WELCOME

The Olive and Eric website is dedicated to a young English couple who during the Second World War were, like millions of others, separated from each other. Olive was left at home in the City of Leicester with three very young children and Eric was sent first to North Africa and then to Italy.

Through their letters to each other, we can share the feeling of those times in a way which history books can never convey. The letters are for the most part not edited and are presented as they were written. They were found when Eric passed away in the late 1980's, just a few years after his wife, Olive.

Olive and Eric were my parents.

The site is easy to navigate. There is an Index on the right of this page. It divides the letters into years, has sections on the people and places involved, a brief section on the years after the war and a final section of various unclassified items. The letters can be followed in sequence or dipped into at random

I offer the contents not only as a tribute to my parents but to all those who were separated during the last war, whatever their nationality and the hardships they experienced.

Transcribing all the letters has been a long job and is now  complete. All the letters are now on the site.

Thanks must go to my brother, Michael who is helping with the task of transcribing the letters. I would be very pleased to receive feedback about the contents of the site.

Keith Mason. London. September  2009

November 2009
I have now moved back to Leicester after over 30 years away. I have to say it has improved over the city it was ten years ago. The centre is a big improvement and the Curve and the new Phoenix Square very impressive. Still getting used to the place and will now be updating the site gradually

AUGUST 2010
Found Leicester too quiet so now back in Ealing  !  As a friend said 'You can take the man out of London but you cannot take London out of the man''.. 

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E;MAIL
Please use the address below and ignore any other addresses on this site

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A BOOK ABOUT WARTIME HOLLAND

The Occupied Garden is the story of a market gardener and his fiercely devout wife, raising their young family in Holland during the Nazi occupation.
www.theoccupiedgarden.com

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DARLING GIRL
If you enjoy this web set you may find this book of letters also from North Africa and Italy of interest.
Contact  fawn@gn.apc.org for more details