Month: June 2024

The Guernsey Girls Go to War by Mary Wood – an intense story of female friendship during the Second World War

June 25, 2024

The Guernsey Girls Go to War by Mary Wood

This is a fast moving and sometimes moving book of female courage and friendship in extreme circumstances. It is set in the early days of the Second World War and shows how this conflict affected people in London and of course, Guernsey. It goes beyond the simple stories of Blitz and Occupation and describes the real relationships between people dealing with impossible situations. The characters were introduced in the first book in the trilogy, “The Guernsey Girls” as Oliva and Annie. I believe you could read this book as a standalone as the young women’s backstories are skilfully woven into the narrative of this second book, but the first book is well worth finding and reading. Wood is very good at telling the stories of the main characters, but also creating minor appearances with telling details. Her research into the times, places and general atmosphere of the novel is good, and the narrative is never slowed by needless facts, and Wood maintains a good pace of events and resolutions. There are some tragic elements of this novel, but it is an engaging read throughout, and the characters are very vivid and well  drawn. As always from this author, this book is thoughtfully written with great insight into people’s lives and a genuine feeling for the problems faced by so many in wartime and any time. I found this a book that was difficult to put down, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to read and review it.

The two main characters are the wealthy Olivia and the determined Annie from the East End of London. In the first novel they are thrown together by a very dramatic accident and become fast friends who are devoted to each other despite their very different backgrounds. They have stuck together, despite Olivia spending a lot of time in her home on the Channel island of Guernsey, and Annie having huge family commitments in London. Olivia is deeply in love with Hendrick, a young man born in Germany but brought up by an aunt on Guernsey. His loyalties to his father mean he must take actions that he dislikes intensely, to be seen to support the Nazi regime even though he has plans to take action that could place several people in danger. As Olivia spends time on the island the war draws ever closer and life becomes difficult and dangerous for everyone. Meanwhile in London Annie has rediscovered her family, but her sister Janey is trying to cope with enormous challenges and her mother needs extra help. Annie is also missing her true love, while having found a career that she finds fulfilling. As the blitz begins, everyone is at risk, and others are gathered into an informal group for mutual support. Annie is also missing Olivia, and fearing for her safety as the Germans take over Guernsey. As Annie must be caring, resourceful and flexible, Olivia is coping with many challenges in an occupied island while missing Hendrick.

This is an intense read with so much going on. I almost felt the need to keep notes on the various characters, but Wood develops each character very carefully and consistently. I found this a terrific read with some very strong ideas which may find echoes today but is solidly placed in a fascinating time. I recommend this book to those who enjoy female led fiction set during the Second World War, as well as anyone who enjoys stories featuring strong characters and relationships.    

Harlequin House by Margery Sharp – a charming and funny 1939 novel republished by Furrowed Middlebrow at Dean Street Press

June 14, 2024

Harlequin House by Margery Sharp

This is a “gloriously implausible” book according to the back cover – and I would certainly agree with that description. This book was originally printed in 1939 and is now republished by Furrowed Middlebrow at Dean Street Press. It features some memorable characters, most notably the “lawless” Mr Partridge. Exactly why he is lawless, and how he falls in with the irresistible Lisbeth and her brother Ronny makes for a funny and lively tale of mismatched housemates, dubious jobs, stubborn people and coincidence that is genuinely entertaining. Set in a pre-Second World War London that omits any element of the gathering storm, this is a book that can simply be enjoyed for its clever interplay of personalities in series of unlikely circumstances. The story is based on a tenuous plot featuring a disappointing brother, a managing fiancé and a determined young woman aided and abetted with absurd charm by Mr Partridge.  The excellent Introduction by Elizabeth Crawford recalls an author who was prolific, elegant and well  travelled. I am very pleased that Furrowed Middlebrow discovered this and her equally unusual “Fanfare for Tin Trumpets” which I also read, reviewed and enjoyed, for their charm and entertainment.

At the beginning of the novel Mr Partridge is demonstrating his mildly lawless personality by picking a bloom from a municipal flower bed having got bored running a penny library shop. He encounters the lovely Lisbeth at the local hotel as she fends off would be suitors and worries about her brother Ronny. She has been sent to the hotel under supervision and to prevent her being connected with her brother, who has just been released from prison for a crime involving cocaine which he apparently believed was “baking powder”. Nevertheless, she accepts a rather dazed and dazzled Mr Partridge in her mission to London to find her rather feckless younger brother.  When he is found, a surprise awaits in the form of Captain Brocard, Lisbeth’s fiancé, who is taking decisive action to move Ronny out of range. Lisbeth’s reaction is a little surprising; she becomes determined to try to reform her brother and consequently they set up a sort of home in an apartment with Mr Partridge as support. The unusual household with remarkable neighbours is decorated in a makeshift way, hence the title. In order to raise some necessary finances, both Lisbeth and Mr Partridge take jobs and three of them discover a new way of life. Scottish outfits, underwear advertisements and remarkable people maintain this engaging tale through to a suitable end.

