18. Danny

Chapter 18: Danny, opens with a long-awaited letter from Danny, written from Scotland in March 1945. Danny is about to be sent to Norway to oversee the transition to peacetime. I try to research his squadron number, now included in Norah’s diary, to throw light on his whereabouts during the previous eighteen months, but there are too many unknowns. Danny’s regular letters throughout that spring and summer show that he has sex on his mind. The phrase that Norah uses to describe his request is ‘give in’ and, drawing on contemporary sources, I ponder the meaning of those words in a culture in which women are unable to be sexually active and remain respectable. As Norah celebrates VJ Day, Danny is hospitalised in Tromsø. Norah has a new portrait photograph taken, to send to Danny as he awaits his demobilisation.