受英国出版人Jamie Byng诚邀，本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇搭档英剧《神探夏洛克》中的女演员露易丝·布瑞莉，领衔参与“Letters Live”书信朗诵活动。《致亲爱的贝茜》是一本书信集，是二战期间男女主人公克里斯与贝茜跨越大洋间的通信记录。随着“卷福”惟妙惟肖地朗读，一段段发生于二战时期的浓情画面跃然眼前。
▲1945年，克里斯·巴克在利比亚
1943年12月，曾在伦敦北部担任邮局职员的克里斯·巴克被安排到北非的利比亚海岸担任信号员，为度过战争期间黑暗漫长的日子，他决定给老朋友们写信，其中一位便是老同事贝茜·摩尔。贝茜热情温暖的回信照亮了克里斯平静的生活，几次信件往来迅速点燃了彼此的热情，两人深陷爱河无法自拔。一年后，两人开始谈婚论嫁，尽管书信往来期间彼此连面都没见过。
▲贝茜·摩尔
两人来往的信件中，有500多封被保存了下来。为节约行李空间和掩盖两人的亲密关系，不少贝茜的信件被克里斯烧毁。通过留存下来的这些信件，读者不难感受到通信双方的渴望、恐惧、欲望、悔恨和坦诚，也愈发能理解写信这一古老的交流方式具有改变普通人生活的力量。
▲克里斯和贝茜在战后结婚，并育有两个儿子。二人健康长寿，幸福快乐地生活在一起
▲本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇朗读版本（中文字幕），小编也找来了英文版附在下面，练听力的时候到啦
January 29,1945
My Dearest One,
I have just heard the news that all the Army men taken POW are to return to their homes.Becauseof the shipping situation we may not commence to go before the end of February,but can probably count on being in England sometime in March. It may be sooner. It has made me very warm inside. It isterrific, wonderful, shattering.
I don’t know what tosay, and I cannot think. The delay is nothing, the decision is everything. I must spend the first days at home, I must consider giving a party somewhere.Above all, I must be with you. I must warm you, surround you, love you and bekind to you.
I would prefer not to get married, but want you to agree on the point. In the battle, I was afraid.For you. For my Mother. For myself. Wait we must, my love and my darling. Let us meet, let us be, let us know, but do not let us, now, make any mistakes.
How good for us to see each other before I am completely bald! I have some fine little wisps of hairon the top of my head.
It is not much good metrying to write about recent experiences now that I know that I shall be ableto tell you everything myself within such a short time. What I have my eye onnow is the first letter from you saying that you know I am alright, and the next, saying you know I am coming to you. Plan a week somewhere (not Boscombeor Bournemouth) and think of being together. The glory of you.
I hope that you will not start buying any clothes (if you have the coupons left), because you think you‘must look nice’ for me. Just carry on as near as possible to normal. I shall tell my family I hope to spend a week away with you somewhere during my leave.My counsel to you is to tell as few people as possible. Try to avoid preeningyourself and saying much. This is my advice, not anything but that. I hope youunderstand.
I do not ever want it tobe anything but our affair. Do not permit any intrusion. I do not know how longleave I shall get. I could get as little as fourteen days, and I may get as much as a month. I am wondering how I shall tell you I am in England. Probablyit is still quicker to send a telegram than a letter, and I hope to send you one announcing that I am on the same island. I will send another when I am actually soon to get on the London bound train, and you can ring LEE GREEN 0509 when you think I have arrived there. It is a strange thing, but I cannot seem to‘get going'and write very freely. All I am thinking about is ‘I am going home. I am going to see her.’ It is a fact, a real thing, an impending event,like Shrove Tuesday, Xmas Day, or the Lord Mayor’s Banquet.
You have to be abroad,you have to be hermetically sealed off from your intimates, from your home, to realize what a gift this going- home is. The few letters of yours that I had on me, I burnt the day previous to our surrender, so no- one but myself has readyour words. It is a pity that the winter weather will not be kind to us out ofdoors. But it will be nice sitting next to you in the pictures, no matter what may be on the screen. It will be grand to know that we have each other’s support and sympathy. Won’t it be wonderful to be together, really together, in the flesh, not just to know that a letter is all we can send.
Ilove you.
Chris
▲露易丝·布瑞莉朗读版本（中文字幕），英文原文也在下面哦
February 6,1945
Darling, darling, darling.This is what I have been waiting for, your freedom left me dumb and choked up,but now, oh now, I feel released. Oh Christopher, my dear, dear man, it is so,so wonderful. You are coming home. Golly, I shall have to be careful, all this excitement is almost too much for my body. You must be careful too, darling,all this on top of what you have been through, it is difficult to keep it down,but, you can’t help the excited twinges in your midriff, can you, do keep well,angel, I shall have to say that to myself as well.
Marriage my sweet, yes I agree, what you wish, I wish. Whilst you are afraid, you will not be happy, we must get rid of these fears between us. Also confidentially, I too am a little scared - everything in letters appears larger than life size, like my photograph, it didn’t show the white hairs beneath the dark, the decaying teeth, the darkening skin, I think of my nasty characteristics, my ordinariness. Yes, I too feel a little afraid. Still I can’t be bothered withthat now, for we are going to meet, does anything else matter Chris?
Oh dear dear me, plan aweek somewhere, bonk, up comes my heart, a week somewhere, by the sea, with you. Where shall we go, of course I’d choose north Devon, sea, country and air,but March raises the question of weather, might we go to a largish town, I prefer villages normally, but with you I guess I’ll do what you want, also I feel that you’ll need looking after, don’t think you should walk around in therain, not for a while, anyway, guess I don’t care where, as long as it’s the sea, and you, you, you. Inward clangings and bouncings and I wonder how soon. You know I say to myself, ‘Bessie my girl, you’re not so hot’, but I think you may have a similar feeling. I say, how is your digestion, mine’s awful, I shall be reduced to taking Rennies or something, a wind remover. My tea at his moment is stuck somewhere in the middle of my chest.
I can’t help wishing that you won’t get these letters, that you’ll be on your way, that the time to wait is that shot, because my impatience is getting pretty bad, being able to write like we have has been a wonderful thing, but it has always remained only the beginning, the contact for our future and a beginning must change to something else, and now it is changing.
What do you think of the war news? Don’t like getting too optimistic, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to come home to stay?
I love you.
Bessie
▲二战期间，克里斯·巴克给他的爱人贝茜写的信
Letters Live活动由英国坎农格特出版社（Canongate）发起，最初是在伦敦的一间临时房屋里开始的，而后影响力迅速扩大，吸引了许多人士参与。名人受邀在现场观众面前阅读那些“理应受到更广泛关注”的书信，曾经朗读过的书信包括英国女作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫的遗书、印度领袖甘地写给希特勒呼吁和平的信、伊丽莎白二世写给艾森豪威尔总统的司康饼配方、泰坦尼克号沉没前发出的电报，以及古巴领导人菲德尔·卡斯特罗写给“我的好朋友罗斯福”的信。他们分享信中的苦痛、欢乐、智慧与幽默，将信件的力量通过活动、网络平台传递到全世界人的心里。■
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