If you’ve been suffering from a reading slump, this is the ideal book to get you back on a reading roll. Featuring the same cast of characters that stole our hearts in Dear Mrs Bird, Yours Cheerfully continues the tale of the spirited Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty as they navigate their way through 1941. This is Number 2 in the Emmeline Lake Chronicles but you do not need to have read Dear Mrs Bird to enjoy it. And if you love it you know there will be more treats to come! 

Following the departure of the formidable Mrs Bird, Emmy rises to the challenge of advice columnist at Women’s Friend magazine. And when the Ministry of Information calls on the magazine to help recruit female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to do her part. Ever creative and resourceful she makes a plan to share the reality of working in a munitions factory, and very quickly she is faced with the dilemma of how to do her duty but also be true to her friends.

This novel is written in a jaunty, heart-warming style, but doesn’t shy away from the real issues around values, women’s rights, and living with the grief and uncertainty of war time London. It tackles the challenges faced by female factory workers – long hours, unequal pay, as well as balancing childcare and family responsibilities on few or no benefits with stoic optimism. 

A J Pearce does a great job of creating well rounded, engaging characters, full of humour, camaraderie and resilience. As the story unfolds the characters are cleverly developed and 4 year old Ruby nearly steals the show! 

Pearce deftly balances the challenges of loss, rations, the struggles of war time conditions, highlighting the discrimination of the times and the changes being put in motion, in a charming, nostalgic style. It is a novel of hope and joy and the kindness of strangers, of ordinary people living through extraordinary times.

(Thanks to Kate at Macmillan for this advance copy, Yours Cheerfully is out on 24th June)

(Review by Dee)