I might have read Dear Mrs. Bird in one huge binge, including having the book propped on the kitchen counter while making a can of medium green peas for the spouse’s dinner. And the next day once I was free of the office, hop in the car and make a beeline for my local library to pick the sequel Yours Cheerfully. Of I did! Did you expect me to pick up Crime and Punishment and write a scholarly tome? Nope not at all. I mean I have read Crime and Punishment but my days wandering around a lovely New England university campus are almost thirty years in the past.
Emmy and the Dear Mrs. Bird gang are back. Well, pretty much everyone except Mrs. Bird who I imagine is billeting evacuees on unsuspecting souls and driving the vicar’s wife into slipping into the butler’s pantry at the vicarage to guzzle a bottle of parsnip wine before the W.I. meeting. Yes, I might want to cut back on the Lady Grey tea and coming up with truly dreadful Nancy Mitford meets Angela Thirkell mashups. In my defense I have read a lot of British fiction from World War II. All those books must slip out of the brain pan somewhere.
But back to Emmy and friends. Mrs. Bird is gone. The Women’s Friend is still considered old fashioned by most people but it’s still there. And the advice page is thriving. The Ministry of Information wants to use the women’s press to promote women as war workers and of course Emmy has a plan. And shoots off her mouth.
<sighs>
Yes, romance is there. But romance is just one part of the book. To be honest, I’m not here for the romance. I mean Mr. Guy Collins is very dishy and I’ve mentally cast Mr. Guy Collins as Colin Firth because why not? Also, Colin Firth looks lovely in period suits. And yes, the spouse is very aware of my crush on Colin Firth. But I prefer the let’s hunt for nylons and lipsticks vs let’s smooch Charles Collins.
The core of Yours Cheerfully for me is the very real plight of women on the home front. Emmy and her friends do their best to make changes, and yes I agree 100% with informative pamphlets but sitting on the couch in 2021 you realize not much has truly changed for women. A working mother is still pulled between providing financial security and nurturing her children. The world isn’t kind and childcare issues abound.
Please don’t read this and think Yours Cheerfully is a downer, going from a munitions factory to London and back again does give a different energy but even at the worst Emmy still has that unsinkable energy and makes the best changes she can in her power.
I might not adore Yours Cheerfully as much as Dear Mrs. Bird even if I’m thinking Mr. Guy Collins and Bunty will hook up, but several part of Yours Cheerfully did have me rummaging through my carefully stacked smaller books to find a treasure or two from the International War Museum and debating if I should get Make Do and Mend on Kindle since I can’t find my copy. And a book that can inspire further or related reading (hi there Henrietta’s War) is certain worth the read.
And if AJ Pearce writes another Emmy Lake Chronicles book? I’m putting it on a library hold once it hits the States even if Bunty doesn’t become Mrs. Guy Collins.
whiskeytangowendymarie.com 