Dear Mrs. Bird

May 28, 2018
Pearce’s clever debut follows a plucky Londoner during the Blitz who dreams about becoming a war correspondent. When 22-year-old Emmeline Lake sees an ad for a “Junior” from the London Evening Chronicle’s publisher in 1940, she believes this will be the start of her journalism career. Alas, the job entails assisting Henrietta Bird, the advice columnist in Women’s Friend, a magazine dying off from fustiness. Henrietta is a literary Violet Crawley who won’t answer letters involving any unpleasantness, which eliminates most everything pertinent. Emmy, however, fails to destroy unsuitable letters as instructed, instead answering them privately under Mrs. Bird’s forged signature. Meanwhile, she and her best friend, Bunty, demonstrate resolve as bombs rain down night after night and Emmy’s fiancé informs her, via overseas telegram, that he is leaving her for a nurse. The novel has a wonderfully droll tone, a reminder of the exuberance of youth even under dire circumstances. Headlined by its winning lead character, who always keeps carrying on, Pearce’s novel is a delight.

In a performance that transports the listener to WWII-era London, narrator Anna Popplewell becomes Emmy Lake who, like many others, is doing what she can to help the war effort. Emmy and her best friend live a carefree life, even while the Germans bomb the city. Emmy, whose greatest desire is to be a Lady War Correspondent, takes a job at a women's magazine, working under Mrs. Bird, a gregarious, assertive advice columnist. Ultimately, Emmy decides to respond to letters on "unpleasant" topics as if SHE is Mrs. Bird. Popplewell embodies Emmy and the sundry characters who are part of her world, both during carefree times and as they struggle with the devastation of the war. A thoroughly enjoyable listen. A.L.S.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine