By AJ Pearce

Despite a slow start, this turned out to be a charming and delightful novel very similar in style and substance to D.E. Stevenson. I expected something of the sort, set in England during the Nazi blitzkrieg of London, but I didn’t expect that long swaths could almost be mistaken for her writing. The characters could have stepped right out of one of Stevenson’s wartime novels (except they mostly are not set in London). Our two young heroines are kind, pretty, spunky, bursting with moral fiber, and determined to do their bit in the war. And the young men are their equivalent. If they are not in the military, they prove their bravery by contributing in some way to the war effort. There is at least one thoroughly obnoxious character to challenge them, a daunting parental figure/mentor and a wise protective one. Sad and bad things happen but the overall tone is light and comfortable and sprinkled with gentle humor.

Emmy and her life-long friend Bunty are living in London during the blitz. Fired up by the idea of being a lady war correspondent, when Emmy sees an employment advertisement in the London Evening Chronicle, she applies for the position, and she gets it! To her dismay she soon finds out that she is nothing more than a junior typist for Henrietta Bird, the “Acting Editress” and advice columnist for Women’s Friend magazine. Worse, one of her duties is to read the letters to Mrs. Bird and cut up the letters that request help regarding anything “unpleasant” according to her very rigid lights.

Topics That Will Not Be Published Or Responded To By Mrs. Bird
(NB: list is not exclusive and will be added to when required)
Marital relations
Premarital relations
Extramarital relations
Physical relations
Sexual relations in general (all issues, mentions, suggestion, or results of)
Illegal activities
Political activities and opinions
Religious activities and opinions (excl. queries regarding church groups and services)
The War (excl. queries regarding rationing, voluntary services, clubs, and practicalities)

Words and Phrases That Will Not Be Published Or Responded To By Mrs. Bird For further references see Girlhood To Wife: Practical Advice By A Doctor (1921)
A–C
Affair
Amorous
Ardent
Bed
Bedroom
Bed jacket
Berlin
. . . The list went on for pages.
In other words, the Women’s Friend problem page only wants to be friends with women who have no actual problems or dilemmas. And in the England of 1941, those women are few and far between. And the magazine’s subscriptions and advertising revenue show it.

But as Emmy reads the comparatively few letters that she and Kathleen, her co-worker, receive, her heart is rung by the sometimes desperate cries for help with real world difficulties exacerbated by wartime. Finally, she starts to respond to the most heart-wrenching on the sly if they include a stamped self-addressed envelope. Emboldened by her success (and the fact that she doesn’t get caught) she even starts to sneak a few letters into the magazine (Since Mrs. Bird never reads it.) Meanwhile she tackles her own challenges with her volunteer work as a phone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Service and her personal life, along with her friend Bunty, who is engaged to be married to their childhood friend, William.

Needless to say, “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” for our heroine on more than one front, and all Hell breaks loose all over the place for poor Emmy who tries her best to Keep Calm and Carry On in the face of several disasters.

*A few spoilers you would probably guess anyway*

It wasn’t quite a 5 star read for me. There were things that didn’t seem right. Emmy was too wishy-washy about trying to help the women who were desperate for advice and support. Of course she should try to help them! Not to do so would have been practically unpatriotic! And her supposedly super-plucky friend Bunty is horrified and scared at the very idea when Emmy feels her out on her dilemma. This didn’t track either. I was kind of shocked at her attitude. In one incident, Emmy lays into Bill for endangering his life and the lives of his crew to rescue a little girl’s doll that was buried in the rubble following a bombing. While on the surface this was kind and brave of Bunty’s fiancé, it was also very dangerous and foolish. She is wracked with guilt for scolding him and the incident has far-reaching consequences. It was frustrating because I thought she was absolutely right and she had nothing to apologize for. I had problems with Bunty and her actions v. what we are told about her character. Lastly, it turns out that the one mistake that Emmy made in writing back to the desperate women was signing Henrietta’s Bird’s name to the letters. That was really dumb, dumb, dumb. She didn’t have to sign them at all.

Naturally, Emmy triumphs in the end. Thankfully, her response to the final letter of the book is very courageous. Her nemesis, Henrietta Bird, one of the most obnoxious and “unpleasant” women I have fictionally experienced in recent years, is summarily disposed of. But unfortunately with more of a whimper than the bang I was hoping for. Still, If you liked the final courtroom scene in Miracle on 34th Street, you will get similar vibes with the dramatic showdown in this book. I’ll probably read one more in this series of four books and then see how it goes. But, like with D.E. Stevenson, I have to take a break and wait for the right mood to hit me.