By Dorothy Irwin
Review by Donald Trotman
(737 pp Published by Hansib Publications Limited)
Just when the traditions of keeping personal diaries and of writing substantial personal letters have almost fallen into desuetude, here comes a book that loudly invites their revival, while at the same time straddling two eras and two continents.
Years of High Hopes encompasses the genres of both traditions – letter writing and diary keeping. In fact, it may even be called a reconstituted letter-diary, comprising nearly two hundred letters written in daily doses, some large, some small, but all uniquely flavoured with special story-telling quality, which the author’s parents, Marian and Howard Irwin, generate in their recording of daily events through the medium of letters.
