by AJ Pearce
He stood back as I bent over the desk to look more closely.
There, under a large heading, “Woman’s Friend to Friend”, was a new page full of letters. At the top of the page it said, ‘Government Nurseries – We Ask What’s The Hold Up?’
I looked at him in surprise.
‘I’ve used letters we already had from readers,’ Mr Collins explained. ‘If we do this page, topics could range from anything – from the nurseries issue to tips on darning socks. Seriously. A real mix of things, but the Editor’s letter will highlight any significant issues we think are causing the most concern. This first one just explains the page.’
I began to read his piece.
Welcome to our new page, which we’re calling “Woman’s Friend to Friend”. This is your page – it belongs entirely to you, our readers. It’s here for you to get things off your chest – talk about what’s bothering you or share your favourite helpful ideas.
Why the change?
I would like to tell you that the other day a wise friend of mine, a young woman not afraid of making a stand, said to me that as well as doing one’s bit, she felt it terrifically important to stick together and stand up for each other, now more than ever.
I must say I agree. We’re in this together and while none of us want moaners, that doesn’t mean we have to take everything sitting down! We want to share your thoughts and questions on how we can make things better for each other, both while we are at war, and on that wonderful day we know is coming, when the world is free again.
We at Woman’s Friend know that you are all working your socks off to help the war effort and make sure we win the war, so we want you to have your say about the things that matter the most to you.
I very much hope you like our, or rather, your new page, “Woman’s Friend to Friend”. Please feel free to write in and let me know what you think.
Yours,
The Editor
I could hardly believe what I had read.
Woman’s Friend was joining the call for Government Nurseries, and asking our readers to air their views in the magazine!
‘If you think it hits the right note, I plan to run this in the next issue,’ Mr Collins said, calmly. ‘I think it could go down quite well. As you’ve been saying all along, it’s about time we started sticking up for the readers.’
It was the most splendid news.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’
Mr Collins smiled.
‘It was your idea,’ he replied. ‘I just took some time to get there. Bit slow. It’s my age. Far too old. Oh, and I have this for you.’ He handed me an envelope. ‘You can open it now, if you like.’
Dear Mrs Mayhew
It is with pleasure that I confirm your promotion, with immediate effect, to Readers and Advice Editor for Woman’s Friend magazine. Your duties will include full responsibility for the page “Yours Cheerfully” together with reader interest based features and articles . . .
For the second time in a matter of minutes, I gaped at my boss.
‘It’s a new role,’ he said. ‘But I assure you it is real, not a made-up one this time. I must say, Emmy, I’m as pleased as punch.’
‘Seriously?’ I said, still at a loss.
‘Seriously,’ he confirmed. ‘And before you ask, no it isn’t nepotism. You thoroughly deserve it. Are you going to say anything?’
Now he was smiling broadly.
‘Thank you, again,’ I managed. I very much wanted to give him a hug, although even with my head spinning, I realised this was entirely inappropriate in a work setting. It was still early days on the boss/brother-in-law front, and a tricky one to navigate around. ‘And by the way, you’re not old,’ I said. ‘You can’t be, not if we’re related.’
‘Ha!’ said Mr Collins. ‘Sometimes I feel it. I’m going to go home in a minute and have a quiet sit-down.’
‘That sounds awful,’ I said. ‘We should be celebrating. Come with us, to the cinema. We’re meeting Bunty and having an early dinner first.’ I looked at my wristwatch. It was a quarter past five. ‘As my brother-in-law,’ I said. ‘Not Mr Collins. It’s after work hours now.’
Navigational concerns, solved in one blow.
‘That’s very kind, Emmy,’ he said. ‘But I’m sure you won’t want me . . .’
‘A very wise friend of mine said it’s terrifically important to stick together,’ I quoted back at him. ‘That doesn’t come with an age limit.’
Before he could say anything else, I went to the door.
‘Kath,’ I called. ‘Would it be just too horrible if we took my husband’s grumpy old brother with us tonight?’
‘I don’t know any grumpy old brothers,’ she shouted back. ‘Only occasionally grumpy, really quite young ones. I wouldn’t mind at all if they came along.’
Mr Collins, or now that it was after five o’clock, Guy, looked at a loss, but quite pleased at the same time.
‘If you’re absolutely sure,’ he said.
I nodded. Of course I was. I paused for a moment.
‘You do know Charles told me I have to look after you, don’t you?’ I said.
