This is a novel about wartime London and almost the art of "getting on" with things despite the disruption that bombing causes. For me it took a really long time to actually move the storyline on and had a little too much of the "jolly hockey sticks" character or bravado. However there were parts that really got to me emotionally and I wanted things to turn out well for the characters. There were some very well written individual scenes and for a debut novel it has a lot going for it. I would not be put off reading more by this author

I have posted Amazon review the link just hasn't been emailed to me

What a wonderful novel!!

I was captivated by the writing, the fabulously drawn characters and I was truly transported right into the heart of wartime London. Such a skilful and evocative book I adored the main character, Emmy, who is scatterbrained, slightly quirky and utterly endearing.

Emmy has always wanted to be a journalist, dreams of being a war correspondent and serving her country, she thinks she has landed her dream job but unwittingly ends up as the assistant on the problem page of a failing women's magazine. Her boss, the truly awful Mrs Bird, refuses to move with the times, has a seemingly endless list of taboo subjects and absolutely no understanding of the needs of the women who write to her for help.

Such a warm and engaging book, of friendship, heartbreak and life in the 'stiff upper lip' atmosphere of the times. This was my first read of this year and I'm already certain it will be in my top reads list - I'd love there to be a sequel to this book, to see how Emmy, Bunty and the magazine progress throughout the rest of the war and beyond.

Many many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmilan for the chance to read this charming book! This review as always reflects my honest opinion.

Loved it, loved it.. I always know early on if I’m going to enjoy a book and this was no exception. The characters were all believable and a joy to get to know even Mrs Bird! I cannot imagine living during ww2 but this book gives lots of different insights all of which tie in with other books of this genre so truthful and believable. It was nice to have a strong female lead well supported by those who stepped up as men went off to war. Thank you and I shall look out for further books.

Ahhhh this was great! I really couldn't put it down. It's a good mix of sad, heart-warming and witty. I loved the main character and I really enjoyed submerging myself into her friendships and life. Funny and poignant.

What a delightful, witty yet poignant book.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I have always been interested in the second world war and reading it reminded me of the many stories my Grandma used to tell me when she was alive.

Emmeline is a young lady during the second world war, who wants to help in the war effort by becoming a war correspondent. She ends up working for a newspaper but not in the way she had hoped!

The characters are believable and relatable. The storyline is often both funny and sad and manages to balance this very well.

Definitely recommended for any age group.

This book was great fun to read and I didn’t want it to end. It’s a light-hearted story set in the Blitz. Warm-hearted Emmeline Lake dreams of being a war correspondent but ends up working for Henrietta Bird, a formidable agony aunt who refuses to answer any letters that have a hint of unpleasantness (which is nearly every letter she receives!) Emmy is impulsive but likeable. She gets herself into tricky situations. There’s a lot of humour but sadness too. Uplifting and well worth a read!

‘Dear Mrs Bird’ was a delightful read. Initially frothy, light-hearted, and comic in a sort of Bertie Woosterish style, Emmeline Lake, the heroine, skips and bumbles through the London Blitz with naïveté and youthful exhuberance, until things take a skilfully portrayed darker turn.
Written in a fairly self-conscious COMEDIC style, with lots of upper case and caps lock, and old fashioned Stiff-Upper-Lip, British What-Ho-ishness, it worked for me. I didn’t think it would, but it did. A few modern terms did slip past the author and editors, but they didn’t jar too horribly. I’d definitely read more of this author’s work, as her relentlessly humorous and positive take on life, work, friendships, relationships, the war, and all-things-grim, was a blast of fresh air amongst the relentless slew of murder-and-mayhem novels that are the norm now.
I’d be surprise if it didn’t transfer to TV, as I can easily see it in half hour episodes, reminiscent of a war time Blandings.

I absolutely adored this book. It was a real page turner and I didn't want it to finish. I loved all the characters, including the terrifying Mrs Bird. The blitz is the setting and Emmy is trying to make her mark in journalism. Her job is to type up letters for a problem page and when she thinks people are not being helped sufficiently she decides to take matters into her own hands. This is a great read and put a big smile on my face. Highly recommended. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC.

Loved this book - I always enjoy books that give me an insight into London during the war. Both my parents came from London but would not talk about their experiences through the war as they found them too painful. This book gave me some insight of the dreadful things that happened through a different perspective and how the war affected relationships that were made.
I hope there is a sequel as I want more - how the new Mrs Bird succeeded, what Bunty did and did Charles come back?

