Book isn't just a tale of wartime

Regarding the letter from Mary Stringer (Book is a lesson in realities of war, June 23) about Ted Cowling's book The Journey.

She tells us that donations from the book are going to children's hospices. This is not true. Donations from the book are actually being given to the Severn Hospice and already I understand Ted and his friend Ken have donated £12,000 to this cause - sorry, Mary!

Mary tells us: "I have only just started to read the book" but then talks about blood and thunder of war, the futility of it and all that enlistment entails.

I found the book so well composed I read it twice. When Mary has read it she will find Ted only mentions three or four of his missions.

It is not blood and thunder as she must believe; it is a true story of Ted's life from his younger days in Shrewsbury to the present, and contains excitement, a true love story and how Ted and his wife Joy won Great Britain's Most Romantic Couple award.

She will find it is a wonderful read for adults or youngsters and has become Shropshire's best-selling autobiography. No wonder the librarian at the Charlton School, Wellington, told the Shropshire Star some time ago that The Journey was the pupils' top-read book.

Joy Fairhurst, Admaston