(3.5 stars) If you loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I have just the book for you: another feel-good World War II-set novel with characters you’ll love and cheer for. London, December 1940: Twenty-two-year-old Emmeline Lake dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent, but for now she’ll start by typing up the letters submitted to Henrietta Bird’s advice column in Woman’s Friend. All too quickly, though, the job starts to feel too small for Emmy. Mrs. Bird refuses to print letters on any Unpleasant subjects, which could be anything from an inappropriate crush to anxiety. She thinks her cowardly readers bring their troubles on themselves and need to just buck up instead of looking to other people for help. (Gosh, she’d make a great U.S. Republican!) But Emmy can’t bear to throw hurting people’s missives away. Perhaps she could send them some advice of her own?

Emmy shares a flat with her best friend Bunty, and they each have a fiancé who is part of the war effort. As a volunteer for the Fire Brigade, Emmy sees the effects of Luftwaffe bombings up close. But it’s only after heartache hits home for both of these young women that they really understand how much is at stake in the war. The novel got a little melodramatic for me in its last quarter, but it’s overall a charming “Keep Calm and Carry On” and Stick It to Hitler-style story that never strays far from jollity for too long.

Other readalikes: My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.

Some favorite lines:

“I told myself we could all get blown up by tomorrow so we might just as well enjoy ourselves.”

“Granny didn’t spend half her life chaining herself to railings for today’s woman to moon around waiting for some chap to look after her.”

Dear Mrs Bird sums up the spirit of the British people during WWII very neatly. The shortages, the sacrifices and the determination to keep going and ‘do your bit’ shine throughout this book.

Emmeline Lake shares a London flat with her best friend Bunty who works for the War Office. Emmy dreams of working as a war correspondent and sees her interview at Launceston Press as a first step on the ladder. Whilst she daydreams her way through the interview, she misses the most important part and it comes as a shock to find herself installed as a junior in the offices of the Woman’s Friend and in particular dealing with the correspondence of Mrs Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt of this struggling magazine.

As well as following Emmy’s career, this novel also follows her home life and war efforts as well as her friendship with Bunty, and both their romantic lives. In particular, I loved the language used and stifled many giggles at the phrases with Capital Letters when reading in bed next to my sleeping other half! The author has the flavour of the people in the street spot on in my opinion – and although I wasn’t around during the war, I have read an awful lot of books set during that time.

This is both entertaining, funny and moving; the type of read where you get really involved with and care about the characters. As well as the giggles, I also shed a tear or two and it’s not every book which leads me to that! A truly wonderful read, honest to the period and one I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on. I’m rather astonished that this is a first novel and have no hesitation in recommending this – in the spirit of the novel – as a Jolly Good Read!!

My grateful thanks to publishers Pan Macmillan for approving my copy via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

London 1941 and Emmeline Lake, Emmy to her friends, sees an advert in the paper for what she thinks will lead to her having her dream job, to be a Lady War Correspondent. Sadly for Emmy the job is working for the formidable Mrs Henrietta Bird sorting out the letters for the woman’s weekly magazine Woman’s Friend.
Emmy shares rooms in Pimlico with her friend Marigold who is known to everyone as Bunty, and it is this close friendship and mutual support that gives them, and one suspects many of other young women, through a world which is dominated by war. Everything from the lack of clothes to bombs are a part of daily life during this time and that’s not even considering the constant threat of death of your nearest and dearest!

Emmy is a nice girl, engaged to be married and she has known Bunty since childhood but she also carries out shifts on the telephone volunteering for the fire service and sees the men go out on call to rescue those when the bombs fall.

So when Emmy starts her job with Mrs Bird she is taken aback, but not quite a quivering wreck, even though the magazine’s agony aunt makes the word brusque sound like a stroke with a feather. She is given instructions of all the words and phrases which determine that the letter is unsuited to the magazine. The instructions rule that these letters should be cut up the very instant the banned word is read, and put into the bin. The words include: Marital relations, Pre-marital relations, Extra-marital relations, physical relations, sexual relations in general (all issues mentions, suggestions or results of), illegal activities, political activities and opinions, religious activities and opinions (excl. queries regarding church groups and services), The war (excl. queries regarding rationing, voluntary services, clubs and practicalities), cookery…

This would seem to cover many such letters however the page is headed up:

Mrs Henrietta Bird Will Help
There’s nothing that can’t be sorted out with common sense and a strong will.

Mrs. Bird is here to answer your worries. For a postal reply in confidence, send a stamped addressed envelope but please note that Mrs Bird’s postbag is a full one, so there may be a temporary delay.

