I've had a windfall of library books. They just sprout and bloom and then spread like weeds. One book on the holdshelf turns into six by the time you go to pick them up. So now I have a growing stack of library books and the hard choice of picking just one to read (unless I am lucky enough to be able to renew a few). I am starting with A.J. Pearce's Dear Mrs. Bird. I know this was released in the UK earlier this year, so maybe someone has read it and can give me the thumbs up?
It sounds pretty delightful. London during the Blitz is the setting. A young woman, aspiring to be a journalist, gets a job as a typist for an advice columnist. Rather than chuck out the letters dealing with any form of unpleasantness she answers them so the reader gets a peek of the lives of ordinary Londoners. It sounds like bombs falling are just one of the concerns. Flipping through the pages I was hoping for a more epistolary format, but I do still like possibilities. And I never mind a nice light read.
So maybe a teaser to get a taste and you can help me decide.
"When I first saw the advertisement in the newspaper I thought I might actually burst. I'd had rather a cheerful day so far despite the Luftwaffe annoying everyone by making us all late for work, and then I'd managed to get hold of an onion, which was very good news for a stew. But when I saw the announcement, I could not have been more cock-a-hoop."
I like the jaunty lighthearded tone, though I words like 'cock-a-hoop' worry me--not that I don't understand them, but sometimes authors maybe try too hard for that verisimilitude and then it sounds a little artificial, if you know what I mean. Still, I shall press on and see what adventures Emmeline gets herself into.