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Love letters from WW2 sweethearts are 'pure gold'

Neil Reynolds A picture of Jim and Nellie Reynolds on their wedding day in 1947. It is black and white.Neil Reynolds
Jim and Nellie Reynolds were childhood sweethearts

A collection of hundreds of love letters between wartime sweethearts contain "nuggets" of "pure gold".

Jim and Nellie Reynolds had been childhood sweethearts in Eastleigh, before Jim joined the military in 1942, at the age of 18.

The pair wrote more than 700 letters during their time apart, which have now been immortalised in a new book.

Jim, who served as a gunner and driver of a Sherman Firefly tank, took part in D-Day and the subsequent liberation of western Europe before return to the UK and marrying Mrs Reynolds.

Neil Reynolds A black and white image of Jim Reynolds in military uniform.Neil Reynolds
Jim Reynolds joined the military in 1942

Neil Reynolds, Jim and Nellie's son, saved the letters - before showing them to author Cheryl Mays.

"I did know all about these letters, but when my mum died in 2016, I was emptying the house out and found them again - but I couldn't really read them," he told BBC Radio Solent.

Ms Mays, who is from the Isle of Wight, said: "I started reading one and I was just hooked, so I asked 'do you mind if I take them home?', and I spent five years reading one or two letters every night."

"One minute I'd be laughing, the next minute I'd be crying - it was a real privilege."

Neil Reynolds is wearing his fathers old military uniform, and is stood next to Cheryl Mays - who has long blonde hair.
Neil Reynolds shared the letters with author Cheryl Mays

The letters followed Jim's progress, from his basic training, to preparation for D-Day, and ultimately in the thick of battle in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

They have now been collated by Ms Mays into a book, called BOLTOP, a wartime acronym meaning 'better on lips than on paper', with which the pair signed their letters off.

Although the letters contained "a lot of repetition" about issues like the weather and rationing, Ms May took "nuggets from each" that she thought were "pure gold".

BBC Radio Solent heard how hundreds of WW2 couple's love letters have now been published

Mr Reynolds said the book was not about a "major event" or wartime heroes such as Winston Churchill, but "about a boy who received calling up papers at the age of 18, and was sent to war".

Jim survived the conflict, and married Nellie in 1947.

The pair remained together for 63 years, before Jim's death in 2010 at the age of 86.

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