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and life along the winding road

Friday, December 2, 2022

Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce


 In Dear  Mrs. Bird, A.J. Pearce has captured life in London during the WWII years with a keep your chin up and carry on attitude.  

The story is of Emmeline Lake and her friend Bunty. Emmeline finds a job with a women's magazine and also volunteers for the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) in the evening, assisting the firemen who are called out nightly after bombing raids. Her job at Woman's Friend is to assist Mrs. Bird in answering letters sent in by readers but Mrs. Bird is very strict about not responding to anything she finds unpleasant. Emmeline decides to write back and offer advice to some women and also to sneak in some of her responses to the magazine "help" page. In between her devious letter writing, she is also writing to her boyfriend, all of which is far removed from her goal to become a war correspondent.

My thoughts:
I liked the story and some of the situations and office procedures had changed very little from when I began work in London in the late 1960s. Calling each other by a first name could be a sackable offense especially in front of clients or customers (Are you Being Served is a good example). Most furniture was made of wood and had many splinters which was a nuisance when women could only wear skirts or dresses and nylons were often snagged on desks or desk legs. Letter writing has sadly fallen by the wayside and Twitter comments or text messages sent off without checking the contents are no replacement for the heartfelt words in a well thought out letter and letter writing played a big part in Dear. Mrs. Bird. Eventually Emmy was encouraged to write for Mr. Collins (Editor at Large) and had several articles printed but they don't appear to be in her name. Women were relegated to the "help" column or cooking section.
Although conversations were in line with the era I wasn't keen on the writing style . Phrases were indiscriminately capitalized which stopped the flow of reading. It's a shame there weren't more detailed descriptions. London would have been a plethora of sounds, smells and unusual terrain in the bombed areas. Instead, words such as gloomy, pretty wallpaper and flattened building were used.