Powerful story of love, loss
Love Letters from a War
By Len Johnson. ABC Books. 282pp. $32.95.
Reviewer: CPL Alisha Welch
This book made me cry. Not just a single poetic tear rolling down my cheek, but a full-on sob.

It took me a while to read it as I kept putting it aside to regain composure. I would only admit this if I thought the book was worth me receiving public ridicule – this one is.

Len Johnson has created a fantastic read based on the letters between his parents during World War II. Before enlisting in the AIF in 1940 aged 38, John Johnson was a carpenter in the Victorian country town of Walwa. He and his wife, Josie, had seven children and another on the way – this didn’t stop him wanting to do what he considered his duty.

He was trained in Palestine and sent to Tobruk, where he was killed in 1941.

That is sad enough. But when confronted with the emotion, sense of loss and, most importantly, the love depicted in this book, it makes for one heck of a read.