Tag Archives: Dear Mrs Bird

Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce

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Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce was very popular when it was first published in 2018 and I tried to borrow it from the library back then – but it never appeared, apparently it was never returned, so when I saw a copy of it in a charity shop a few weeks ago I decided it was coming home with me. Don’t ask me why a WW2 setting is a comfort read for me – it just is. Mind you my mother who was born in the 1920s didn’t read me fairy tales, she told me about wartime experiences, so that probably explains my interest.

The story begins in December 1940 and Emmeline Lake is a secretary in a solicitor’s office, but she dreams of becoming a war correspondent. When she gets an interview at a newspaper she’s absolutely thrilled when she’s offered the job, although she realises that she failed to ask any questions about the work she would be doing. On her first day at her new job she’s mortified to discover that she has given up her good job at the solicitor’s to take work as an office junior on a failing and old-fashioned women’s magazine, the Woman’s Friend.

Mrs Bird is her fearsome boss who thankfully isn’t often in the building as she spends her time doing her ‘war’ work in various organisations. Bur it’s Mrs Bird’s name at the top of the problems page, and readers send their problem letters to her despite it being Emmy who answers them. However Mrs Bird has instructed Emmy to cut up any letters which are ‘unpleasant’. Most of the letters come under that heading because Mrs Bird has such strict views on morality that she regards just about everything as being depraved. Emmy is quite upset about not being able to help the desperate women who are writing in for help, and ends up in trouble with Mrs Byrd.

Along with just about everyone else Emmy was volunteering, doing vital war work in what spare time she had as a telephone operator at the Auxiliary Fire Services, along with her best friend Bunty, it’s a desperate time as it’s the height of the Blitz. As you would expect the war takes a toll on their personal relationships.

This was an enjoyable read although it was a bit predictable at times. I’ll definitely be seeking out the sequels to this one. Interestingly it was apparently the author’s collection of wartime magazines which inspired her to write this – her first book.

Edited to add:
The weirdest thing just happened as just after I published this blogpost I discovered that I actually DID read this book way back in 2018 – but have absolutely no memory of doing so!! Well some books stick longer than others do, but I was so sure that this one had never turned up from the library after I requested it. I still enjoyed it – again.

Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce

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Dear Mrs Bird cover

Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce which has just been published has been recommended by various Goodreads friends and bloggers recently and given the World War 2 London in 1941 setting it seemed it would be right up my street – and it was.

Emmeline Lake has always fancied being a newspaper reporter, really she would love to be a war correspondent eventually. When she sees an advert for a job at a newspaper she thinks it’s a job made for her. She’s so excited about the prospect of becoming a journalist that she doesn’t pay much attention at the interview. She’s successful in getting the job but on her first day there she realises she has been an idiot as the job is actually for a typist, an office junior, and it’s not even at a newspaper. She’s working for Woman’s Friend which is a very old-fashioned publication, but even worse than that it seems to be ruled over by Mrs Bird who is an absolute harridan, a bully and a complete prude.

There’s a problems page with readers writing in to find solutions to the situations they’ve found themselves in, but Mrs Bird will have nothing to do with any UNPLEASANTNESS and Emmy’s time is mainly taken up with cutting up problem letters that Mrs Bird doesn’t even want to see never mind answer. Emmy feels that she should try to help these desperate women and gets herself into trouble over it.

Meanwhile her fiance Edmund is causing problems for her, and as the Luftwaffe cause mayhem in London Emmy and her friends at the Auxiliary Fire Service Station that she volunteers at part-time are having a tough time. But this book is certainly not all doom and gloom in fact it has plenty of humour.

World War 2 is just about my favourite setting and I read a lot of books that were written then, so I was a wee bit worried that this one might not have the correct wartime atmosphere but it is mainly successful although the author mentions the sound of machine guns during a bombing raid. There’s no mention of the ack-ack guns which would have been booming out constantly trying to shoot down the Luftwaffe, machine guns would be useless under those circumstances. Page 196 has some repetition with a paragraph being repeated with the second one having a bit more added on at the end and elsewhere there’s a spelling mistake – just mentioning!