Eleanor Mackridge, a waitress at the Grand Hotel, has few prospects in 1920's Brighton. Following a chance meeting with a male gangster, she is introduced to an all-female gang of thieves - the Forty Elephants. She moves to London and joins the gang as Nell the Mack.
Poor Girls is a well-researched novel based on real people. It is a well-written, immersive read with relatable characters. Rich with period detail, it transports the reader to London between the wars.
Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield transports readers to the gritty, glamorous world of post-WWI England, where Eleanor “Nell” Mackridge finds her way from a dreary existence in Brighton to the enticing, dangerous streets of London. Set in the 1920s, the story introduces us to the notorious Forty Elephants, an all-female gang known for their high-profile heists and rebellious defiance of societal norms. When Nell meets a mysterious young man who later connects her to the group, she’s offered an escape from her mundane life as a waitress—and a chance to taste freedom and luxury.

Character Development and Themes

Whitfield crafts a relatable, multi-dimensional protagonist in Nell, a young woman seeking something beyond the limitations society imposes. Her evolving relationship with her new friends—strong-willed women like Charlie, Lily, and Effie—reveals her growing sense of agency and camaraderie within the gang. Nell’s struggle with the thrill of criminality versus her aversion to violence grounds her in realism, making her a sympathetic and intriguing character.

Historical Setting and Social Commentary

The novel brilliantly captures the despair and resilience of the working-class women of the time. The post-war era is depicted with vivid accuracy, from the desperate need for financial security to the allure of a champagne lifestyle. Whitfield's portrayal of women in the 1920s—forced back into oppressive roles after glimpsing freedom in wartime jobs—adds depth to the motivations of the Forty Elephants. The historical details about fashion, social customs, and London’s criminal underworld create an immersive setting.

Final Thoughts

Fast-paced and filled with fascinating details, Poor Girls offers readers a fresh perspective on an all-female gang history has largely forgotten. While the narrative occasionally jumps in time, Whitfield's storytelling keeps readers hooked. Poor Girls is an enjoyable, insightful read that balances suspense, historical intrigue, and the bittersweet realities faced by women defying society's expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley, Aria & Aries, and Clare Whitfield for the opportunity to read and review this fascinating piece of historical fiction. Highly recommended for fans of both historical fiction and crime stories!

I really enjoyed this book and found the plot and premise interesting. Eleanor was a really interesting character to follow and I found her compelling to follow. She had a really interesting story and development progress. The side characters were interesting and well developed, I like the girls she lived with and found them so interesting. The story progression was done really well and I liked the way it always kept me on my toes. The elephant gang were so interesting and I definitely want to learn more about them.

Poor Girls is set in 1920’s England and gives an insight into how the all female crime gang, The Forty Elephants, operated in London. Eleanor comes from a poorer background and works as a waitress in order to make money to support her family. When Eleanor is met with the opportunity to become involved in the all female crime gang, although reluctant at first, it soon becomes an adventure she can’t resist.

I thought that the author did a really good job at helping the reader to become invested in the characters from early on in the book, especially Eleanor, aka Nell. The three girls that Nell became friends with at the start of her new London life; Charlie, Lily and Effie, also provided great depth to the story and I found myself becoming just as invested in them as I was Nell. I felt the way the book was written provided a perfect amount of history, whilst also using a fun and exciting approach into understanding what life was life back then and the lives that these women led.

This book was certainly different to what I usually read, however it speaks for itself how much I enjoyed it considering I finished it in a couple of days. Overall, I really liked the writing style, storyline and characters in this book, and I was hooked throughout. I really was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this and I would highly recommend. It is without a doubt one of my favourite books that I have read recently. Thank you NetGalley for my ARC.

Thanks to Net Galley and Aria & Aries Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
A historical story set in London in the early 1920’s. It’s based on a true story.
Eleanor is a waitress, earning very little. After a brief encounter with a gentleman she leaves her waitressing job, moves to London and goes to work with a group of women known as The Forty Elephants, who are thieves who specialise in shop lifting and petty theft. Eleanor finds it exciting and it’s very well paid.
I was intrigued by the story but did become a little bored with it. The women may be a band of thieves but they form strong loyalty and friendship bonds.
An easy gentle read, with some unexpected sharp wit and humour.