Guy nodded. ‘I thought he might. And you do know he said the same thing to me about you? And about Bunty. And then a really quite extensive list of what turned out to be nearly everyone I’d met at your wedding.’
We both laughed. My darling boy.
‘Well then, you’re lumbered,’ I said. ‘There’ll be no shaking us off now, even if you want to.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of trying,’ he answered.
‘Good,’ I said, ‘then that’s agreed. Now, would you mind if we get going? I am told that Humphrey Bogart waits for no man, and as I think you’re probably going to get used to, neither do Bunty or Kath!’
Feeling more cheerful than I had done for weeks, I carefully tucked the letter away and began to do up my coat.
Charles knew, of course, that we would all look after each other while he was away.
‘I have complete faith that everyone will be fine,’ he’d said, ‘despite the fact I am entirely aware you won’t be able to resist the odd challenge, should it crop up.’
I smiled and thought of my notebook, which as ever, was crammed with jotted down thoughts.
‘About the new job,’ I said to his brother. ‘If you have a spare minute tomorrow, I’m awfully keen to tell you some of my ideas.’
Acknowledgements
I am hugely indebted to the late Joan Ketteman, who shared with me her early memories as a child in the factory where her mother worked. While the women, children and factory in Yours Cheerfully are all entirely fictional, Joan was the inspiration for the storyline and set me on my way to writing about working mothers during the war. I do hope she would be pleased with how Anne and her friends take on Mr Terry in this novel.
I would also like to thank Beryl Uren, Olive Newland and Jean Williams for answering my questions and bringing to life the experiences of girls and young women during the war. Thank you, Beryl, for letting me take over your sitting room! If I have managed to give the young women in this story spirit, it is because of women like you, Olive, Jean and Joan.
While researching this novel, wartime women’s and news magazines have been invaluable, together with contemporaneous books: Women in War Factories (1943) by Amabel Williams-Ellis, What of the Women: A Study of Women in Wartime (1941) by Elaine Burton, British Women at War (1941) by M. D. Cox and They Made Invasion Possible (1944) by Peggy Scott are all fascinating if you can track them down. I also treasure a copy of Workshop Sense: A Book Written for Munitions Workers and Other Entrants into Productive Industry (1941) by W. A. J. Chapman. On the opening page it has a hand-drawn pencil sketch of what looks like a piece of machinery, and I often wonder who this little book belonged to.
I highly recommend War’s Forgotten Women (2011) by Maureen Shaw & Helen D. Millgate, which opened my eyes to the reality faced by thousands of war widows, and Women Workers in the Secon
d World War: Production and Patriarchy in Conflict (1984) by Penny Summerfield, which was hugely helpful in terms of understanding the hurdles women faced and their battles in tackling them.
Thank you to Edward Flint at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for his generous time and advice about the Royal Artillery, and for discussing Charles Mayhew’s career as if he was a real person. Special thanks to Major General Karl Ford for introducing me, despite my track record in asking him ridiculous questions!
If there are any errors in this book, it goes without saying they are entirely mine.
Thank you to my agent Jo Unwin, who is quite simply wonderful and without whom I would be hopeless. Thank you to Milly Reilly and Donna Greaves for all your support. JULA really is a dream agency.
Thank you to everyone at Picador and Pan Macmillan, especially Jeremy Trevathan and Philip Gwyn Jones, Katie Bowden, Hope Ndaba and all in Marketing, Emma Bravo, Charlotte Williams, Jade Tolley, Katie Tooke, Becky Lloyd, Nicholas Blake and Christine Jones, Emily Bromfield and all in the UK Sales Team. Very special thanks to my editor, Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly, for her enormous patience and support, and to Camilla Elworthy for being the legend everyone said she was and the best fun on literary road trips even when I do drop sandwich all over the rental car.
Thank you to Francesca Main, who gave Emmy, Bunty, Mr Collins and me our chance in the first place, and who set this book on its journey and told me it would work!
Thank you to Deborah Schneider of Gelfman Schneider, the coolest, calmest person in stormy weather, and to Nan Graham and everyone at Scribner especially Ashley Gillam, Abigail Novak, Jason Chappell and Jaya Miceli. Very special thanks to my editor Kara Watson for her support, clarity and tireless championing of Emmy and Bunty from the very start.
