A paperback book : Bigamy, Bankruptcy, War and Divorce- The Tangled Life of a Toddington Landlady

Description

.At first sight Ellen Nelsen’s behaviour appears shocking. Among other misdeeds she appears to have been bigamously married twice. Given her circumstances, however, her survival is a triumph of fortitude over betrayal. Bigamy, Bankruptcy, War and Divorce –The tangled life of a Toddington Landlord is the story of 100 First World War love letters discovered in a bank vault which were written by Helen McVicar Armstrong, a Toddington landlady to her lover, Frank, at the front. Her lover was not her husband, Bertie, who was the landlord of the Sow and Pigs, opposite the church, who was also serving on the front. Both men survived the war and Bertie colluded with Helen to divorce her so she could marry Frank. An extraordinary twist in the tale is Helen had already been married before in 1899 to the "Dover Millionaire" the owner of a music hall, who had gone bankrupt and disappeared - making her second and third marriages bigamous.