If you are looking for a quick, relaxing, humorous and entertaining read, then Dear Mrs Bird is for you.
Author AJ Pearce has created the voice of would-be journalist, Emmeline Lake, to perfection. Emmy, as she is known to her friends, is a secretary in a law office during WWII when what she really wants is to be a war correspondent. While waiting for an opportunity, she is “Doing Her Bit” as a telephonist at night in a fire station.
When she answers an advertisement for a junior at Launceston Press, publishers of The Evening Chronicle, she thinks her dreams have come true … despite all evidence to the contrary, such as the lift not going to the fifth floor of the building, no busy newsrooms, and there being hardly anyone about.
In reality, Emmy becomes the assistant to Agony Aunt Mrs Bird, who is also deputy editor of Women’s Friend magazine. Emmy’s major task is sorting letters for Mrs Bird’s response, a difficult job since the majority of letters fall into UNACCEPTABLE TOPICS.
This combined with Mrs Bird’s standard response of the “pull yourself together–there is a war on you know” variety is frustrating for the budding journalist, who is just 22. Getting dumped by her fiancé has made Emmy especially sympathetic to many of the readers’ problems. Emmy dithers about what to do for a good while but eventually begins to answer the letters, signing herself Mrs Bird.
There are multiple threads to the narrative which combine to present a good representation of what it was like for women on the home front during the war. There is insight into the lives of young women like Emmy and her friend Bunty who live together in Bunty’s grandmother’s house. Bunty is engaged and planning a wedding which is even more difficult than usual because of the rationing, both of food and clothes, and she is delighted to receive some parachute silk to make her wedding dress.
Inspired by a serendipitous finding of a 1939 woman’s magazine, this debut novel showcases the efforts of women on the home front, their friendships, and their hardships during the Blitz in London in WWII. The book is written in the upbeat tone which would have been seen in women’s magazines during the war and, without giving anything away, the story is quite predictable. But if you are looking for a quick, relaxing, humorous and entertaining read, then Dear Mrs Bird is for you.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
Distributed by: Pan Macmillan Australia
Released: April 2018
RRP: $8.99
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