The value of female friendship and support are at the forefront of this enjoyable book.
Author AJ Pearce was a late bloomer as a writer, finding inspiration for her first novel in her 50s following a chance find of a 1939 woman’s magazine. Both this book and Dear Mrs Bird, the first book in The Emmeline Lake Chronicles, became best sellers on both sides of the Atlantic. I haven’t yet read the first book but suggest that readers do read them in order as then they can appreciate the relationships between characters better and see how individual characters develop.
The story revolves around Emmy Lake, a young woman eager to become a “real” journalist who starts out at Women’s Friend magazine as an assistant on the Agony Aunt column. Emmy is in love with Charles, an army officer, and as their relationship is deepening she’s distressed at how this might impact her best friend Bunty, who is recovering from serious injuries sustained in a bombing raid which killed her fiancé. Following a meeting at the Ministry of Information, where the government seeks the support of women’s magazines to promote the government’s call for women to staff munitions factories, Emmy finds herself tasked to write a series of articles on the topic. A chance meeting on a train with a war widow and her children provides the inspiration for the series: to interview women in the factories and find out what it’s really like doing war work.
Making friends in the factory, Emmy discovers how hard it is for widows to find a job to support themselves and their children when the men in charge, in both the factories and the government, fail to understand and provide the added support women need to meet obligations outside of work, which men don’t have. The women workers struggle to find child care as the men in charge had not considered this necessity.
Pearce has a very sure hand when setting the story amid WWII Britain with her comprehensive research providing verisimilitude to the narrative. I knew women in factories were paid at a much lower rate than men, in spite of the fact it was openly acknowledged they were better at fine tasks, but was disturbed to discover that the government no longer classified war widows as “married women” and thus they lost that allowance, as well as their husband’s income.
The book has its poignant moments, particularly when Emmy and her friends recognise that positive changes will take time, and as everyone keeps reminding them, “There is a war on.” Nonetheless, the value of female friendship and support, its vital importance in facing troubling times and the natural resilience of youth are at the forefront of this enjoyable book.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
Distributed by: Pan Macmillan Australia
Released: June 2021
RRP: $32.99
More News
