Thirty Odd Feet Below Belgium by Arthur Stockwin

                                  

 

Paperback:  233 pages

Genre: European History, WW1, Memoir, Letters, Non-Fiction,

Publisher: Bagshawe Books, Centenary Edition 2016

Source:  My Bookshelves - Own copy

Review Quote: Tunnellers' memoirs are scarce, but collections of letters are yet more rare. I have never come across such a revealing or affecting record. Geoffrey today lies thirty feet down in the blue clay of Flanders; I have no doubt that Edith's photograph lies with him, in the tunic pocket closest to his heart. --Peter Barton, author of Beneath Flanders Fields.

My Opinion:  In 1990 the editor of this moving memoir of a WWI friendship found letters sent between his late mother Edith Ainscow and Geoffrey Boothby. A friendship that grew into love through their correspondence with each other.

A memory from Arthur’s childhood concerning the name of Boothby led him to realise that his mother had had a tragic relationship at just seventeen years of age. 

Obviously the letters were not meant to be published but he decided to publish them. They are an extraordinary insight into the dreadful experiences those facing the horrors of the war endured. I am sure that Edith and Geoffrey would have approved of his decision. Recommended to those readers interested in WWI, social history and love.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

When Geoffrey Boothby was seconded to the Royal Engineers in 1915, he was twenty- one and Edith Ainscow was eighteen. They had spent only four days together before Geoffrey was sent to the Front and the subterranean struggle below the Ypres Salient, in tunnels that were narrow, dark, flooded, and in deadly danger from the German workings close by. During the next 18 months, as their letters passed to and fro, they fell in love. As Edith wrote her last letter, in May 1916, Geoffrey was due for leave: 'I can't really believe that you're coming yet but I hope and hope and hope. Do, do be careful just for one week.....'