A New Start for the Wrens by Vicki Beeby was published this year (2022) I borrowed it from the library after I read Jo of The Book Jotter’s review of it, I was particularly interested in reading it because of the Orkney wartime setting, but it begins in the south of England where Iris Tredwick lives with her wealthy parents. Her mother is a terrible snob and Iris isn’t far behind her on that score. Iris is expected to make a good marriage, basically the right sort – somebody well-off and if possible aristocratic. With conscription looming for unmarried women she’s getting a bit desperate to get settled so she won’t have to be doing war work in one of the services, so when she meets up with the man she regards as definitely more than just a friend she jumps to a very mortifying conclusion. The upshot is she has to get out of the neighbourhood as she’s so embarrassed and that’s how she ends up joining the Wrens.

But Iris’s attitude to the other Wrens makes her unpopular. Iris is more like her mother than she would like to admit. She has to address her faults while learning to become a signaller and by the time she’s posted to the Orkney Islands with some of the others on the course Iris has almost been accepted as a friend.

This was a good read, I enjoyed the plot but it’s a shame that the author wasn’t able to visit Orkney due to the Covid lockdown while she was writing it. I feel that if Vicki Beeby had been able to get there instead of relying on the internet then she would have been able to capture the unique character ambience of the islands’ topography better, particularly the cliffs. Anyway, it is obviously going to be a series and I’ll definitely read the next one when it is published.