Zepp was bombed from an aeroplane above, with an incendiary bomb by a Lieutenany Robertson (Johnson?). We have some relics some wire and wood framework. I would rather not describe the condition of the crew, of course they were dead - burnt to death. They were roasted, there is absolutely no other word for it. They were brown, like the outside of Roast Beef. One had his legs off at the knees, and you could see the joint!

The relative calm and peace that Northern Ireland is now experiencing is to be highly commended. It is of course a very fragile peace. However, many things have built on small beginnings and we should not lose sight of that. At the same time let’s not be complacent and continue to struggle to defeat the plans of detrimental forces in our society. Booth, Larkin’s biographer, has edited these letters superbly well (there are 607 in this volume, a mere sliver of the terrifying total in existence), even if his footnotes are pedantic at times. Neatly tracing the poet’s adult life from Oxford University, through Wellington, Leicester and Belfast, where he worked in various libraries, and finally to Hull, a picture of the man slowly emerges. It’s not new, but perhaps the emphasis is slightly altered. Larkin as we find him here is witty, wise, grossly impractical, and extremely modest, in every sense of the word. For his 50th birthday, he asked his sister, Kitty, for a plastic container in which he might keep grapefruit juiceThe Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, which is not fully operational, has had the effect of passively establishing the principle of peace and bringing it about. For many decades, Northern Ireland only knew of war, but the GFA/BA sold people the idea and ideal of peace and the possibility of reconciliation. Reading Olivia’s letter to her, Noky says: “Our darling, gorgeous girl Olivia. We are the proudest mum and dad ever. Gran, Po and James are all so proud but we will warn you now, Gran is wanting a word about your swearing!” The 2nd and 3rd of May we had a terrific snow blizzard. We should have left the ship to go away and do some work on another ship but we could not get away from our ship it was so rough. We have no night now, the sun goes down but it never goes dark, it is eternally daylight.

Un libro fondamentale per gli appassionati della Plath, da aggiungere senza esitazioni alle vostre letture, prima del suo unico romanzo "La campana di vetro" e dopo le varie raccolte di poesie. Reading Henry’s letter to him, Jordan says: “You have been your positive, funny, authentic self throughout the whole time in the house and people love you for you.”There has been a bit of a fuss over Arthur this week. He has been trying to get in the Army unbeknown to his parents, but Mrs T. thought his parents ought to be informed about it, so she wrote and told them about him and he had to go home in hot haste last night. I guess he got in a fine row, but he won't say today. He is as miserable as anything. Really Will I never saw such a boy as he is. I am afraid he is going to the bad. I don't know if Mrs T. will keep him on or not. He says he has to join up in a fortnight, but as he is under age I suppose his parents could stop him. I don't know whether they will or not. For my part I hope he does go, he will be a jolly good riddance for there is nothing but rows and deceitfulness going on where he is. THERE is a sense of real normalisation coming about in Northern Ireland – albeit a cautiously optimistic one which will be disputed in certain quarters. People are, however, beginning to notice that things are getting better and maintaining it. I felt that I was drowning in a sea of personalities, each one as eager to be a whole individual as I was." Dear Daddy, I hope you are not alarmed, you should not be, unless you know where one of the Zepps went. I have heard that it raided London (up the Strand) and caused heavy causalities. But this I know because I saw, and so did everyone else in the house.