This story is inspired by the Forty Elephants, an all-female syndicate specialising in shoplifting and operating in London during the late 19th / early 20th century. It is the story of Eleonor who we meet in 1922, during the post-war era when the country was in mourning, gripped by inflation and women had to cope with their crippled and shell-shocked fathers and husbands, if they had returned at all. Women who had experienced a raise in status and greater independence when they worked in the munition factories during the war, were again pushed back into their miserable existence of servitude.

So – what is a girl to do when destined never to have anything? The Forty Elephants have a bold answer to this question: We take it anyway.
We get to know Eleonor as a young woman with a strong sense of self-worth, adventure and rebellion, who knows exactly what she wants. When the opportunity arises to join the Forty Elephants, she does not have to think too hard to make her decision. Having been born into a class and gender that was meant to serve in a world where the laws favour the wealthy, she yearns for a better life in autonomy and self-reliance. She grasps this opportunity with both hands and joins this professional group of thieves, takes advantage of her youth and looks and uses her creative mind, leadership skills and entrepreneurial appetite to her advantage.

Although based on historical facts, Eleonore’s story is somehow an unlikely tale of survival, female camaraderie and companionship - but one I did enjoy reading about.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I was not very keen on this book. I felt it was slow going and repetitive.. Nell and Effie are quite well drawn characters but the other two girls in the cell were interchangeable. I also felt that the dialogue was too modern although it is true that phrases we consider modern are older than we think I didn't ever feel any tension or sense of danger and frankly, the bit near the end about the stamp collector seemed a bit unlikely. No spoilers but surely there was a quicker and easier way to deal with problem.

I wonder if what happened to the Irish guy was based on a true event?

The book is spot on on its description of how society operates and how the dice are loaded against women and the poor but I it a bit heavy handed and preachy about the ills of society and the way women are perceived. It is very sad that even today women who break the law are treated comparatively more harshly than men. Women are punished for the crime but punished again for going against society's expectations of women.

"I do think Jesus would approve of us though, cos we are poor taking from the rich and he was always up for that, wasn’t he?"

1920's London, Eleanor Mackridge just wants something better in life. Currently waiting tables at the Grand being ordered about by her female boss. Then everything changes when she bumps into a member of The Forty Elephants an all-female gang. A new life a new Nell taking more than what the world would give her.

Fast-paced, dark and funny with a fantastic cast of characters who you will remember for a long time. I couldn't put it down a roaring romp through the 1920s.

I've read People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield and enjoyed it so I had high hopes for this one and it exceeded my expectations.

In 1922 twenty year Eleanor Mackridge lives with her parents and her sister and brother-in-law and their twin baby boys in Brighton. She now works in a classy hotel but during the war she worked in a munitions factory, a job that gave her more money and freedom that now. She finds the patrons of the hotel stuffy and in many cases obnoxious, so when a young man called John takes her out for the evening and then drops some gems into her pocket before he disappears she is intrigued. It is through John and his sister that she is invited to London and asked if she'd like to join a gang of notorious women thieves known at the forty elephants. Despite her initial nerves Eleanor finds her place in the small group of women she is assigned to and so begins her life of crime.
This is a fast paced (particularly the first half of the book) read, with well drawn characters, and interesting insights into life and society of the time. The descriptions of the women's dresses and make up and the way they lived are fascinating — the socially acceptable norms of the time are often hurled asdie by the Eleanor and her friends, who pride themselves on being roguish and outlandish as well criminally cunning. Yet the bond between these girls is strong and they support each other in their 'work', in their social lives, and when or if they are caught by the law.
I found the subject of this book fascinating - a whole area of history and life I knew nothing about. The story is well and scattered with acts of friendship and moments of humour.
With thanks to Netgalley and ria and Aries for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

Set in post WWI Britain this story follows strong willed 24 year old Eleanor Mackridge from a dreary life in Brighton to the excitement of London. Eleanor is living with her family in Brighton in poor cramped conditions and working in The Grand hotel as a waitress but she has always wanted more and when she meets a woman who invites her to move to London and join the notorious Forty Elephants, a group of all female thieves, her life is about to change. Against the wishes of her family, in particular her French mother, Eleanor moves to London and reinvents herself as Nell. Based loosely on the real women of the Forty Elephants with fictional characters added this has clearly been well researched.

