Letters from the Manse

On Sunday afternoons in the late 1940s, while her husband preached at one of his three rural Prince Edward Island churches, JOAN ARCHIBALD COLBORNE wrote letters on an old portable typewriter. "It made a great excuse to not to have to hear the same sermon three times," she says. "I made four carbon copies on onion skin: one for his parents, one for his brother (Ed), one for my sister (Budge Wilson), and one for my parents." These charming, insightful letters detail 16 months in the life of a United Church minister's wife. Colborne joined her husband, the Reverend Blair Colborne, in Springfield West on the western end of Prince Edward Island in January 1949. The young Nova Scotian couple was ill prepared for the challenges of an isolated parish. Colborne writers humorously of her difficulties learning to cook, clean, entertain, and care for a baby in a house that seemed to be constantly in need of repair. Add to that a winter climate that played havoc with everything from the plumbing to the newlyweds' sanity, and "Letters from the Manse throws open a window onto a fascinating piece of Island social history.Colborne, Joan Archibald is the author of 'Letters from the Manse' with ISBN 9780919013391 and ISBN 0919013392.