Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963

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As people take sides and to the streets to call for an end to human suffering they should be applauded, lauded and commended. But a caveat to this well-intentioned and honourable endeavour should be added to that outcry and righteous anger. And that is, it should not, however justified they feel, become an outpouring of vitriol and hate. It is all too human to see events through a veil of incandescent rage and anger at what we see but it blinds us from demanding what is needed – meaningful dialogue and action that could lead to a significant and permanent cessation of hostilities. We’re delighted that we’re a step closer, we’re so thankful to everyone who has been working tirelessly to make an MBU for Northern Ireland a reality, but we can’t keep waiting. We need government sign-off, funding to be allocated, commitment to a time frame, and an interim solution so that women can be treated safely now. Una breve esistenza vissuta a pieno tra i brillanti studi universitari allo Smith College, il suo sogno di un "matrimonio letterario" con il poeta inglese Ted Hughes, il successivo trasferimento in Inghilterra, la nascita dei piccoli Frieda e Nicholas, il divorzio e la sua nuova vita da madre single, nella casa londinese precedentemente appartenuta al poeta e drammaturgo irlandese William Butler Yeats.

The 2nd and 3rd of May we had a terrific snow blizzard. We should have left the ship to go away and do some work on another ship but we could not get away from our ship it was so rough. We have no night now, the sun goes down but it never goes dark, it is eternally daylight. My Dearest Will, I feel I must write you again dear altho there is not much news to tell you. I wonder how you are getting on. I shall be so relieved to get a letter from you. I can't help feeling a bit anxious dear. I know how you must have felt darling when you did not get my letters for so long. Of course I know dear you will write as soon as ever you can, but the time seems so dull and weary without any news of you, if only this war was over dear and we were together again. It will be one day I suppose. Both Jones and another of his lovers, Maeve Brennan, believed that Eva got in the way of Larkin’s relationship with them, and at one point in these letters, Larkin writes expressly of the fact that he must neglect either Eva or Monica over Christmas, and how impossible this is for him. Es un lujo poder contar con detalles de su vida en el momento en que escribió sus poemas y cuentos, y sus bellas descripciones de paisajes, experiencias y personas que conoció a largo de todo ese tiempo. THERE is a sense of real normalisation coming about in Northern Ireland – albeit a cautiously optimistic one which will be disputed in certain quarters. People are, however, beginning to notice that things are getting better and maintaining it.I felt that I was drowning in a sea of personalities, each one as eager to be a whole individual as I was." Headteacher’s letter to families 28th May 2021 (attachment Public Health letter to families 27.05.21 Well darling I don't know much more to say now, so will close with fondest love and kisses from your loving little girl. Emily. Esta recopilación de la correspondencia que mantuvieron Sylvia Plath y su madre es fabulosa. Comienza a los dieciocho años de la autora, cuando comienza la aventura de sus estudios universitarios en Smith College. Después de varios éxitos vendiendo poemas y relatos cortos a distintas revistas de su país, Sylvia comienza a estresarse y a querer cosechar más éxitos. No obstante, el rechazo de algunos de sus trabajos conducen a la autora a su primer intento de suicidio. Tras su recuperación, continúa más tranquila sus estudios, y al terminar el curso decide acabar su carrera en Europa. Por ello, llega a Cambridge, donde conocerá a gente muy interesante, y relatará toda clase de aventuras a su madre. Nonetheless, she does write beautifully, and although some of the things she wrote could have been lifted directly from my diaries without even needing to change any of the specifics, more often than not I found myself reading a rather perfect evocation of something I had never thought to write down, or had not been able to express properly when I tried. Something I thought was mine alone.

It’s almost 18 months since the inquest into the tragic death of Orlaith Quinn, who took her own life in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital in 2018, two days after she gave birth to her third child while experiencing post-partum psychosis. The coroner said Northern Ireland needs an MBU. But since then more families bereaved by suicide have come to Action on Post-partum Psychosis for support. The relative calm and peace that Northern Ireland is now experiencing is to be highly commended. It is of course a very fragile peace. However, many things have built on small beginnings and we should not lose sight of that. At the same time let’s not be complacent and continue to struggle to defeat the plans of detrimental forces in our society. Regardless, these letters demonstrate the sizzling passion and ambition in Sylvia Plath as screaming, and, yes, I do believe that Sylvia Plath really did mostly adore life and the world. There was a fear in her, of making the wrong move; a move that would stain potential forever. Despite the fate she took, her enthusiasm is a lot more notable to her character and entire being, than her depression.Dear Daddy, I hope you are not alarmed, you should not be, unless you know where one of the Zepps went. I have heard that it raided London (up the Strand) and caused heavy causalities. But this I know because I saw, and so did everyone else in the house. But it’s too easy to lay his emotional contortions at his mother’s feet. He was deeply loved by her: a gift, however claustrophobic at times, that should have made relationships easier, not more difficult. “When I am in I want to be out, and when I am out I want to be in,” he writes to Eva from Belfast, of his faltering social life. Housemates are gathered in the lounge and Big Brother says: “Housemates. Before the gates of heaven close for the day, I wanted to give you all the ultimate heavenly gift – your letters from home.” Soldiers wrote letters in spare moments, sometimes from front line trenches or in the calmer surroundings behind the lines. Censorship dictated what servicemen were permitted to disclose in their letters. However, in practice, men often found ways to impart information, and their letters offer a powerful and highly personal insight into the experience of war. I would rather not describe the condition of the crew, of course they were dead - burnt to death. They were roasted, there is absolutely no other word for it. They were brown, like the outside of Roast Beef. One had his legs off at the knees, and you could see the joint!

AS the songwriter Paddy McAloon sang: “Once more the sound of crying is number one across the earth.” How many more women should be separated from their babies? How many more women will die before mums in Northern Ireland get the support they need? Anche se in questa raccolta di lettere è presente solo un terzo della corrispondenza integrale tra Aurelia Schober e sua figlia, Sylvia Plath, non si può non percepirne, tra le righe, l'evoluzione stilistica. Quell'evoluzione che l'ha resa una delle poetesse più affermate del novecento e l'ha portata al successo solo dopo la sua tragica morte, nel febbraio del 1963. How are your hands now dear? Mine are very sore, so chapped, and my left hand has got several chilblains on it and they do irritate. I could scratch it to bits. Have you been receiving the books I have sent you dear. I am very pleased to say dear I am keeping very well indeed, and I trust you are the same.Booth, Larkin’s biographer, has edited these letters superbly well (there are 607 in this volume, a mere sliver of the terrifying total in existence), even if his footnotes are pedantic at times. Neatly tracing the poet’s adult life from Oxford University, through Wellington, Leicester and Belfast, where he worked in various libraries, and finally to Hull, a picture of the man slowly emerges. It’s not new, but perhaps the emphasis is slightly altered. Larkin as we find him here is witty, wise, grossly impractical, and extremely modest, in every sense of the word. For his 50th birthday, he asked his sister, Kitty, for a plastic container in which he might keep grapefruit juice Receiving letters from family and friends was also vital to morale, keeping men and women connected to the homes they had left behind. Letters written on the home front to family and friends are today a fascinating source of information about everyday life in wartime Britain. And this, is it not, is one of the greatest reasons why we read. The best writing can break down the walls that separate us from each other - it can overcome the limitations of perception so we can understand what other people feel. "It is as if a hand has reached out, and taken yours." It is a whisper in the darkness as you lie awake at night, unable to sleep: You are not alone.