So, Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce is yet another one of those books I saw on several people's blogs and also mentioned on a Youtube book vlog that I regularly tune into. It sounded like my sort of thing as I like a lot of wry humour in my reading, so I grabbed it for my Kindle.
Emmy's ambition for a while has been to be a reporter on a national newspaper. It's 1940 and WW2 is raging, London is in the middle of The Blitz and suffering horrendous casualties and damage to the city, night after night. Dangerous assignments sound like an exciting thing to be involved in, no matter that she does actually spend her evenings and a lot of the night answering emergency calls for the fire brigade and is not at all exempt from the bombing in the capital city.
When Emmy sees an advert for what she thinks is a new position with a famous newspaper she jumps at it, thinking her life is about to change completely. She's so excited she doesn't ask any relevant questions at the interview which is how she finds herself a secretary to an Agony Aunt working for a dull magazine that the newspaper owner owns but has very little to do with. Poor Emmy is hugely disappointed and annoyed at herself for getting so carried away.
The Agony Aunt herself is Mrs. Bird. Mrs. Bird is rather a stately woman of the old school, no nonsense, no slacking and definitely no 'unpleasantness' as regards the letters which she will answer in her column. What Emmy finds herself doing is sorting out the unpleasant from the acceptible. The former make up the vast majority of the postbag, sad letters from women and girls who are struggling with every difficult or embarrassing thing you can think of, not just personal problems but difficulties connected to the war. Mrs. Bird wants nothing to do with any of this but soft-hearted Emmy finds herself sympathising and feeling that people are in need of help and answers if they're desperate enough to write to a magazine.
Emmy's eventual decision is to start taking letters home to answer herself. She knows this is a drastic step, especially when she signs them, 'Mrs. Bird'. She knows that if she ever gets found out, a bit more than 'unpleasantness' will ensue. But, of course, she does it anyway.
Well, sometimes highly hyped books don't live up to the hype. And sometimes they do. This is not a universally loved book and it does have its flaws. Emmy's inner voice being a bit Jolly Hocky Sticks can be a bit grating to some but personally I loved it. She reminded me so much of Sam, Foyle's driver in the wonderful WW2 crime series, Foyle's War. Her enthusiasm was so uplifting and her turn of phrase so funny, it was just a joy. She seemed to me to epitomise that WW2 spirit of 'Keep calm and carry on' regardless of what happens. Because what other choice did they have?
I felt a bit that this was a book of two halves. The first half funny and upbeat, the second not so much. Emmy's unquenchable spirit is still there but she's in conflict with a friend and that has consequences. Plus, well there's a war on and awful things happen and that is brilliantly portrayed. I not only enjoyed this book for its delightful humour and characters but I learnt from it, not just historical details but about the spirit of Londoners at this time and the horrors of what they had to endure. The book doesn't shy away from that. The importance of friendship, helping people if you possibly can, doing what you feel is right even if everyone else thinks you're wrong, are also very strong factors in the bones of this book. Overhyped or not overhyped, you'll have to decide for yourself but personally, I think not. I loved, Dear Mrs. Bird and look forward to reading its sequel, Yours Cheerfully, very soon.
17 comments:
I loved your review Cath but, yet someone I feel I might be one the ones who might be disappointed in it. Certain types of characters can get on my nerves --even in fiction LOL
Not the type of storyline I could read all the time, but as you yourself would say, "a change is often as good as a rest" and I do like to mix up my reading as much as possible.
I really liked the sound of the storyline, but was just wondering if the book does have a proper 'ending', or if reading #2 becomes almost compulsory?
Mind you, I checked out 'Yours Cheerfully' and that sounds just as good!
I loved your review by the way! :)
Diane: And you wouldn't be alone. LOL! One person who commented on my previous post, where I mentioned the book, had read it and not been very enamoured because of the personality of Emmy and the author's habit of emphasising certain statements by using capital letters. It's horses for courses and not every book is for everyone, thank goodness.
Yvonne: Oh yes, I definitely like to mix up my reading and this was a bit different for me who seems to live on a diet of dead bodies.