Yes, you read correctly all you need is common sense and a strong will! This is the time of the stiff upper lip and there appears to be none so stiff as Mrs Henrietta Bird’s. Emmy is able to pass a few suitable letters to Mrs Bird whose inevitable response is along the lines of try harder, do better and the like but she spends most of her time chopping up letter after letter into pieces as very few are above the very high morality bar that has been set by Mrs Bird. But on reading a letter from In a Muddle written by a seventeen year old girl who has repaid her boyfriend who takes her to dances in a way that she knows is very wrong, she is moved to do something… but Emmy, is it the right thing to do?

This book starts off lightly fully creating a life of a young woman in wartime London but as it progresses the harsh reality of war-time is confronted and the humour of the first part fades into the background. This is a unique read which not only has wonderful characters but also a real sense of time and place which transported this reader with ease. It also highlights the role young women took during the war, something like being a volunteer for the fire service sounds relatively easy until you realise what those calls would have consisted of, and all of this on top of a full day’s work thinking about the problems of the readers of Woman’s Post!

This is a wonderful debut that I think would be perfect Sunday evening TV viewing such is the perfect mix of sweetness, female friendship along with some drama and a dollop of historical details.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Pan Macmillan for providing me with an advance copy of Dear Mrs Bird, this unbiased review is thanks to them and the author AJ Pearce for a delightful read.

Really enjoyed this book,the characters springing to life. The story emersed you into the WW2 and it was easy to picture the horrific scenes and feel the tensions and fears of that time. Though, seemingly fearless, our heroine is alittle reckless both in work and social life. She acts out of kindness, but her actions are alittle naive. It is an interesting read and I recommend it

Dear Mrs. Bird opens in a jolly, lively style full of ‘chin up’ and ‘stiff upper lip’ spirit – a spirit of which the domineering (and let’s be honest, quite frightful) Mrs. Henrietta Bird would be proud. As far as Mrs. Bird is concerned, any problem can be resolved by showing the right amount of grit and by not giving in.

However, beneath the spirit of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, the book demonstrates, through the letters sent to Woman’s Friend magazine, the impact of war on people’s personal lives. ‘Women whose worlds had been turned upside down by war, who missed their husbands, or got lonely and fell in love with the wrong man Or who were just young and naive and had their heads turned in a trying time.’ Not just the constant air raids and the rationing but the displacement, separation and loneliness, life plans are changed – engagements, marriages, even conceptions delayed or brought forward - because who knows what tomorrow will bring or if there will even be one?

Emmy’s friendship with Bunty is what helps her get through the days – that and the occasional luxury of a Garibaldi biscuit, a fig roll or a bath in more than an inch of lukewarm water. But as events unfold, that friendship will be tested.

The reader is transported to a time when people still wrote letters and used them to express their feelings. As Emmy notes, ‘I could see people were ever so frank when they wrote in, which I thought was quite brave.’ The importance of letters to those serving away from home comes across clearly, providing those receiving them with details of ‘normal life’ to which they can cling; a reminder of what they are fighting for.

The resilience shown by Emmy, her friends and work colleagues reminds us of the courage and fortitude of the people of London during the blitz. ‘Mother always worried about how we kept going. I had no idea. We just did.’ Oh, and the often underappreciated role of tea in sustaining the war effort.

Humour as well plays a key role in maintaining morale and there are some very funny bits in the book, such as Bunty’s and Emmy’s plan to use the hideous globe-shaped drinks cabinet bequeathed to them by Bunty’s grandmother as an offensive weapon. ‘Bunty and I had decided that if the Germans invaded London and broke in, we would push it down the stairs at them. The full extent of the British Empire was featured in a rather confident orange and we thought that would make them wonderfully cross.’

Dear Mrs. Bird also acts as a reminder of the important role played by women in World War 2 – manning fire station telephones (like Emmy), acting as dispatch riders and couriers, serving in the Women’s Voluntary Service, Red Cross, Land Army and so much more. And that constant danger wasn’t only faced by those serving on the front line but by men who served in the Fire Service and Bomb Disposal on the home front.

As the book progresses, the tone changes and darkness comes, showing the true costs of war, the horrors of the blitz (‘noise was coming from everywhere at once, as if we were being eaten by the very sound itself’) and the fact that sometimes ‘carrying on’ just isn’t enough. ‘Stiff upper lips and getting on with things were all very well, but sometimes there was nothing to do but admit that things were quite simply awful. War was foul and appalling and unfair.’

