Emmeline Lake has big dreams. She's already doing what she can to support the war effort as a volunteer telephone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Service. She writes frequent letters to keep her boyfriend up to date and in high spirits while he's fighting Hitler and the Nazis. But she wants to do even more: Emmy dreams of becoming a war correspondent.

She's so busy dreaming, in fact, that she doesn't pay attention during her interview for a job she spotted in The London Evening Chronicle. Emmy daydreams of seeing her byline under important reports from the front. Instead, she's hired as a typist for another publication: Woman's Friend. Emmy will spend her days typing up tough-love advice from Mrs. Henrietta Bird, author of the column "Henrietta Helps."

The problem? Emmy actually wants to help. Mrs. Bird sends any letters containing "unpleasantness" to the rubbish bin. But as Emmy sorts through the mail, she sets aside such letters. Those readers deserve a response, she reasons, and it should be more thoughtful than the harsh advice Mrs. Bird doles out.

So Emmy writes them back. And signs her boss's name.

It seems like a small offense in the context of World War II. London has so much more to worry about. But as Emmy continues to sort through her boss's mailbag, she finds that she can provide some hope in the midst of the world's darkest time.

In Dear Mrs. Bird, debut novelist AJ Pearce draws inspiration from women's magazine advice columnists of the era. The result is a charming story full of as much pluck and grit as its protagonist.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In 1940s London, 22-year-old Emmy applies for a job at what she assumes will be the London Evening Chronicle, which would fulfill her lifelong dream to be a journalist. With her fiancé Edmund away at war, Emmy does her part at home, volunteering evenings at the firehouse call center during air raids. To her initial dismay, her position is a junior typist at Women's Friend magazine, with her primary role being to compose responses for Mrs. Bird's Problem Page, much like a modern-day Dear Abby. Overbearing and rude, Mrs. Bird refuses letters deemed unpleasant, allowing Emmy to answer only the most mundane queries with unhelpful replies. After an upsetting telegram from Edmund, Emmy boldly begins answering the poor women whose real problems Mrs. Bird would ignore, keeping it secret from even her best friend Bunty. Emmy bravely keeps a positive outlook, but when tragedy strikes too close to home, she is filled with guilt and loss. VERDICT Fans of Jojo Moyes will enjoy Pearce's debut, with its plucky female characters and fresh portrait of women's lives in wartime Britain.—Laura Jones, Argos Community Schs., IN

Pearce's clever debut follows a plucky Londoner during the Blitz who dreams about becoming a war correspondent. When 22-year-old Emmeline Lake sees an ad for a "Junior" from the London Evening Chronicle's publisher in 1940, she believes this will be the start of her journalism career. Alas, the job entails assisting Henrietta Bird, the advice columnist in Women's Friend, a magazine dying off from fustiness. Henrietta is a literary Violet Crawley who won't answer letters involving any unpleasantness, which eliminates most everything pertinent. Emmy, however, fails to destroy unsuitable letters as instructed, instead answering them privately under Mrs. Bird's forged signature. Meanwhile, she and her best friend, Bunty, demonstrate resolve as bombs rain down night after night and Emmy's fiancé informs her, via overseas telegram, that he is leaving her for a nurse. The novel has a wonderfully droll tone, a reminder of the exuberance of youth even under dire circumstances. Headlined by its winning lead character, who always keeps carrying on, Pearce's novel is a delight. (July)