Twenty-five-year-old Bob Keddie died on 16 May 1942 when his Catalina flying boat disappeared over the Norwegian Sea. He had been flying a reconnaissance patrol for the protection of Arctic convoys carrying vital supplies to the Russians. No trace of him, his nine crew members, or his aircraft was ever found.
For Diana, his young wife who was four months pregnant, the disappearance brought an abrupt and agonising end to a two-year love story, innocent and intense, played out mostly in letters overflowing with tenderness and anticipation for a future free from the demands of war.
Diana Ladner, a beautiful aspiring actress of nineteen, had met the dashing Bob Keddie at a performance of The Beggar's Opera in London in March 1940, a year on from his formative winning streak at the Cresta Run in St Moritz. Bob wrote in his diary of ‘a fascinating face’, warning himself to ‘Let her pass while you can ... but a voice inside says she may and she might and if you don’t ...’ He discovered he could not help but heed that voice, and eight months later they were married.
We've All Life Before Us: A Love Story of the Second World War is a unique collection of letters and diaries that, on the one hand, charts in fascinating detail Bob Keddie’s progression through every stage of RAF training to his fateful command of a Catalina at RAF Sullom Voe, and on the other, tells the complete, beautifully intimate and unguarded story of love between two young people, from shy, eager beginnings, keen to impress, to unbridled longing and rage at the war for keeping them apart.
Published by Fonthill, an imprint of Pen & Sword, 2025. Hardback 208pp, 37 photographs, 25 sketches.
“The intensity of the love and affection expressed in the letters … compelling reading.”
General Sir Jack Deverell KCB OBE DL,
Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe 2001-2004
“A beautifully told love story of a different age.”
Nick Hewer, journalist and media presenter
“This book is an outstanding and heart-warming collection of letters.”
Group Captain Bob Kemp CBE QVRM AE DL RAF (Ret'd),
Inspector Royal Auxiliary Air Force and ADC to HM The Queen 2000-2007
“This delightful book highlights the part played by the people who conducted the campaign over the cruel North Atlantic and the touching love story of a couple of the protagonists.”
Admiral the Rt Hon Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC, First Sea Lord 2002-2006
WE'VE
ALL LIFE
BEFORE US
Edited by Caroline Cecil Bose
The Editor
Caroline Cecil Bose, the editor of We’ve All Life Before Us, grew up in Essex, moving to London after studying economics at Bristol University. She has spent her career in marketing and communications. She was on the board of a large communications company before setting up her own successful consultancy more than thirty years ago.
She is a keen allotment gardener, walker and avid follower of tennis and showjumping. She lives in London with her husband, author Mihir Bose, whom she met at the Reform Club. Her uncle, a decorated pilot, first piqued her interest in World War II.
Diana Keddie (later Diana Dawkins) introduced Caroline’s parents to each other and became her Godmother. She gave Caroline her late husband’s letters just before she died.
Reviews
A remarkable, movingly authentic love story, told in the form of literate and passionate letters from a gallant young airman to his wife. Incidentally a historically fascinating glimpse into everyday life in wartime Britain.
Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary biologist and author
This remarkable selection of letters and diary entries reveals that a generation so often portrayed as emotionally repressed was anything but. The intensity of the love and affection expressed in the letters as the pair move towards their sad denouement makes compelling reading.
General Sir Jack Deverell KCB OBE DL
Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe 2001-2004
As a member of the Silent Generation, born in 1944, I grew up feasting on war stories, be they in books or movies, from Rockfist Rogan through to The Colditz Story and on to Max Hastings and Ben Macintyre. But here is a very different take on wartime life, one of innocence, love, sacrifice and tragic loss. It is the story of Robert Keddie, a young RAF flying boat pilot and his 21-year-old wife Diana, pregnant with their first child, widowed when his Catalina simply and silently disappears when on patrol in the North Atlantic near the Arctic Circle.