Briefly, moved into a flat with three other women Nell is schooled in the art of stealing from shops as part of a group working together. The girls are controlled by the more senior women in the group, led by Alice Diamond, Queen of the Forty Elephants. Transported into a life full of excitement and danger Nell relishes the glitz and glamour of the bars and nightclubs but she is reluctant to be involved in any violence. Her bubble bursts a bit when one of her friends is arrested and she narrowly escape a similar fate. But there is worse to come..

Despite her bravado Eleanor/Nell is a bit naive. She cares for her friends but seems to think nothing really bad can happen to her. She is rather blinded by the luxurious lifestyle - the furs, clothes, diamonds, the champagne lifestyle and the thrill of the chase. Some great female characters, I particularly liked Jay but, aside from Eleanor’s father, the men in this book are all rather selfish and unpleasant, which I’m sure is intentional, but it would be good to have a good man in the mix. I think that the real life for these women was probably a lot more dangerous and less glamorous than portrayed. A compelling read, I finished it in one sitting apart from a lunch break, and I for one will never buy Fisherman’s Friends again! A fast paced, very enjoyable and entertaining historical fiction read.

3.5* rounded up

This was an interesting read, I hadn't heard of the Forty Elephants before and much of the literature I've read from/about the time period has been from the perspective of the middle or upper class. It provided a thoughtful perspective on what it was like to be a working class woman in the 1920s, the lack of options they were given and what that hopelessness can force people into.

I found Eleanor to generally be a sympathetic protagonist, though some of the other characters were a little grating, but I suspect this was done intentionally to highlight how difficult we still find it when women choose to commit to putting themselves first. I liked the character of PC Bevan, but I would have liked to have spent more time with him, his perspective was interesting and I would have liked to see where more discussions between him and Eleanor would have led, if their perspectives about each other and the world would have changed a bit.

The prose was generally good, a little repetitive in places, particularly around Eleanor's understanding that violence was necessary but not really having the guts for it, and there were the odd sentences that seemed not to really go anywhere. My biggest gripe was that the narrative jumped around a lot in time, going ahead to discuss something unrelated before jumping back to what was about to happen. It made it hard to follow what was happening when at times and to get a good idea of how much time had passed.

Overall it was an interesting look at post WW1 England and the difficulties everyone faced even though the war was over.

Thank you to NetGalley, Aria & Aries and Clare Whitfield for the the free ebook.

Could not put this down!

Nell and her girls, what a ride - champagne, furs, diamonds & machetes!

**Thank you to the publishers Bloomsbury, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I wanted to love this so badly. A gang of women coming together in protest of their position in society, to steal the luxury life they could never earn. It promised found family, action and an interesting cast of thoughtful and sparky women. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver.

Eleanor is painfully naive and childish. The kind of girl with no impulse control, she gets swept up in whatever attention is thrown her way. It was incredibly hard to believe that this inexperienced, vapid girl had been selected by an established gang to join their ranks based on witnessed potential. We're shown snippets of her family life and home, but not nearly enough of "before" for me to feel invested in Eleanor's motivation. She spends a lot of time thinking unflattering things about the elderly customers she serves as a waitress, but the engagement with class politics of the time is surprisingly shallow, given this is meant to be at the core of the book.

The story jumps about between settings and characters in a way I found jarring. In the scene when Eleanor tells her family she's leaving for a new life in London, her mother is distraught. Half a page later, she's sneaking into her bedroom to gift her a machete. It felt surreal.

I don't know if the digital ACR is just very unedited, but the final straw for me was about 25% of the way though, when one of the girls in the gang rechristens Eleanor as "Nell". The narrator had already been switching unreliably between referring to her as Eleanor and Nell for the entire book. To learn that this slightly confusing slip was actually a central plot point for Eleanor's characterisation within the gang that the author had let slip was utterly disappointing. I gave up shortly after this, as reading the book had become something I had to force myself to do.

I was intrigued with the premise of this book, knowing nothing about the forty elephants. Sadly the book just didn't work for me and I struggled to get into it.

POOR GIRLS is an action-packed book about an all-female gang operating on London in the 1920s.

I grew up in Elephant and Castle (where the gang the forty elephants got their name) so these gangs were something I was aware of as these were people from our area who stole from the rich north of the river. It was really nice to read book that brought them to life, including cameos from real people like Alice Diamond.

