Annie's Letters: The Letters of Elizabeth Annie Kimpton Written from Canada and the United States to Her Family in Abbots Langley, 1937-38. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Annie's Letters: The Letters of Elizabeth Annie Kimpton Written from Canada and the United States to Her Family in Abbots Langley, 1937-38

"You've come a long way, Mum". Annie Kimpton certainly went a long way for an elderly widow of limited means in the late 1930s. She travelled alone from England to Canada and then took two trains across the United States to San Francisco. She stayed there with her elder son, Joe, and his American wife, Alta. Annie had not seen her son for nearly twenty years.

Annie wrote of everyday events in letters sent home to her family in the village of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. These letters are extraordinary in their detail and give a flavour of life in Canada and America in 1937 and 1938. Annie was very well read, had a keen mind, and was not afraid to give her opinions on the people she met, the food she ate, and the North American way of life. Although she was brought up in Victorian England by a deeply religious father, she had a vigorous sense of hunour and enjoyed a rude story.

Her Wesleyan Methodist background was very important to Annie and she was eager to receive news from Abbots Langley of family, friends and chapel. The letters provide the means for a glimpse into the lives of people in Abbots Langley up to the Second World War. The historical background to the letters is given by annotation, illustrations, photographs, maps, Family Trees and Appendices