Caroline Cecil Bose has produced an extraordinarily detailed picture of English domestic and military life in the quiet early days of the war, drawn from the cascade of letters exchanged between these two impossibly innocent young people, as they meet, explore and develop their friendship into a love affair and then marriage. The wonderful minutiae of daily life, at home and serving in the RAF, devoid of any trace of cynicism or anger, tells of a kinder, more civilised England. And then the horror of unexplained loss, and Diana is suddenly a 22-year-old mother and widow and yet Robert’s letters from faraway Sullom Voe keep coming for a while and then there are no more. A beautifully told love story of a different age.
Nick Hewer
Journalist and media presenter
This is an extraordinary story of wartime romance and sacrifice. It captures the heartache of separation and the remarkable stoicism and dignity of a couple forced apart because of a nation at war. The letters are evocative and moving to read and a reminder of a past age when writing was an everyday reality. They paint a fascinating picture of wartime life on the home front. They also reveal something of the dangers and physically demanding nature of flying boat missions from Shetland to occupied Norway in often brutal weather conditions. It is a unique, tragic but heartwarming story.
Hugh Pym
BBC Health Editor
I wish I could make you feel what it is like up there’, Bob Keddie writes to his beloved Diana Ladner. But in these vivid, absorbing letters, skilfully edited by Caroline Cecil Bose, Keddie does exactly that. He gives a detailed account of his training and experience as an RAF Catalina flying boat pilot over the Arctic Ocean. They are all the more poignant because of the tragic outcome—his death in the spring of 1942.
Brian Holden Reid
King’s College London, military historian, author of JFC Fuller: Military Thinker
The importance of Coastal Command during the war is often undersold particularly by the RAF who focused on the Bomber and Fighter Commands roles, but the defeat of the U-boat threat was crucial to our nation’s survival and the winning of the war, and Coastal Command pivotal in that context. This delightful book highlights the part played by the people who conducted the campaign over the cruel North Atlantic and the touching love story of a couple of the protagonists. The stoic bravery of those who spent often terrifying hours in what were relatively flimsy aircraft, well aware that falling into the sea meant almost certain death, should always be remembered. The interweaving with a love story reminds us that humanity transcends war.
Admiral the Rt Hon Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC
First Sea Lord 2002-2006
This book is an outstanding and heart-warming collection of letters written by Flight Lieutenant W A Robert (Bob) Keddie, a Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) pilot, to his wife Diana over a two-year period until his untimely death flying a Catalina flying boat during World War Two.
Bob was based at Sullom Voe, a remote flying base in the Shetland Islands from where he would captain his Catalina and crew searching relentlessly for German submarines. The importance of this task cannot be overstated as the sea lines of communication and resupply routes had to be maintained at all costs. Missions were long and tedious interspersed with periods of frantic activity when the presence of an enemy surface ship or submarine was encountered.
Captaining the aircraft required unique skills of leadership, flying ability and patience. Maintaining morale and encouraging stoic vigilance among the crew during what could be a sortie length of up to 20 hours in cold, hazardous and uncomfortable conditions took special people. Bob Keddie was one of these special people. He died along with his crew of nine.
Coastal Command lost thousands of airmen but unlike many of those killed in Bomber and Fighter Command there were often no known graves. They simply did not return. This book is highly recommended and is a beautiful read.
Group Captain Bob Kemp CBE QVRM AE DL RAF (Ret'd)
Inspector Royal Auxiliary Air Force and ADC to HM The Queen 2000-2007
Events
April 30th - Boston Room of the George IV pub, Chiswick, London
Q and A with Caroline and Will Chappell will read extracts from the letters.
Event starts at 7pm, further information via 'Contact us' below.
December 11th - RAF Museum online lecture
Caroline will be giving a talk on the book which will delve into the fascinating detail of Bob Keddie's progression through RAF training to his appointment as a flight lieutenant and his fateful command of a Catalina flying boat. The talk will also cover some of the less known aspects of the RAF’s work in the war.
Event starts at 6pm. To book, click or tap here.