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Dear Mrs Bird

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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

©2018 AJ Pearce (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio 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)
A marvellous treat. Charming and delightful. (Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina)
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)
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)
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)
Dear Mrs Bird is a triumph – authentic, funny and packed with heart. (Miranda Dickinson, Sunday Times Bestselling Author)
A wonderful wartime story that is funny, yet poignant and realistic. I can't wait for the next in the series. (Kate Fforde)
All stars
Most relevant  
This is a tricky one! If there’s a plan for a follow up then it’s a good book, if not, then it’s finished in a rushed and incomplete way, it could definitely have at least done with an epilogue. If there is a follow up I would certainly buy it as I enjoyed the story, characters and narration. There are a few negative comments here about the narrator’s projection switching from low to high, but I think that’s really unfair when she’s voicing characters described in the book as whispering and timid or thundering and booming - and also conversations had amidst air raids!! My husband said he’d find the jolly hockey sticks delivery annoying, but again, I thought it fit well within the context of the book - all in all I found her performance “top draw”!!

Fabulous narration, good story, but....

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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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Nice tale based in wartime, sweet characters, enthusiastic narrator, just about the right length book

Pleasant tale

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What a wonderful story! This has kept us gripped throughout whilst decorating and we didn't want the story to end. It is written beautifully, with just the right level of description to make you feel as if you really are there with Emmy and Bunty. I'm so pleased that a sequel is underway. I strongly recommend listening to or reading this story.

Fantastic!

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What a great book. I only chose to buy it after reading an article in which someone discussed their favourite books. I wasn’t disappointed. A great story with a definite ‘feel good’ factor.

A ‘feel good’ listen

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I loved listening to the story, and the resilience of people, esp, women , who still helped out volunteering, to help the war effort, not scared of writing about the horrific effect on what the bombing raids, had on people, the Great British Spirit was the calling cry!!

Wonderful story, set in wartime London

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I loved this book. A delightful heroine whose dreams of becoming a journalist are stymied by her position as assistant to an agony aunt (or more accurately an agonising aunt as Mrs Bird turns out to be the least helpful or sympathetic advisor ever). Her attitude to modern problems drives her readers & her assistant to their own devices & that’s where the problems start. Meanwhile the horror & dangers of the Blitz bring a sobering tone to the story & some difficult choices for our heroine. Brilliant book that makes you laugh and cry.

Great

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Brilliant book! Great storyline, Mostly amusing but sometimes sad, it is so easy to love the characters and get drawn into their lives, their friendships and it truly evokes the fear and bravery of the 1941 blitz. Can’t wait to read the sequel.

Brilliant

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The style according to the times was just so refreshing.
My mother herself a teenager starting work in 1941 was transported by this story to her own experiences of the war and working in a book shop so it was spot on. Hoping for more …..

Just lovely

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Loved it all very easy to listen to and realise how times have changed nowadays

Lovely story

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