Yes, the book has a proper ending and stands alone. The sequel is along the lines of 'further adventures of' I believe and as you said, does sound very good too.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed my review. Kind of you to say so. :-)
Hope you're having a good week. We're on our final day of isolating.
Read Dear Mrs Bird some time ago--just finished reading Yours Cheerfully at 1 am this morning. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The story will continue.
I like reading books set in this time/place. My mother used to tell me about London during the war. A remarkable women. At the time, she was in her 30s and held several jobs simultaneously, including driving an ambulance during the Blitz and throughout the rest of the war, was a long distance operator and had one more job she wasn't allowed to talk about. Supported her mother and sister and had her home bombed; lost her Royal Navy brother when his ship was sunk by a U-boat in 1940, less than nine months after her father died. She married my father just weeks before the war in Europe ended. Reading about this period reminds me of her.
I would be inclined to try this because I have read so many good reviews, and stories set during the war and especially during the Blitz are very appealing. But the inner voice of the main character could be irritating. So I guess I am still on the fence on this one.
I loved this one, too, for all the reasons you stated in your review! :D
Jolly good review, as Emmy would say! It stands on its own well. I don't think any sequel would have lived up to how much I loved this book.
I loved this book when I read it quite some time ago. I remember thinking that it was so charming, but still had a bit of a 'bite'. Your comparison of Emmy and Sam seems very good to me. I loved Sam. I haven't read the sequel yet, but do intend to at some point. I think I'm a little afraid that I won't like it as well. LOL
Mary: So pleased to hear that Yours Cheerfully is very good as well. I'll certainly be reading this year.
One of the pleasures of being a teenager in the 1960s was listening to my parents' generation's stories about the war. It was fascinating but it didn't occur to me at the time that it was only 20 years ago and still very fresh in their memories. To me it seemed like ancient history but now, well it's only like going back to the year 2000, no wonder they were still trying to make sense of it. Now of course I wished I'd asked more questions... now they've all gone.
Tracy: I never found Emmy irritating. She's just someone trying desperately to please and to make people happy. Sadly, it doesn't always work out but her intentions are very noble.
Lark: Wonderful book, it's going to be one of my favourites of 2022, I'm sure.
Constance: Thank you. Yes, but I shall definitely be reading the sequel as I really want to know what happens to Emmy.
Kay: Well, from Mary's comment above you will see that the sequel is also very good so I don't think you need to have any worries.
What a super review, Cath. It sounds like a great book, and I always love a sequel too. Thank you! I didn't know it had a lot of hype, which I'm glad about as that might have put me off. I don't know why, but hype usually does.
I'm glad you loved this one as much as I did! I really need to read the sequel. Oh, and I love the phrase "jolly hockey sticks" - I've never heard it before, but now I think I'm going to start using it :)
Val: Thank you! I like sequels too. They don't always live up to the first book but I like to find out what happens to people. Hype often puts me off too and I usually wait several years before I read that sort of book so that I'm not part of the general hoo-ha at the time. But with Mrs. Bird it had been read by people whose opinion I respect and whose tastes are simialr to mine so I felt ok reading the book.
Susan: 'Jolly hockey sticks' is quite as old fashioned term in the UK, referring to the boarding school mentality that existed back in the 1930s, 40s, 50s. People of a certain age in the UK will know exactly what you mean when you say it but people from overseas probably not so much.
This is an interesting plot, Cath. I didn't think it would appeal to me at all, but after reading your review, I'm starting to wonder about it.
I had not heard the phrase "jolly hockey sticks" before but that doesn't surprise me at all. I read so much British fiction that I run into that kind of thing every few days, seems like. Just today in an Ann Cleeves novel there was the word "soothmoother" that I'm still wondering about. :-)
Sam: It's an interesting little book and with you having lived here I think you would get the humour in it.
Jolly Hockey Sticks is a bit archaic and although we do use it still, a little bit, it's not something you would hear every day. 'Soothmoother' has to be SCottish because I've never heard it before.
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