SECOND World War love letters have been turned into works of art which will go on show for the first time over Remembrance weekend in Exeter

About 50 of the hundreds of letters written over a five-year period by an aircraft engineer separated by the war from his love have been used by paper artist Gillian Taylor to "give them a new life".

She has made collections of tiny, gold paper-lined envelopes out of the hand-written letters, which have been framed.

Ms Taylor, who bought the letters on the eBay internet site, said the letters from author Eric to his love, a Swiss woman called Jose, were "full of tenderness mixed with a tension and an uncertainness reflective of the times."

The Love Letters anthology will be exhibited for Exeter Open Studios in Queen Street during the weekend of Remembrance Sunday.

It appeared the couple met while working at the same house, he as a gardener and she possibly as a cook.

He moved to Southampton to work as an aircraft engineer, repairing fighter and bomber planes, while she remained in Sussex.

Beginning in 1937, he wrote two or three times a week for almost five years, said Ms Taylor.

"During this time the relationship blossomed, and they were married in 1940," said Ms Taylor, adding that the author of the letters died in Southampton in 1975.

"Written communication has changed so much over the last 60 years," she said, adding:" I feel inspired and very privileged to have the letters, and I spent a long time thinking about whether I could use them.

"I concluded that by making them into art, I am giving them a new life."

Ms Taylor said she had scanned all the contents of the letters, and she intended to use more in other works.