To commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two

Cherry Lewis will launch her new book

Love Letters from my Father: a World War Two Story

At the launch Cherry will read extracts from her book and show photos taken at the time. Signed copies will be on sale.

To book your place (it’s free!), please contact Cherry using the ‘Contact Organiser’ button above.

When Wyn and Irene met on a gunsite in 1943, it was love at first sight. But Irene was already married, and getting a divorce was both difficult and expensive. Not that Wyn’s parents would let him marry a divorcee anyway.

Yet this book, narrated by their eldest daughter, Monmouth u3a member Cherry Lewis, is not just a love story. A friend of the poet Dylan Thomas, Wyn dreamt of being a writer as well, so his letters to Irene provide an engaging insight into life in the Army during the war – from shooting down doodlebugs in Kent to boredom in the office – as well as prevailing politics and attitudes of the 1940s.

Suddenly sent overseas, and fearful he was destined for Burma, Wyn arrived in ‘mysterious India’. Unlike most British officers he sympathised with India’s struggle for independence, so learnt Urdu, read Gandhi and Nehru, and took every opportunity to explore the country.

While training for the recapture of Malaya – high casualties were expected – the atom bomb was dropped. Appalled by the massacre, Wyn is nevertheless relieved when Japan surrenders and the war is finally over. Does that mean he can come home? Not for many months and, when eventually he does, he is forbidden to see Irene. They must decide whether to ‘live in sin’ and face the shame of having a baby out of wedlock, or take another road …