This makes it sound like Dear Mrs. Bird is a depressing book; far from it. It is funny, charming and heart-warming. The narrative voice sets the tone of the book delightfully: ‘The sun had pulled its socks up and was making a good effort in the almost cloudless winter sky’. However, I liked that the author wasn’t afraid to feature darker moments amongst the light-hearted elements (because, of course, the cloudless winter sky just mentioned would be a gift to the Luftwaffe bombers.)

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Picador, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Emmeline Lake and her friend, Bunty, live in London. It is 1940 and the Germans are making rather a nuisance of themselves, but neither are downhearted. In fact, Emmy has big dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent and, when she sees an advert for part-time work at the London Evening Chronicle, she writes off with high hopes. However, before long, she realises that her Enthusiasm (there are a lot of Capital Letters in this book) has meant that she has rushed in without thinking. Rather than finding herself on the first rung of the ladder towards journalism, she is stuck typing up letters for agony aunt, Mrs Bird – who runs the ‘Henrietta Helps,’ column for “Woman’s Friend,” a magazine, which shares nothing with the London Evening Chronicle, other than offices in the same building.

To be honest, when the first question at her interview was, “are you easily scared?” Emmy should have been fore-warned about her new employer. Apart from shouting a lot, Mrs Bird does very little. She does, however, insist that letters which refer to any kind of Unpleasantness, are thrown in the bin. Such unacceptable topics include marital relations, pre-marital relations, extra-marital relations, physical relations, politics or illegal activities. Before long, Emmy, bemoaning the fact that the agony column is not really helping anyone, begins to answer the letters herself…

This debut novel is funny, moving, charming and paints a wonderfully evocative portrait of wartime London. As well as telling a story with great humour, the author also shows how the war caused all kinds of social, and personal, upheaval. Although Mrs Bird’s advice was that everyone should Buck Up and Get On With Things, these unprecedented events did mean that life was, largely, thrown into disarray for most of the inhabitants of the country. She also shows the bravery of those on the Home Front, who faced the bombings, upheaval and shortages with fortitude and a complete inability to accept that things would not work out in the end. I adored this novel and received a review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, for which many thanks are due.

Set in London during the Second World War, we meet Emmeline Lake, she dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent, so accepts a job at Woman's Friend magazine to start her journalism career. However, rather than assisting on hard-hitting articles, what she actually finds herself doing is opening reader's problem page letters, finding suitable ones to be replied to by the formidable Mrs Henrietta Bird.

Mrs Bird, Acting Editress of Woman's Friend, only answers the acceptable letters, nothing 'off-colour' (affairs, sex, falling for the wrong man), which leads to 90% of them being torn up and, as far as Emmeline is concerned, the people with real problems never getting help. (The letters themselves are scattered throughout the novel and provide an interesting window into the issues people were facing in wartime London.) Emmeline decides to take matters into her own hands, what harm could come from her answering some of the letters herself? Mrs Bird will never know...

Dear Mrs Bird is packed full of 1940's language (such as: 'I could not have been more cock-a-hoop' and 'I was here for a job working on Serious News about Vitally Important Things so I should jolly well buck up and go in') that really works to both transport you to wartime London and keep the overall feel charming and light. Growing up, I was a fan of Enid Blyton and this nostalgic language was a lovely reminder of those classic books.

The 1940's tone is also there to enforce another element – this book’s wonderful celebration of the tremendous British blitz spirit, 'There was something about planning a wedding that felt like one in the eye for Hitler. He could send over as many Luftwaffe planes as he liked, but he couldn't stop people being in love and everyone getting excited.' Taking shelter from bombs on a nightly basis was just a normal occurrence, so people didn't let the harsh war conditions mean they led a life of misery, they still fell in love, forged out careers and went out with their friends - they were the epitome of making the best of a bad situation and this is a joyful thing to read about.

Also, with so many men enrolled in service overseas, London in the 1940s was a prime time for women to take centre stage and break through the sexist glass ceiling. Jobs not before open to them were suddenly a reality and they had the opportunity to prove they were equal to men in every way. Emmeline is a trail-blazer in this respect, mainly thanks to advice from her mother, 'She said the cleverest thing is to let them assume you're an idiot, so you can crack on and prove them all wrong. I loved my mother.' Emmeline is a modern, forward thinking character who you can’t help but root for.

If you're a fan of cosy, reassuring reads that touch-on serious topics, but in a good-natured way (a bit like a Sunday night TV drama), then this is the book for you. I appreciate the 'jolly hockey-sticks' style is not to everyone's tastes, but I thought it was delightful. Yes, the story was a little predictable, but in a rewarding way - the ending was the one you wanted it to be. Dear Mrs Bird is a highly enjoyable debut novel and the perfect blend of an easy read that makes an intelligent point.