This is a cheerful and entertaining book which is full of acute character observations which are brilliantly developed. The setting of interwar London is well described, with its mix of people, wet weather and unusual living arrangements. The characters, especially the main three, are so well drawn that they stick in the memory, if only for their strange and unpredictable behaviour. I found this a genuinely funny book packed with incidents, including Mr Partridge’s search for a suitable gift and his attire while working. I recommend this as a novel to enjoy for its humour and charm set in an interesting time.  

Courage for the Home Front Girls by Susanna Bavin – a wartime story of friendship in the challenges of wartime Manchester

June 12, 2024

Courage for the Home Front Girls by Susanna Bavin

This is a book about the courage of people in wartime, the will to pull together and to survive the most challenging of circumstances. It is also about the pressures on young women of all types to behave in certain ways. Not that this is a sad book – it is also a celebration of true friendship in the face of adversity, and how that can overcome so many problems. This is the second engaging novel in an excellent new series by Susanna – reflecting her usual skilful blending of thorough research with a gripping narrative. This is the sort of novel that kept me reading avidly to the end as I became fully engaged with the characters and their situation. While Sally and Betty appeared in the first novel, this book could be read as a stand alone if only because it features Lorna, a completely new character from a very different background, and Susanna also carefully covers enough of a backstory to help a new reader. Lorna’s story is very different from anything I have seen in wartime novels, but probably does reflect the nature of the press at the time. The element that comes through is that people, especially the main characters in this novel, must stand together to meet the challenges that war on the Home Front brings, as well as the twists and turns of true romance. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this enjoyable book.

Sally and Betty have met various challenges in their early working relationship and now friendship. Working at a salvage yard is not a glamorous job, but is essential to the war effort in Manchester, where the novel is based. The discarded items, including paper and metal, can be reused and made into munitions, and the girls have to collect and sort many types of waste, even bones from cooking. A new element of their work is introduced when the shy and kind Samuel appears who is in charge of sorting donated books for libraries, troops and others in need of reading matter. Betty spends time helping sort out boxes of books in his bookshop, but her interest is seized by  the handsome and smooth talking Eddie. Meanwhile Sally must continue to deal with the odious and bossy Mrs Lockwood who has inflated ideas of her own importance.  

Lorna is the new character who is introduced in this book from a very different background and series of events which bring her to be working in the salvage yard. She comes from a very wealthy background, but her father still wants to use her to increase his social standing and position. She feels her situation very deeply, but when the worse happens she finds herself in need of a safe and discreet place. The work and setting of the yard comes as a shock, and she has to discover much about herself and the nature of true friendship in order to settle.

This is a powerful and well written book which has much to say about the sort of life people had to live in wartime outside London. As always, the research is impeccable, but is never allowed to slow the narrative which moves along at impressive pace. The feelings of the young women, especially Betty, are very well captured, as well as the small points of clothing, food and the other details which really bring this book alive and give real depth. I recommend this as a strong wartime novel focusing on the lives of women at the time, and a really good read.   

A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley -The story of the Silver Moon feminist bookshop

June 10, 2024

A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley

This book is subtitled “How a Group of Women Set out to Change the World”, and it is a fair description in that opening a bookshop of this kind at the time was quite the challenge. The Silver Moon Bookshop was going to be something different, a champion of women writers and feminist literature in London’s Charing Cross Road, at the traditional heart of bookselling. They also wanted to give space to texts attractive to many: black women writers, lesbian titles and books sympathetic to the fledging gay movements generally. A safe space for women in the form of a café and gallery, and information board for anyone. While it sounded straightforward, this was back in 1984, when the prevailing political atmosphere was anti- gay, and systems were against them. While many books, both fictional and non-fictional, deal with the establishment of a bookshop and the problems of maintaining profitability, this is the story of real problems and barriers which had to be overcome which threatened the existence of such a enterprise.

