As the twentieth century reaches mid-point, two undergraduates with "high hopes' and a dash of hero worship for things literary dream of setting the post-war world on fire. One hops into an MG roadster and drives expectantly across North America to meet his idol Christopher Isherwood; soon after, he crosses the Atlantic to attend Balliol College, Oxford. The other fights his way up McGill's student ladder to edit their literary magazines, helping to earn his tuition by bruising labour in B.C.'s Forestry Service.

What undergraduate today would choose poets and literary figures as role models? How many teenagers write regular letters to each other during their busy college years? And finally, who on earth would preserve such letters for fifty years? Two special people with unique insights and devilish impulses.

In this collection of their letters (including unpublished correspondence from Christopher Isherwood, Sean O'Casey, Patrick Anderson, and other contemporary writers) Paul Almond and Michael Ballantyne have woven journal entries, photographs and other memorabilia together with their present-day reflections to open a bright window on our collective past.

Essential reading for today's students studying 20th-century literature, the book will appeal also to those old enough to remember this important era with affection. And others with a taste for the art of writing and reading will enjoy the literary progress and misadventures of two poet-struck undergrads who became friends with some of the key writers of this mid-century in both Canada and England.