Evelyn Pearce (née Browning) was born in 1912 in Clerkenwell, London. Before the war she worked as a librarian at the Holborn Public Library. She volunteered as an ARP Warden and with the Women's Voluntary Service in September 1939, barely a week after war was declared. Known on her street for her pots of tea carried into the Anderson shelters and her stubborn refusal to be frightened. She married Harry Pearce in 1938 after a whirlwind courtship that began over a returned library book.
Written by candlelight in a basement during the Blitz, this letter was never sent — Evelyn didn't know Harry's POW address. It was found 53 years later, tucked inside a copy of Mrs. Dalloway.