Dearest Phylabe: Letters from Wartime England

by Edith Base, Benjamin F. Byerly (Editor), Catherine Ridder Byerly (Editor)

The correspondence in this volume provides an intimate and individualized account of everyday life in wartime London. Written between 1941 and 1947 by British journalist Edith Base to her American pen pal Phylabe Houston, the letters vividly describe material and psychological conditions on the home front during the war years. In addition, the letters from the postwar period reveal the frustration and impatience of English people who had suffered through the war but saw no appreciable improvements in their conditions in its immediate wake. As these letters remind us, rationing, interminable shortages, and endless lines continued for years after the victory. Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, the letters contribute to breaking down the image of monolithic British humanism and liberalism in the face of European fascism. Among the painful experiences related by Edith Base, a self-described Tory-turned-socialist, are her repeated encounters with anti-semitism, xenophobia, and rabid nationalism in 1940s Britain.

193 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996