Love in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front

by Eileen Alexander

Overview

On July 17th 1939, Eileen Alexander, a bright young woman recently graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, begins a brilliant correspondence with fellow Cambridge student Gershon Ellenbogen that lasts five years and spans many hundreds of letters.

But as Eileen and Gershon’s relationship flourishes from friendship and admiration into passion and love, the tensions between Germany, Russia, and the rest of Europe reach a crescendo. When war is declared, Gershon heads for Cairo and Eileen forgoes her studies to work in the Air Ministry.

As cinematic as Atonement, written with the intimacy of the Neapolitan quartet, Love in the Blitz is an extraordinary glimpse of life in London during World War II and an illuminating portrait of an ordinary young woman trying to carve a place for herself in a time of uncertainty. As the Luftwaffe begins its bombardment of England, Eileen, like her fellow Britons, carries on while her loved ones are called up to fight, some never to return home.

Written over the course of the conflict, Eileen’s letters provide a vivid and personal glimpse of this historic era. Yet throughout the turmoil and bloodshed, one thing remains constant: her beloved Gershon, who remains a source of strength and support, even after he, too, joins the fighting. Though his letters have been lost to time, the bolstering force of his love for Eileen is illuminated in her responses to him.

Equal parts heartrending and heartwarming, Love in the Blitz is a timeless romance and a deeply personal story of life and resilience amid the violence and terror of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062888808
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	147,587
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Eileen Alexander was born in Cairo and grew up in a cosmopolitan Jewish family before moving to Cambridge as a student. She graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, with a first-class degree in English in 1939 and worked during World War II for the civil service in the Air Ministry. Eileen went on to be a teacher, writer, and translator,  including translating some of Georges Simenon’s works.

Table of Contents

Foreword Oswyn Murray vii

Historical Introduction David Crane xv

1 Drumnadrochit, summer 1939 3

September 1939-April 1940 17

2 'No time to sit on brood' 19

May-September 1940 55

3 My Young Fellow 59

September-December 1940 97

4 Blitz 101

January-March 1941 143

5 Intentions 145

March-September 1941 165

6 A Rill Civil Servant 167

September-December 1941 199

7 Your Intended 201

January-May 1942 229

8 Separation 231

May-December 1942 243

9 Limbo 245

January 1943-March 1944 315

10 The Long Wait 317

April 1944-March 1946 447

11 Twin Compasses 449

Postscript 465

Dramatis Personae 467

Illustration Credits 473

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/27/2020

This collection of letters written by literary translator Alexander (1917–1986) to her future husband, Gershon Ellenbogen, between July 1939 and March 1946 proves a remarkable aggregate of public and personal history. It begins with, per editor Crane, a “remarkably forgiving letter” from Alexander to Ellenbogen after she is badly injured in a car crash while he, a friend and fellow Cambridge student, is driving. The ensuing correspondence (of which his half is lost) traces their deepening bond, as he serves in the RAF and she in the Army bureaucracy, and shares details of ordinary British life during WWII, perhaps most dramatically of blitz-era London. “I’ve been nervous in Air-Raids before, but last night I was Terrified,” Alexander writes, noting elsewhere, “gas-mask practice is at 10 and I’ve left my mask at home again.” She also shares “libelous” gossip about her friends (“Darling Jean Swills Pink Gin with Terrific Swagger—It’s my private opinion that she’s a bit of a Wild Oat”) and describes familial roadblocks to their relationship, as when her parents are scandalized by her plans to stay with Ellenbogen near his training camp. Any reader with an interest in cultural history or a love of romance will find this a book to savor. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/01/2020

In 1939, author Alexander had just graduated from Girton College, Cambridge. The year before, she'd met fellow Cambridge student Gershon Ellenbogen, and on June 29, he set out to drive her to London, but they had an accident en route. Recovering in the hospital, she began writing to him and wouldn't stop until March 26, 1943, when they were married in London. Between those dates, she sent her boyfriend, fiancé, and finally husband more than a thousand letters, determined not to lose him even when he was overseas. Alexander died in 1986, Gershon in 2003; he had saved all her letters. Eventually, they were listed for sale on eBay, ending up in the hands of a competent, respectful editor and compiled here. Alexander's adoration for Gershon shines through in every letter, and so do her observations on the opinions and foibles of the people around her. You'll laugh out loud at unbuttoned descriptions of friends, family, and coworkers while learning more than you'd expect about life in London leading up and during to World War II. VERDICT This treasure trove of love letters, cultural history, and memoir should make a wonderful addition to all World War II collections. [See Prepub Alert, 12/2/19.]—David Keymer, Cleveland

Library Journal

2020-02-09
Letters from a young Londoner to her lover offer an intimate chronicle of life on the homefront.