This is an original novel, set in the middle of WWII. Emmeline Lake lands a job as an agony aunt letter-writer, working for the formidable Mrs Bird. Emmy thought the job was something different to what it turns out to be; regardless, she enjoys the challenge but goes a step too far with her replies to readers, despite doing it for the right moral reasons.

Throughout, the novel feels firmly rooted in the era. Emmy’s comedic voice is warm and her relationship with Bunty, her best friend, is something to behold. When tragedy strikes, it turns the direction of the novel to something darker, something grittier. But it all turns out okay in the end.

I enjoyed this debut and hope other readers will, too.

Emmeline Lake has dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent, and applies for a job as a junior at The London Evening Chronicle. Unfortunately, the job turns out to be not as a journalist for the newspaper, but rather sorting the letters for Mrs. Bird’s problem page in ‘Woman’s Friend’ magazine.
Sadly for Emmy, Mrs Bird would not dream of responding to any letters that are in any way unsavoury (affairs, marital relations, pregnancy, passion, politics, the war, and death are all off limits), and these letters are destined to be cut up and thrown away. Realising that these are the people who they should be helping, not ignoring, Emmy covertly begins to write back, signing the letters off from Mrs. Bird, and then sneaking these letters into the magazine itself on the basis that Mrs Bird never actually reads the finished product.
Told in a first person narrative, Emmy leaps off the page with her hopes and dreams, her contribution to the war effort, and her wit and wisdom as she realises her new job isn’t exactly what she had in mind. The somewhat formidable Mrs. Bird and the supporting characters are also wonderfully crafted, and a vivid picture of life in wartime London is conjured up as the story progresses. Indeed, for the little we see of her, Mrs Bird and her blunt refusal to consider any unsavoury letters provide humour, and as a reader you can vividly imagine her sat behind her desk refusing to entertain these letters.
The descriptions of London during the Blitz are well written and realistic, and Emmy’s experiences as a volunteer fire station call handler add to the setting by describing the every day dangers faced by Londoners during the war. Indeed, the author has not tried to shy away from the realities of the Blitz, instead describing in detail as Emmy deals with calls stating that streets have simply disappeared due to the bomb damage.
There are some serious undertones to the light hearted plot involving Emmy’s letter writing, and this makes the book all the more enjoyable. For all the humour, there are some sad moments, and the book takes an emotional turn towards the end as the horrors of war hit closer to home that Emmy would like. For all the talk of Blitz spirit, it is good that the reality is not glossed over, and this adds a sense of atmosphere to the story, but the scenes are not sensationalised in any way, and are instead well crafted in the context of the narrative.
Humorous, emotional, and heartwarming, ‘Dear Mrs Bird is a wonderful debut that will leave a lasting impression on the reader, and I look forward to reading more of the author’s work in the future.

It’s 1941 and Emmy believes she’s about to start her dream job Lady war correspondent. She accidentally find herself working at Woman’s Friend instead of The Evening Chronicle as she hoped.
Her role is to proof read and sort acceptable reader’s letters for Mrs Bird to respond to, frustrated with Mrs Bird reluctance to answer letters that she deems depraved, Emmy starts to write back to the readers herself.
Dear Mrs Bird is a delight to read, the language is nostalgic and puts you right there, it’s so easy to imagine what the war might have been like and how true friendship can survive anything.

This book surprised me, as yes it is light hearted and fun to read but it doesn't lack depth and meaning. Uplifting and hopeful.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish.
The way the author uses capital letters to emphasise certain phrases, (for example; being chums with Lively Types or a list of Racy Elements), the language, the humour, the characters, it’s such a clever and funny book.

But of course it’s wartime, so there’s sadness and pathos too. I loved all the characters, Emmy is so brave and so kind, Mrs Bird is a force to be reckoned with, Bunty is such a lovely friend. You really feel as if you know them all.

It’s a book to make you laugh and cry. It’s got everything an excellent book should have. It would make a wonderful tv drama or film. I think this will be another big book this year, and rightly so. Highly recommended.

Set against the backdrop of WW2 London. Emmeline(Emmy) wants to become a war correspondent and in her clamour, naivety and wilfulness to reach that ambition applies for and lands a job in journalism that turns out to be something other than she hoped for. She becomes clerk to the ebullient and irascible Mrs Bird the "Agony Aunt" on a failing magazine' The Woman's Friend. Mrs Bird will not respond to anything "unpleasant" and has a long list of those. Emmy in sorting the letters has concerns that needs are not being met and sets about righting some wrongs as she sees it and writes some replies. Entwined with this is the story of friendship' bravery and support through difficult times. A highly readable book that takes you through he gamut of emotions from laughter to tears My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Pan MacMillan for an ARC copy of this book to review

well this is perfect reading for these bleak cold days. I hate to use terms like heartwarming but this is really what Dear Mrs Bird is. There’s a lovely cast of characters including the fab heroine Emmy, and the eponymous Mrs Bird, who must have glorious fun to write. What a treat.

