Author(s): Frances Woodsford

Biography

"Dear Mr Bigelowis an enchanting collection of weekly pen-pal letters written over a twelve-year period (1949 to 1961) from an unmarried woman working in the Public Baths Department of Bournemouth Town Council to a wealthy American widower, Commodore Bigelow, living on Long Island, New York. They never met, and there was no romance she was in her forties when he died aged ninety-eight yet their epistolary friendship was her lifeline. The Saturday Specials as Frances dubbed them, are brilliantly-packed missives from austerity Britain- nuggets of social history elegantly interspersed with comic interludes from her own life. We follow her travails at the Baths (and her dreadful boss Mr Bond); weekly Civil Defence Classes as the Cold War advances; her attempts to learn to drive and the escapades with her first car Hesperus; and meet many Bournemouth regulars, including Mac, Frances's ne'er-do-well (but much-loved) brother and Rosalind, Mr Bigelow's daughter who visits for holidays in the English drizzle. Most importantly we get to know Frances and her deep affection for her Commodore pen-pal. Her letters to Mr Bigelow during his final illness offer a moving