Dear Mrs Bird – A J Pearce

Synopsis:

London, 1941. Amid the falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a fearless Lady War Correspondent. Unfortunately, Emmy instead finds herself employed as a typist for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs bird refuses to read, let alone answer, letters containing any form of Unpleasantness, and definitely not those from lovelorn, grief-stricken or morally conflicted.

But the thought of these desperate women waiting for an answer at this most desperate of times becomes impossible for Emmy to ignore. She decides she simply must help and secretly starts to write back – after all, what harm could that possibly do?

Review:

I listened to this book on audio and was immediately gripped by it.

I loved the balance of serious content (war related tragedies) and more light-hearted content. The characters were rich and relatable (despite being a historical fiction). I loved the story-line, which on the face of it seems so simple but contained so many different layers.

Emmy was such a wonderful character and left me wanting to finish this book at every single opportunity. Mrs Bird was exceptional, I could picture her in almost every scene where she was. So vividly described.

The story was so uplifting, amusing, tragic and also compelling… I also really enjoyed the historical features (and yes I know it’s fiction), which isn’t usually up my street.

I cannot wait to read the next in this series. I would definitely recommend this one. 5/5 stars and believe the audio really helped to bring this story to life for me.