Dear Mrs Bird cover art

Dear Mrs Bird

Cosy up with this heartwarming and heartbreaking novel set in wartime London

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Dear Mrs Bird

By: AJ Pearce
Narrated by: Anna Popplewell
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About this listen

Read by Anna Popplewell, known for her role in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Richard & Judy Book Club Pick
Sunday Times Bestseller

Set during London's blitz and filled with warmth, wit and heartbreak, Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce is a wartime story about the power of friendship, the kindness of strangers and the courage of ordinary people.

London, 1941. Amid the falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a fearless Lady War Correspondent. Unfortunately, Emmy instead finds herself employed as a typist for the terrifying Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs Bird refuses to read, let alone answer, letters containing any form of Unpleasantness, and definitely not letters from the women the war has left lovelorn, grief-stricken or conflicted.

But the thought of these desperate women waiting for an answer becomes impossible for Emmy to ignore. She decides she simply must help and secretly starts to write back – after all, what harm could that possibly do?

'The most uplifting, lovely book about courage, friendship, love' – Marian Keyes
'Utterly charming and helplessly funny' – Jenny Colgan
'A proper comfort read' – India Knight

 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Romance Feel-Good Heartfelt Tear-jerking Funny War

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Critic reviews

If I had only known how much I was going to adore Dear Mrs Bird, I wouldn’t have gobbled it down all at once. Funny, fresh, and touching, Dear Mrs Bird is a treat of a read. (Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)
I fell in love with Dear Mrs Bird on page one and completely adored every single word . . . a wonderfully heartwarming book, which I will recommend to everyone I know (Jill Mansell, author of An Almost Perfect Summer)
Utterly charming and helplessly funny (Jenny Colgan, author of Little Beach Street Bakery)
Witty, wise and full of charm . . . I absolutely loved it (Rachel Lucas, author of The Winter Cottage)
The sweetest, most uplifting, lovely book about courage, friendship, love . . . It'll be huge; it deserves to be (Marian Keyes, author of The Break)
A winning wartime romp . . . as hilarious as it is moving. Emmy is truly charming. When her upper lip finally wobbles, the reader’s will, too. In the end, the novel’s spirit is madly winning, and its foregrounding of wartime women seems spiffingly modern.
This story of female friendship is just the tonic for that jaded feeling that the world is ugly and mad.
A joyfully uplifting and optimistic novel . . . a timely story of courage and good humour in adversity.
A marvellous treat. Charming and delightful. (Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina)
When we need it most, Dear Mrs Bird is a wonderful, uplifting novel and, like its heroine, its breathless, giddy tone has real depth and heart. (Sarra Manning)
Here’s a refreshing take on the Second World War novel. Dear Mrs Bird is charming without being twee, full of fun and heart, and will being you to tears. (Sarah Shaffi)
Dear Mrs Bird is an adorable novel, charming, funny, and uplifting . . . Catch a cold immediately and retire to bed with it (Louisa Young, author of My Dear I Wanted To Tell You)
Irresistibly charming and delightful (Kate Eberlen, author of Miss You)
A joy from start to finish. Dear Mrs Bird is as funny as it is heart-warming. (John Boyne, author The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)
An utterly charming story of friendship, heartbreak and heroism... You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love it (Lucy Diamond)
I've never read a novel that has grabbed me by the heart quite so much as this one
Books that make you shake with laughter and sob with tears are rare. I gulped this one down but didn’t stop thinking about it for a long time (Katie Fforde)
Dear Mrs Bird is an utterly enchanting debut: cheering, compelling, charming. If you loved Their Finest this is for you. (Amanda Craig, author of The Lie of The Land)
A thoroughly lovely book, and reading it is like a great big shot of serotonin in the arm. I defy anyone not to fall for its numerous charms (Kate Riordan)
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed listening to this book. Very good characters and a thoughtful insight into wartime England for women.

A warm and believable tale

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Very strong engaging story.
Narrator goes frequently from whisper to shout, or vice versa, so I constantly had to adjust the volume, which is extremely frustrating.

Good story annoying narration

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Dear Mrs Bird gives you an insight into being a young woman during World War II.
It is narrated in a crisp 1940s British accent and is a truly lovely story which made me smile many a time.

Lovely wartime story

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Such a wonderful book. Highly recommended. Great story and characters. Such an interesting topic, women in the WWII.

Wonderful

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I loved this gently funny and sad book - set in the 2nd WW in London, during the Blitz. It’s a story of a determinedly wannabe career-girl, who takes her dream job as a reporter only to discover she’s accidentally landed a job working as a lackey for the Agony Aunt in a women’s magazine. Not only that, but she is assigned the task of weeding through the letters that come in and discarding any that have the faintest whiff of scandal - women seeking solace from their loneliness, girls falling for ‘not one of ours’, and so on. And before long she takes pity on these readers and starts replying to them.
I loved the characters and how the narrator brought them to life. The plot was a little predictable but somehow that made it all the more sweet. The language used was perfect for the era.
This is a novel about friendship, about small delights, about bullying, and about understanding that everyone has a battle to fight.
For the women (and men) left behind, this novel illustrates perfectly the paradox of the attitude of ‘keep smiling through’; in itself a burden and added strain, it also kept them going, through tragic and terrifying times.

Jolly good show!

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