Thank you to Jake Smith-Bosanquet, Alexander Cochran, Kate Burton, Matilda Ayris and everyone at C&W for sending my characters on so many travels around the world. I would also like to thank all my international publishers and in particular, the incredible translators who wrestle my words into other languages. How you manage with all the 1940s phrases will always amaze me.
The most enormous thank you to all the booksellers, librarians, book bloggers and reviewers who have cheered on, supported and spread the word about Emmy and Bunts. I know you all have an absolutely bonkers number of books to support and I can’t thank you enough for everything you do.
Massive thanks and love to my family as ever – and thank goodness for Skype! One day when quarantines end, we will all be together again and then we will talk and laugh until our sides ache.
Thank you to all my friends. As it says at the very start of this book – this one is for you. Special thanks to Katie Fforde, Jo Thomas and Penny Parkes for being the most supportive writerly friends ever! And to Gail Cheetham, Rachel Fieldwick, Mary Ford, Brin Greenman, Nicki Pettitt, Sue Thearle and Janice Withey for when the road got a little bumpy for a time.
Finally, my huge thanks to the readers, especially for your kind words through tweets, posts, letters and emails. I know sequels are always a bit of a risk, so thank you for coming with me on this new adventure. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it.
I am very pleased to include the full UK team here.
Credits
Publisher, Pan Macmillan Adult Books Jeremy Trevathan
Publisher, Picador Philip Gwyn Jones
Commissioning Editor Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly
Finance Director, Pan Macmillan Lara Borlenghi
Finance Director, Adult Publishing Jo Mower
Head of Contracts Clare Miller
Contracts Assistant Senel Enver
Audio Publishing Director Rebecca Lloyd
Audio Publishing Executive Molly Robinson
Associate Publisher Sophie Brewer
Managing Editor Laura Carr
Editorial Manager Nicholas Blake
Art and Design Director James Annal
Jacket Designer Katie Tooke
Jacket Illustrator Emily Sutton
Interior Illustrations, with grateful credit to Elliot Jaffar
Studio Manager Lloyd Jones
Head of Adult Production Simon Rhodes
Senior Production Controller Giacomo Russo
Production Controller Bryony Croft
Text Design Manager Lindsay Nash
Digital and Communications Director, Pan Macmillan Sara Lloyd
Communications Director, Picador Emma Bravo
Publicity Director Camilla Elworthy
Head of Marketing Katie Bowden
Audience Development Manager Andy Joannou
Digital Publishing Senior Executive Alex Ellis
Senior Brand Manager Charlotte Williams
Senior Brand Executive Jade Tolley
The UK Sales Team
Senior Trade Marketing Manager Ruth Brooks
Trade Marketing Designer Katie Bradburn
Sales and Marketing Executive Alexandra Payne
International Director Jonathan Atkins
Head of International Sales, Picador Emily Scorer
Sales Director Leanne Williams
Marketing and Communications Director Lee Dibble
Senior Metadata and Content Manager Eleanor Jones
Metadata Executive Marisa Davies
Operations Manager Kerry Pretty
Operations Administrator Josh Craig
Yours Cheerfully
AJ PEARCE grew up in Hampshire, England. Her debut novel Dear Mrs Bird was a Sunday Times and international bestseller and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut of the Year and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown for best historical debut. Yours Cheerfully is the second novel in The Emmy Lake Chronicles.
Follow AJ on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: @ajpearcewrites
Also by AJ Pearce
Dear Mrs Bird
First published 2021 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2021 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Ltd,
Mallard Lodge, Lansdowne Village, Dublin 4
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-5397-7
Copyright © Big Dog Little Dog 2021
Cover Design: Katie Tooke.
Illustration: Emily Sutton.
Author Photograph: Alex James.
The right of AJ Pearce to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The advertisement here, ‘War Workers Stay Womanly’, is a slightly modified version of an actual advertisement by the Ministry of Labour published in Woman magazine, 27 September 1941.
The lyrics ‘All stick together, birds of a feather’ here are from the song ‘We Must All Stick Together’ (1939) by Ralph Butler and R. Wallace, recorded by Billy Cotton and His Band. The song here is by the author, to the tune of ‘Don’t Dilly Dally (My Old Man)’ aka ‘My Old Man’ aka ‘My Old Man Said Follow The Van’ by Charles Collins / Fred W. Leigh, with part of the chorus here. The drawing here is by Elliot Jaffar.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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p; AJ Pearce, Yours Cheerfully