Letter from Chasten Hall Hotel, Torquay

"My father and mother were married on the 26th July, 1949, and this was a letter sent to my father from the Chelston Hall Hotel, Torquay, where he was booking the honeymoon suite! I found it, after my mother died, in an old chocolate box where she kept her jewellery. I find this letter fascinating because in the first paragraph the proprietor has a wonderful and discreet way of not asking for a deposit but suggesting that one would be normally paid by guests. The second paragraph shows how rationing (which carried on for nine years after WW2) affected day to day lives. Imagine today being told to bring your own soap and towels to a hotel! In the fourth paragraph I love the way the proprietor subtly suggests that although formal wear is not required that 'most guests prefer to change from day wear for Dinner'. I feel this letter gives an insight to what it was like for an Irishman who was endeavouring to book his honeymoon in England nearly four years after WW2. By todays standards it does indeed seem a funny honeymoon!"