A Woman of Spirit
A Woman of Spirit is a feel-good romance set in a close-knit working-class community in the English Midlands in the early years of the last century. It is feel-good in the sense that the love tangles all get sorted out and everybody ends with the right partner, but there are plenty of heartaches along the way.
The action spans the years 1912 to 1918, taking in the suffragette movement and WW1. Such books often annoy me. They frequently pay scant attention to the chronology of outside events or factual accuracy, but then why should they? The readers don’t seem to mind.
But Dickinson, who has written over 30 such novels, does her homework She knows the differences between the factions in the suffragette movement, and although she gives us little detail of the progress of the war, it is historically accurate. Pedants like me can enjoy the story in comfort.
Molly, the heroine, is not actually a very spirited woman (I suspect this is the publisher’s title). She is dominated throughout her childhood by her best friend, Queenie, and she is very cautious about offending her family or neighbours. What she does not lack is quiet courage, a pleasant change from the ‘feisty’ heroines which typify so many historical romances. The ‘bad girl’, Queenie, is so scheming and duplicitous that we are left wondering whatever motivates her or how she ever became a best friend. Nonetheless, an easy and enjoyable read.