So much research has gone into this book to make the thefts as realistic as possible, from the big bloomers to hide objects in to the places targeted. The locations are well researched (the number of lessons we had to sit through on "conditions of the working class in our borough" could have been avoided with a book like this!) It made it feel like such a nice window into their world.

The book plunges you into the high stakes world of thefts, entanglements with the law, and women trying to survive a world that wants them safely boxed away as maids or mothers. It's full of glamour but also the perils of the trade. I loved following along with these four girls who were like sisters, bickering and reckless but with one another's backs.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s not my usual go to book genre being about historical events and the forty elephants from the 1920s. I liked how the main character Eleanor who came from nothing transitioned into a part of the cell assuming a new brighter personality as Nell.

I would definitely recommend this book as it left me with a range of emotions and more of an understanding of what the 1920s were like as part of the gang. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy to read.

This was an unexpected read! The book is a Long Ark starting with 14-year-olds, wondering why life is stacked against women, there is then the hay day being out on the run and being queen of the city, the ending is the comeuppance and what happens in response to poor girls making good and then being judged. The characters are fun not always likable but full of wit full of swearing and full of joy. The book tells into the emotions and family relationships as well of those of the women themselves, ultimately only have each other and have other people they can trust. The odds Are indeed stacked against the women, the police won’t help them nor the lawmakers nor those with money and position. What else are poor girls to do?

I absolutely adored this book so fast paced with such well rounded characters that you can’t help but love. Such an easy 4 star and I cannot wait to read more from Claire Whitfield. For a more detailed review please check out my tiktok linked below.

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield is a fast-paced, gripping tale set in 1922, shining a spotlight on the infamous female-led gang, the Forty Elephants. The story follows twenty-year-old Eleanor Mackridge, a young woman disillusioned by the bleak future society has laid out for her—either serving the upper classes or settling for marriage. After working in a munitions factory during the war, handling explosives and earning good money, Eleanor is frustrated to see women pushed back into subservient roles as men return from the front.

Feeling trapped in her mundane life in Brighton, Eleanor yearns for something more. Her chance encounter with a member of the Forty Elephants, a gang of bold, glamorous women who steal what they want and live lives of luxury, opens up a new path for her. Enticed by the allure of diamonds, furs, champagne, and a sense of freedom, Eleanor reinvents herself as 'Nell' and becomes part of this notorious group. Alongside Effie, Lily, and Charlie, she embarks on a life of crime that challenges society’s expectations of women and defies the conventional roles imposed upon them.

Whitfield’s depiction of the gang’s operations is both thrilling and fascinating. The main characters, though fictional, are richly drawn, with sharp wit and rebellious spirit. They are mischievous, daring, and at times ruthless, but also show moments of vulnerability and loyalty to one another. The camaraderie between the women adds depth to their otherwise 'wicked' adventures.

The book vividly captures the social and economic realities of women in the 1920s, exploring how societal restrictions forced some into taking extreme measures to gain control over their lives. Eleanor’s journey from dutiful daughter to criminal mastermind is an exhilarating ride, and Whitfield’s sharp, lively prose keeps the reader engaged from start to finish.

With its authentic portrayal of the criminal underworld and strong, complex female characters, Poor Girls is a brilliant and highly entertaining read. A fresh and exciting take on 1920s London, it’s perfect for anyone who enjoys stories of rebellion, survival, and fierce independence. Highly recommended!

Read more at The Secret Bookreview.

WWI has ended and Eleanor, who spent the war working in a munitions factory, finds herself facing a life she doesn’t want. She’s waitressing in a hotel, with little to look forward to besides a life of menial service jobs or marriage.

Life changes when Eleanor finds herself swept up into the Forty Elephants, a network of female thieves in London.

The pacing is fast, the characters are well written, and I enjoyed Eleanor’s transformation from meek(ish) waitress to bold thief. The descriptions of the girls’ tricks and how they ran their operation were interesting, and the plot was gripping.

I had no idea until the afterword that the Forty Elephants were a real gang and some of the book’s characters were real people. That brought a whole new element to the book.

I flew through Poor Girls, didn’t want to put it down. Oh, and I’ve learned a new use for Fisherman’s Friends…

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.