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Letters to Sturry - June 1940 to November 1940
from Patricia Askew to Monica Risdon-Brown during evacuation in World War II to Keynsham, near Bristol.Edited by K.H.McIntoshISBN 0 9544789 0 8. First published in 2003. Price: £9.95 |
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Letters To Sturry - from Patricia Askew to Monica Risdon-Brown during evacuation in World War II to Keynsham, near Bristol.
A5 size softback book with 96 pages about wartime in the villages of Keynsham, near Bristol and Sturry, near Canterbury.
This book comprises letters written to Monica Headley (daughter of the then Vicar of Sturry, the Revd Samuel Risdon Brown) by her friend Pat Askew who was evacuated from Sturry village to Keynsham village during world war II.
World War II, Evacuation and the Battle of Britain.
Both girls were 15 years old when the letters were written following Pat's evacuation to the village of Keynsham. Annotated with footnotes and extracts from the diary the Monica kept through that momentous year, they help to bring alive those dramatic months when the two teenagers were attempting to live their lives as normally as possible under constant air-raids and in full expectation of a German invasion of England at any moment.
The girls were 15 years old school friends attending Simon Langton School for Girls, Canterbury, when war separated them. Pat evacuated to Kensham near Bristol, whilst Monica remained in Sturry throughout the Battle of Britain.
Pat wrote vividly of her everyday life during the war - of reading, listening to the wireless (often quoting Cyril Fletcher), of seeing films, especially those that starred Deanna Durbin. She also reported on vitits to Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Gloucester and to the wonderful Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Monica's day by day diary for 1940 provides footnotes. Her succinct record, like the letters, is accurate and contempoary.
The girls wrote frequently, believing invasion was imminent and fearing they might lose touch. Parting cemented their freindship and added urgency to the correspondence.
Keynsham and Sturry wartime book
This book would appeal to anyone who has lived in or visited either Sturry village or Keynsham village, and also to those interested in life in Britain during the second world war.
Keynsham Parish Players include extracts from this book
A musical play, entitled "All Clear", is being performed by the Keynsham Parish Players to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, in the Keynsham Parish Hall, at 7.30 p.m on March 10th, 11th and 12th, wth a matinee at 2.30 p.m. on the Saturday. It includes extracts from "Letters to Sturry" read by someone taking the part of Pat Askew, the author of the letters which were written from Keynsham in 1940.