I love fiction based on the Homefront in the UK during WWII and this was no exception. It's a lovely story that made me laugh at times, and cry at the end.

This is a delightful feel-good novel which I read over two days. The premise, that of agony aunt letters sent during the war to the background of the London Blitz is an unusual one. The novel embraces ordinary lives with personal problems very much of their time but also with a degree of universality. The blitz is ever present and is an an intriguing background by which to explore a twenty year old young woman's dreams and aspirations and her very human mistakes. Emmeline aspires to work as a war correspondent but instead finds herself sifting through agony letters for her extremely difficult boss Mrs Bird. She is only permitted to pass on 'proper' Mail so that real problems are ignored. That is until Emmy takes the initiative and cannot resist answering the correspondence herself. This is a novel deftly plotted which is highly readable. It has a gallery of endearing characters who change and grow by the novel's end. The very vividly portrayed, very terrifying Blitz contrasts with a realistic, very human plot line involving themes of friendship and optimism. Alongside Emmy's secrecy which is poised to be discovered at any moment her personal life, too, is threatened. It's a perceptive novel filled with stoacism and hope. It's characters seek 'sanity in the middle of a Europe being battered by a deranged madman and Britain doing its best to keep the hope of a free world alive...' Dear Mrs Bird' is a well-researched, beautifully written book which comes highly reccomended by this reader.

Crikey, what a book this is. I’m going to be honest with you, when I was initially sent an advance copy of Dear Mrs Bird to review, I started reading and threw it aside after about 10 minutes thinking it was way too fluffy and Hooray Henry for me. How wrong and small minded I was! Thank goodness I went back and gave it another try. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.

Set in London during the blitz, Emmy believes her dreams of being a female war correspondent are about to come true when she accidentally takes a job typing up letters for Mrs Bird’s problem page. Emmy doesn’t always agree with the formidable Mrs Bird’s advice to her readers. Hence Emmy takes matters into her own hands.

Initially Dear Mrs Bird could be mistaken for being a light, fun read. But it is so much more – it poignantly explores the true impact of World War II on the home front. I cried buckets reading this novel but I also laughed loads too. This is a profound novel about friendship and integrity. It is simply brilliant.

The paperback version of Dear Mrs Bird was released very recently – 27 December. So go and get your copy now.

A J Pearce has written an absolute corker of a story for her first novel. Set in wartime London 1940, it faithfully represents the period, the morale and courage of the day in a heartfelt story which is both humorous and touching.
It tells the story of a young woman, Emmeline, who is doing her bit along with everyone else to support the country on the Home Front. Working at a solicitor’s office and doing extra night shifts as a volunteer taking emergency calls for the fire service, she dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent. When she spots an advert for a junior for The Chronicle, she excitedly applies, believing this will be the start of a journalistic career. Rather amusingly, there is some confusion over the exact nature of the position and Emmeline is stunned when she realises she has become a junior typist for an old fashioned battleaxe. Mrs Bird is the Acting Editress of a woman’s agony column for Woman’s Friend magazine. It is Emmeline’s job to sift through the readers’ letters and destroy any that have ‘degenerate’ content. Mrs Bird will not accept or reply to anything remotely ‘racy’, such as physical relations or even innocuous topics such as nervousness, rejecting anything she sees as weak. But Emmeline cannot bear to ignore these women’s cries for help, so starts to secretly reply to them.
Full of the phrases of the day and depicting the indefatigable Keep Calm and Carry On community spirit, the author grants us a vivid insight into the attitudes and mores of wartime Britain and tells a tender tale of love, courage, friendship and loyalty. An uplifting and feel good read, I would love to see a sequel to this story.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Pan Macmillan Picador and AJ Pearce for the opportunity to read and review Dear Mrs Bird.

Throughout the autumn and winter months I have heard so much about this book. So when Pan Macmillan sent me an eARC I just could not wait just to get stuck in.
It's a fun yet odd read. It is based around Emmine who has applied for a job as a war correspondent for her local paper only to discover that when she starts the job she is actually an assistant to Mrs Bird -The Evening Standard agony aunt- but Mrs Bird hand picks what letters she wants to read answer and which ones as too risky to be printed in the paper.
There is so much more to this story.
Fabulous storyline and great characters who are unique yet written with such depth-really makes the book come to life.
A must read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for my eARC of the book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Emmy Lake has just got a new job. Unfortunately, it's not the one she thought she'd applied for.