LOVELY charming book. Will be raving about this on YouTube!

This book is a delight.



You know when you have slightly too much to drink on a Saturday night and you wake up on Sunday and you’re a little bit hungover? Not so hungover that you want to die, but just feeling slightly worse for wear; you feel a little foggy and a lot tired, so you get out of bed later than you would normally and you go downstairs, you make coffee and marmite on toast and you curl up on the sofa and under a blanket and watch Gilmore Girls or Brothers and Sisters or Glee or some other programme that you know so well that you don’t really need to think about it and slowly, oh so slowly, you start to come back to yourself and by the end of the day you’re cosy and happy and content.




That’s what this book is like. It’s like marmite on toast under a blanket on a slightly hungover Sunday afternoon. It’s just nice.

It’s set in 1940’s London (and there are those among you *cough*Helen*cough* who will be rolling your eyes at me right now but whatever), and the Luftwaffe are out in full force. Emmy wants to be a lady war correspondent so when she sees a job advertised at a newspaper she always dreamed of working for she is the most excited ever. She gets the job, only to realise that it wasn’t actually the job she thought it was after all which is always unfortunate. It’s less Lady War Correspondent and more typing up somebody else’s answer to the problem pages. Thing is, Mrs Bird’s answers are, well, they can be pretty harsh: she’s not the most sympathetic, and her list of problems she will not respond to is the longest ever. It kind of breaks Emmy’s heart having to throw these letters in the bin so she does the only thing she can: she replies to them herself. Which, well, it’s perhaps not the best idea she’s ever had.




(I used to love the problem pages in the magazines I read when I was a teenager, l o v e d them, and this book kind of made me long for those days which I suspect are long gone now we’re in this digital age. I don’t know what it was about them, but they were always the first thing I turned to; I think that might be what drew me to this really – I mean I know I was reading them in the 1990’s and not the 1940’s but still, I don’t know, it struck a chord.)

It’s a comfortable and funny and moving and kind book and I loved it. It’s light, even when it’s heavy – it definitely has moments where it makes your heart hurt - and it’s so very atmospheric, with fully realised (and a little bit adorable) characters in the most vivid of settings that kind of made me want to go and re-read The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets (even though that’s set a decade later). And you know what, if I’m going to be entirely honest, it is a little bit cliché, but I feel like that’s kind of the point, I feel like the ‘keep calm and carry on’ stereotype works here, like, it’s exactly what this book is supposed to be about. It’s not going to move mountains and change the world but I don’t think it really intends to – it’s just a really lovely read: Emmy and her best friend Bunty are fabulous, and spirited and brave; the London that they live in, whilst ravaged by war, still has a sense of home. It’s just an absolute gem of a book and it cheered me right up.


It’s super worth a read, for sure.

Agony aunts have evolved over the years. You would think during WWII there might have been a different slant o 'problems' raised - mostly by women. After the discovery of a 1939 magazine the author has built on her own journalistic experience to develop an entertaining novel that also explores the dangers of Blitz hit London.
Emmy dreams of being a journalist - a Lady War Correspondent. So when she sees an advertisement for a junior at the Evening Chronicle she immediately applies for the job.
But when she gets to the small Pimlico office of Women's Friend magazine she finds she's working for the formidable Mrs Bird answering letters for the problem page. Emmy continues to have writing aspirations and when she discovers Mrs Bird ignores or bins 'unpleasantness' ie real emotional and social problems she takes it upon herself to start answering the letters herself..
Working at the Auxiliary Fire Service and sharing a flat with her best friend Bunty Emmy also has other colleagues, friends and sometimes the hope of love.
For a lot of the book everything seems lively and slightly estranged from the death and destruction of war but the plot develops into a heart rending conclusion. Beyond the main character Miss Lake - who I actually struggled to see in my mind- others like Bunty, Miss Bird and Mr Collins jumped off the page and showed the stalwart fight by those back on the home front.
This is the author's first novel. A good read which I am sure many will enjoy.

Thanks Pan Macmillan and netgalley for this ARC.\

Loved getting to know this bunch. It's one of those sappy novels that you don't mind are sappy, sweet, and sad too. Girl Power to rescue!!

A lovely, gentle, entertaining story. Perhaps too gentle at times as I found it a little predictable. But over all a charming read