Letters from Skye / Jessica Brockmole.

"United by letters. Separated by an ocean. Devastated by war." --Cover.

Complete and unabridged.

Originally published: London: Hutchinson, 2013.

Elspeth is fond of saying to her daughter that 'the first volume of my life is out of print'. But when a bomb hits an Edinburgh street and Margaret finds her mother crouched in the ruins of her bedroom pulling armfuls of yellowed letters onto her lap, the past Elspeth has kept so carefully locked away is out in the open. The next day, Elspeth disappears. Left alone with the letters, Margaret discovers a mother she never knew existed: a poet living on the Isle of Skye who in 1912 answered a fan letter from an impetuous young man in Illinois.

March 1912: Elspeth Dunn, a published poet and a fisherman's wife, has never seen the world beyond her home on the Isle of Skye. So she is astonished when a fan letter arrives from American college student, David Graham. They strike up a correspondence, and their exchange blossoms into love. But when David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western front, Elspeth can only hope he survives. June 1940: Elspeth's daughter, Margaret, has fallen for her best friend, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, although her mother warns her against finding love in wartime. After a nearby bomb rocks Elspeth's house, and hidden letters are released from their hiding place, Elspeth disappears. Only a single letter remains as a clue to her whereabouts...