I really enjoyed Dear Mrs Bird. I'm sure its tone and style won't appeal to all but for me it was a breath of fresh air (of the type Henrietta Bird might prescribe in one of her responses to a reader's letter). In fact, frequently A J Pearce made me rejoice that we finally have a creditable female equivalent of P. G. Wodehouse but with far less silliness and much more depth. The humour appealed to me and I frequently laughed aloud, especially at the Capitalized Comments. I could so easily hear Emmy's narrative voice in my head.

All of that said, and emphasising my enjoyment of the humour in Dear Mrs Bird, none of this would have been so effective had it not been for the wonderful balance of the reality of the Blitz in contrast. AJ Pearce understands exactly how to use light and shade in her writing for maximum impact. I laughed aloud on so many occasions but I shed tears too. There's love, fear, grief and true friendship alongside the themes of maintaining a stiff upper lip, loyalty and relationships with a touch of feminism thrown in that make this an absolutely wonderful read.

Emmy is a complete star. Certainly she epitomises what is expected of the plucky, upper middle class girls of the era, which some might find stereotypical, but equally she's foolhardy and rash and quite often blinkered to the consequences of her actions and I loved her for every one of her flaws. She experiences the full range of emotions and I felt them with her. Reading Dear Mrs Bird felt more like hearing my friend Emmy telling me about her exploits and I was invested in each of them.

The plot of Dear Mrs Bird is relatively simple which is where the book succeeds so well because I think it reflects the day to day grind of routines punctuated with terrifying moments endured by so many during WW2 in London. There's a human quality of understanding and poignancy from AJ Pearce that I thoroughly enjoyed and found very touching.

I think Dear Mrs Bird is a book that might initially appear quite superficial but that surprises and rewards the reader in an emotional and thought provoking way. Reading it has made me wonder just what I would have been like as Emmy. The more I read of Dear Mrs Bird, the more I loved it. I really recommend it.

Dear Mrs Bird is a surprising book. It starts with a silly, almost twee description of the heroine, Effie who is an exuberant, childish girl with an ambition to be a “Lady War Correspondent” who has a friend called Bunty. But she doesn’t stay this annoying and gradually matures as she weathers the war.
When a venue is described for a forthcoming outing, anyone aware of the London blitz will be half expecting what happens, but the details in the narrative and the marvellous description of a foray into a residential street shortly after it has been bombed is compelling. The author thanks those who shared their memories she has clearly researched this thoroughly in painstaking detail. It was well worth the effort although the story is very slim and the plot is quite insignificant, with the details from the time it comes alive.

I think I'm going against the majority and say I didn't really like this book. It was an easy read. the narrative jogged along nicely but I found it almost Enid Blytonesque with it's "jolly hockey stick" style diction and plucky heroine - yet another poor, little rich girl. You could see a mile off that Emmeline would start disobeying Mrs. Bird's directions on what letters to answer and how and it just seemed to take most of the book for her to start doing so. I quite likes the description of the blitz and I think the book picked up the pace and interest for me when it became a bit darker in tone but it took a long time to do so. If I hadn't been sent a PDF of the book for review I think I might have given up after a few chapters. Nevertheless, I think this book will be a great success as it is lightweight and easy a decent bedtime read or book to not tax your brain on the train. For me, it was just okay - I loved the cover and liked the premise but it took too long to deliver.

A lovely read. Kept me interested right from the start.
Likeable characters and loved the whimsical, witty style that crept into the writing.


Released back in April I have only just gotten round to reading this book. Nothing to do with the book just bad time management on my part.
I found it a heart warming, charming read that had me laughing out loud whilst still dealing with some of the heartbreaking situations war brought to the people of London.
I loved the characters but especially the humorous use of the period vocabulary and social attitudes of the day.
I enjoyed reading about the different friendship groups Emmy had and the different ways they all coped with being in London at this time.
A delightful read that I would recommend.

Emmeline Lake wants to be a war correspondent, she thinks that she has just landed her dream job .... but that wouldn’t make a good novel. Misunderstandings, romantic adventures and traders swirl around this ideal summer read set in war time London.

Emmeline and Bunty are best of friends and have been since they were young. It's now 1941 and they live in London.
Emmy starts writing for a magazine called Women's friend. They give advice to suitable questions. Emmy feels sorry for the other women in the war struggling to cope. Does Bunty agree with what Emmy decides to do.
The story follows Emmy and Bunty's love lives and heartbreak. They are two strong women in a world changing time.