Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce

Over the last few years I have seen reviews of the books in the Emmy Lake series by people I trust, and my attention has been piqued. Finally, I got around to reading the first book in the series and now I get it. I get why people love the series so much!

Emmy is working as a secretary in a solicitor's office as well as working in a fire station answering the many phone calls reporting bombs and fires. However, Emmy wants to be a serious journalist, and she would love to become a Lady War Correspondent. When she sees an advertisement for a Junior at Launceston Press Ltd, she knows that this is her job! 

In addition, Emmy has been engaged to childhood sweetheart Edmund for some time and is shar a ing with her best friend forever Bunty. All three of them come from a rural village but now are living in big city London.

After successfully getting the job, Emmy is looking forward to her new role, but it soon becomes clear that perhaps she should have asked more questions in her interview. Rather than an exciting role in a newspaper, she finds herself working for Mrs Bird, erstwhile agony aunt, in the failing Woman's Friend magazine. Mrs Bird has a very long list of what are un acceptable topics. Mrs Bird will not respond to questions about any kind of marital relations (pre, extra etc)any kind of sexual relations, religion, politics, the war. The list is very long. She is also Very Busy with many Good Causes, leaving Emmy to keep herself busy a lot of the time.

One of Emmy's job is to search through the dwindling number of letters arriving at the magazine for the few letters that she can give to Mrs Bird, and the rest are supposed to be destroyed. However, Emmy is nothing if not curious and she finds herself reading the unacceptable letters, and it isn't too long before she is tempted to start responding to the letters. 

Emmy's cheerful can do tone starts from the very first line and continues throughout the book. Here's an early example.

I knew that as a Junior I was starting at the bottom, but I didn't mind in the least. I pictured myself becoming friends with Lively Types, discussing the news of the day in between admirable amounts of hard work, typing like billy-o, or taking down impossibly fast dictation. Perhaps - given time - suggesting an idea for a news feature, or, should someone very unfortunately be taken ill, stepping up to the mark and filling in for them at the scene of a terrible crime or during a raid in the middle of the night. 

While the book does have this cheery tone that helps make it a delightful read, there are some terrible events covered. This is after all WWII London. Every day Emmy and co-workers, especially those at the fire station, take risks. War brings high emotions of every kind, from grief to betrayal, to despair, to hope, new beginnings and Emmy faces it all, especially when the unimaginable happens in one of her most valued friendships.

And what will happen when Mrs Bird inevitably finds out what Emmy has been up to?

I try to avoid words like charming and delightful too often when describing books, but in this case these really are the right words to describe this book. I can't wait to read more about Emmy and the people she surrounds herself with! The fourth and final book in this series was released earlier this year. It really is going to be a question of just how quickly I can read them all between my other reading commitments!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.

Rating 4.5/5