Last Letters Home

by Tamasin Day-Lewis

A collection of letters written from the Front to those left behind in World War II. The book introduces the reader to the recipients of these letters, and those who wrote them and made it home.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War

Hardcover

First published May 5, 1995

About the author

From an illustrious family, Tamasin has also made a name for herself, in her own niche: cooking.

Tamasin is the daughter of Cecil Day-Lewis, poet laureate, and her brother is the acclaimed actor, Daniel Day-Lewis. She has established a career as a respected food writer - combining sophistication, literary skill and culinary class.

As well as writing a weekly food column for The Daily Telegraph, Tamasin's cookbooks have covered a range of comforting, rural recipes, from the preparation of seasonal dishes and picnics to the art of pie-baking and 'proper', slow cooking. She is a food purist and is known for her valiant promotion of all things organic and regional. She champions local products versus the supermarket giants.

Tamasin's books are refreshingly different for several reasons. She writes "for people who appreciate good food, for people of all skills." She collects recipes on her travels and sees her recipes as "a link with people" and her style is totally unique. Half novel, half practical, her pages are filled with fascinating background information on ingredients, memories, historical anecdotes, and all in impressively poetic language. Her book West Ireland Summers was a collection of favourite recipes taken from and inspired by her childhood in County Mayo. The rural theme continues in Tamasin's two series' for Good Food Channel, in which she cooks at her family home in the country.

Reviews

[Megan Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet collection of letters written to and from loved ones during WW2. They range from mundane descriptions of life to heart breaking last letters from young boys to their mothers in the event of death. The letter from Ivor makes me cry every time

[Freya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to have to read this in bursts as it keeps making me sob...

Fantastic book but I had to really stagger my reading of it as I'd reach the end of a series of letters and be absolutely heartbroken. Thoroughly recommend to anyone with an interest in the social history of WWII.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of letters from the Second World War. They were written by British people in different relationships: lovers, siblings, parents, and friends. It's divided into themes. Some correspondents are more interesting than others. The most powerful ones are those where the writer didn't know it would be their last letter. The book is emotional and significant, and I highly recommend reading slowly to digest each story individually.

Reading these letters gives a real sense of what it was like during the war. They show a wide range of emotions and highlight how people coped with fear and uncertainty.

"How much love is generated by the fear of danger to another person? I think a great deal. It is a craving. The whole of everyone's emotions permanently on a knife edge."

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most moving books that I have read. I remember sobbing when I read some of the heartbreaking letters and accompanying notes.

[yani ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

wwii never fails to break my heart

[Hermano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read. Poignant and very personal at times.

[Graceann · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this collection (there was apparently a documentary that went along with this) several British families share their letters to and from loved ones during times of separation in WWII. There are many, many sad letters, but happy ones, too.

The most poignant are the ones written by people who don't know that this will be the last time they have a chance to exchange "I love you"s with each other - the chapters that ended with a photograph of the "We regret to inform" telegram were the hardest to read.

My disappointment with the book as a whole stems from the "separation and return" segment; there are several very long, repetitive portions (especially one where a fiance answers all twelve of his fiancee's letters in one go, and they're all pretty much the same so he's just repeating himself) that made me want to skim and skip in order to get to some new information.

I appreciate the inclusion of letters between people for whom things didn't work out, such as a woman who was so changed by the War that she didn't feel able to resume her friendship with a man she'd met, and the Brit who decided not to continue his post-War relationship with a German girl due to anti-German feelings back home, though if he'd waited, it would have been alright. I say that I appreciate these because it would have been very easy to only include letters from blissfully married couples or tragically separated sweethearts. Not every wartime romance continued, and those who returned were not always excited to go back to the way things were in 1939.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book is a collection of selected letters with added commentary from WWII between various different men and woman in service of the British Armed forces at the time that accompanies a tv series of the same name.

Inititally at first I have found this book very hard to get into having not seen the tv series. Without the visual element of seeing the storyteller before you reading you their stories with their expressions, I found the language of the first couple of letters alienating. However the more I read the more I became engaged as my perspective was enlarged as I began to understand the true character of people in what was very perilous and testing times.