A former BBC Bristol journalist has published a wartime memoir – with a twist.
Phil Kerswell, who has also reported for the Voice, edited and researched the book, which describes the life of an Army nurse 80 years ago.
It was originally written by his late aunt Pat Kerswell and left for Phil to publish.
Phil says her handwritten manuscript described Pat’s adventures as a WW2 Army nurse, from the start of the war through to an emotional family homecoming soon after VE Day in 1945.
“When I read her book, I realised there was a huge mystery at the end, and decided I had to get to the bottom of it,” said Phil.
Pat qualified as a nurse and then signed up for Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service.
“While serving in Africa and Italy, she had a number of romantic encounters, and experienced love and loss. But towards the end of the war she got engaged to a serving officer. When I looked at her photos and letters I realised she had travelled to Canada in the 1950s to visit him – so I had to finish her story and find out what happened.”
Pat’s family know she moved to St Ives to be a painter in the 1960s, but they had no knowledge of her trip to Canada, or what became of her fiancé. So Phil set out to tell the story – and after months of research using letters Pat saved, photographs in her albums and various ancestry websites, he was able to build a picture of what happened after the war and complete the memoir.
“Auntie Pat had an incredible life, born in a thatched cottage in rural Ireland, eventually working among the skyscrapers of Manhattan, while along the way serving as an Army nurse in Italy and Africa during the War. She also travelled the world on tramp steamers and eventually settled as a painter in St Ives.”
“When I read her manuscript I realised Pat had a great story to tell, not just of life as an army nurse but also her very personal stories of romance, love and loss.”
“I decided to combine Pat’s memoir with the results of my investigations. I feel it’s an amazing insight into a world that many of us today can’t understand, a woman in her 20s who left home to live in a war zone.”
Phil says the book is a passion project mainly aimed at the family but may also be of interest to anyone who likes a factual romantic story with a mystery at its heart.
Phil used to be a reporter for the Western Daily Press and BBC Radio Bristol as well as a producer at BBC Points West and a director for other BBC programmes, including Countryfile and the One Show. More recently he worked as a reporter for the Voice. He says now he has finally retired from full-time work, he’s been able to turn his attention to completing the memoir.
• Last Letter by Pat Kerswell is available on Amazon, as a Kindle e-book, or paperback and hardback. https://amzn.eu/d/3X1CZFH