This is a book about the women, especially Jane herself, who tried to work with the GLC and its successors and landlords, the logistics of establishing the shop in a difficult premises and dealing with the intricacies of publishers and stocking books of a specialist nature. There are also triumphs in this well written and painfully honest book; the promotion of authors, the provision of a special space for women book buyers and the discreet mail order business which linked people around the nations before the internet. This is a book which links the struggles of the Women’s Liberation Movement in all its variations, the need for fairness and good working practices, and the strength needed to keep going when so many people and organisations were discouraging. It is a personal record of a special time, and the determined people who really did try to change the world.

This book is very strong on the origins of a bookshop like no other. When Jane and Sue, her then partner, came up with the idea of a feminist bookshop they soon realised that a lot would depend on its exact location in London. They took special care to avoid being too close to anywhere that may currently or may in the near future overlap their aims, including the feminist publisher Virago. A location on the Charing Cross Road seemed ideal; while the shop was currently pretty derelict, the GLC were willing to subsidise the lease on the basis of encouraging independent booksellers. Despite the support of family and friends grants still had to be applied for and spent wisely. Compromises in terms of the shop and eventually the café had to be made, but there were other later developments that eased the pressure on space. Alongside these challenges there were remarkable triumphs; and an impressive list of authors who supported the shop with appearances, readings and encouragement is included.

As an account of a bookshop and the people involved this is a somewhat varied account as the author strives to prove with lists, menus, financial extracts and letters some of the day-to-day activities which contributed to this unique bookshop. It is a personal account, written with sometimes brutal honesty and humour, always reflecting the deep feelings that the author and her co workers felt about the venture. Apparently, the Silver Moon was highly regarded as a unique bookshop, achieved much and broke ground in terms of a specialist venue for groups previously disregarded. This moving, honest and well written book tells the story and is a fascinating addition to the selection of books about the joys and challenges of bookselling.     

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers – Harriet Vane in a Wartime village meeting many challenges

June 3, 2024

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers

This book is a slightly hybrid effort. When Dorothy L. Sayers stopped writing Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane novels, she did write a few letters featuring Wimsey family members during the Second World War. Jill Paton Walsh was already a successful author when she was entrusted by Sayers’ estate to use these letters to write continuation novels. This book, which was probably a reread for me, is the second of these books. I greatly enjoyed it and read it really quickly. At its heart is a murder mystery which proves difficult to solve in true Sayers tradition, but which features the skills of Harriet Vane in the first instance. It also deals with wartime conditions which affected even the wealthy beginning in February 1940. It is bookended with Sayers’ letters which reveal how the Dowager Duchess views the Home Front and family matters in challenging times. This novel features many issues such as the role of women in wartime from aristocratic women to Land Girls, the priorities for men and the relationship between the famous Harriet and Peter.

Harriet is coping in the country house of Talboys in the village of Paggleham, with her two sons and the three children of her sister-in-law. She is supported by several servants and life is not too difficult in many ways. Local food sources in the countryside supplement the rations, even though pig-clubs can cause some problems and the magic of Harriet’s cook helps considerably. The research behind this book is considerable; the wonders of liquorice water and the lifestyle of RAF pilots are well described, but the information is never allowed to slow the narrative. There is humour from the children and some of the locals, and a certain dark humour in the refusal of some to use the main village shelter for religious reasons. Despite early preparations a practice air raid shows how the shelters needed certain basic comforts, and village life in all its complexity is a feature throughout the book. It is during a practice raid a young woman is murdered, and thus begins an investigation that Harriet becomes an unofficial part. The author tells us of Peter’s extended absence from the beginning of the book – and so Harriet is left, still a little unsure about her new role as effectively “lady of the manor” with responsibilities to the locals, a household which includes five children, and now with the task of finding out who may be a murderer. Peter may be in all sorts of danger on his secret mission, and Harriet must face investigating a crime without his experience and contacts.

This book works because it gradually introduces and builds on what we know of the characters and setting from Sayers’ own works, especially of Harriet’s character and skills. Even without the Sayers input, it is a very good novel of village life in wartime, and the nature of mutual suspicion which existed when invasion was a real possibility. The murder mystery is well plotted and developed. Harriet’s character emerges brilliantly in this novel as she must prove her ability to cope on all levels, not least with the unspoken fear for Peter’s situation. The author has really absorbed the elements of Harriet’s character that Sayers created, and expanded on them really well, alongside references to the events of “Busman’s Honeymoon” which is set in the village. I was very pleased to reread this book, appreciating anew the subtle and obvious extension to Sayers’ most loved novels. I would recommend it not only to Sayers’ enthusiasts, but also those who enjoy a well written wartime- set novel with a really well plotted murder mystery.