Yours Cheerfully, by AJ Pearce

An uplifting novel, full of spirit for the good fight.

The protagonist in the novel, Emmy, was a person one would certainly welcome as a best friend. She was a good hearted woman, a champion, and a mate one would trust and rely upon without a moment’s hesitation. Many heroines fit that bill, and the story demonstrates that many were living in England during the blitz of World War II.

The story has a parade of characters fighting for the good cause. Bunty, Emmy’s best friend and flat mate, was seriously injured in a London bombing raid, and her fiancé killed. Mr. Collins, Emmy’s editor at the magazine Women’s Friend, inspired and supported her when she took up the cause for the downtrodden women factory workers at Chandlers. And Charles, Emmy’s fiancé, accompanied her to the Patriotic Parade in Berkshire on the morning of their wedding. Of course, the was no shortage of villains in the novel. Mr. Terry was the factory manager, a man who had no tolerance for a woman’s personal problems, such as child care. He told Emmy during an interview to “Stick to writing stories for your ladies, Miss Lake. And leave me to run my factory.” But as villains go, Mr. Terry had stiff competition from Miss Eggerton of the Ministry, who told Emmy that “mothers’ true places are in their homes with their families.”

Yours Cheerfully is an uplifting novel, full of spirit for the good fight, and a positive look at England’s desperate times during World War II. The characters are every bit as strong and courageous as the country’s Spitfire pilots, and contributed in equal measure to the war effort. A cynic might complain that the story ignores the awful destruction of the City of London and the deaths at Dunkirk and then Normandy. That misses the point. The war was won by the positive endeavors of citizens like Winston Churchill and Emmeline Lake. These men and women persevered when the cynics wanted to lay down in the ruins and give up. Yours Cheerfully brilliantly depicts the positive attitude that was England’s best weapon.

For more about AJ Pearce, visit her website here.