About this event
A story, ordinary in other times, but extraordinary against the backdrop of war.
A couple from comfortable middle-class homes, their relationship sustained through six long years of separation, by correspondence and brief interludes of leave.
As he fights on from Normandy to Germany, experiencing the brutality and privations of war, she strives to maintain a normal life, as a nurse and then a mother.
After victory, his time as part of the army of occupation requires him to administer both German civilians and military, and to attend the Belsen trial, seeing, at first hand, the cruel face of Nazism.
The story revolves around their letters, the couple baring their souls to each other, absence sometimes leading to increasingly explicit sexual fantasising. And for him, there is apprehension about the mundanity of life in a time of peace, and the reality of a relationship so embellished by imagination.
Martin will speak about his new book, in conversation with City Books. Copies will be available to buy on the night.