In 2017, McGowan purchased a large cache of letters written by Eileen Alexander (1917-1986), from 1939 to 1947, to Gershon Ellenbogen, her boyfriend, fiance, and, in 1944, husband. Deftly edited by McGowan and with informative chapter introductions by Crane, the letters offer a moving, sharply etched chronicle of wartime London, where Eileen lived with her family, joined the war effort, and eagerly awaited Gershon’s return from a post in Egypt. As Alexander herself noted, she was a lively, engaging correspondent: “letter-writing is undoubtedly my medium,” she wrote to Gershon; “when I’m writing (and particularly when I’m writing to you, my dear love) I have the feeling that I’m living my experiences all over again—but living them more richly, because they’re being shared with a friend.” Alexander’s wit and intelligence shine through reports of her work, their friends’ romantic entanglements, her reflections on religion, her sexual longing, and tidbits of gossip, some related to their mutual friend Aubrey Eban, who later became, as Abba Eban, the internationally renowned “Voice of Israel.” Awarded a first in English at Cambridge, Alexander laces her letters with literary references, and though nightly bombings often required sleeping in shelters, she and her friends were able to dine out, gather in one another’s houses, and attend the theater and movies, excursions that she recounted in detail to Gershon. The war certainly took its toll, psychologically and emotionally, but Alexander assured Gershon, “I’m a Girl of Simple Needs. The only things I must have are you,” friends, books, and “constant Hot Water.” As “depressing and exhausting” as the war was, Alexander wrote, “if I were asked to choose between death and a shameful peace—I would choose death,” she wrote. “The only price I couldn’t pay would be your life.”

A rare, vivid perspective on the impact of war.

Kirkus Reviews

These remarkable letters, worldly yet innocent, full of youthful buoyancy and romantic longing, take us behind the myths of wartime London to show us daily life as it was actually being lived. Gossipy and amusingly observant, this is history at its most personal.

Joseph Kanon

"An almost novel-like portrayal of the heart of a young woman. It is noteworthy that these letters might have easily been lost to the world, and with them, a small slice of British Jewish history. They were fortuitously found at a garage sale, where the price for a huge stack of papers including the letters was less than a hundred dollars. Their worth to the reader, on the other hand, may be incalculable.

Jewish Book Council

It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book as much as I did Love in the Blitz. Of the hundreds of books about World War II that I’ve read, this is one of the best. . . . Her letters tell a rich, multilayered story . . . . Alexander is a lovely writer, reflecting her readings of great English literature, especially Shakespeare and Donne, but also Samuel Johnson, Daniel Defoe, C. S. Lewis and Jane Austen. Imagine how that last novelist might have witnessed the Blitz, and you have a sense of this wonderful book.

New York Times Book Review

It’s a memoir of hope and resilience, as much as of love.

Times (UK)

A unique and vivid account of both love and war . . . . The book reminds us of the lost art of letter-writing, which first was replaced by email and now by the even hastier and more forgettable text. Alexander is a master of the art, and her letters are a treasure—artful, eloquent, deeply informed, emotionally alive and full of life.

Jewish Journal

"Love in the Blitz provides an enchanting insight into a young woman’s life in wartime Britain via letters sent by the 'blue-stocking' Eileen Alexander to friends, family, and most importantly, the love of her life."

Jacqueline Winspear

"This remarkable treasure trove of letters gives a unique insight into home-front life and romance."

Daily Mail (UK)

"The letters that Alexander devotes to the blitz are both harrowing and revelatory. Perhaps no nation is as prone to mythologising its past than Britain – catastrophic failures become undying endorsements of pluck and sangfroid. Alexander reconnects feet firmly to the ground and allows the reader to contemplate the blunt reality of what life was actually like."

The Guardian

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