The Air Raid Girls (The Air Raid Girls, 1)
Set as we move towards Christmas Eve of 1941, this book continues the story of Pamela, Connie, and Lizzie and, although I hadn’t read the first in series, it was no detriment to my enjoyment and easy to pick up the thread. The United States is on the cusp of entering the war, and the Battle of the Atlantic is at its height, but this book is all about our heroines trying to survive in Kelthorpe, on the Yorkshire coast, through air raids, shortages, family upsets and intrigue.
There are wonderful touches of detail that immerse the reader in the era—grabbing sand from the many sand buckets dotted around to extinguish a flaring incendiary bomb was a particular favourite—but they never overwhelm the story. And the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get -on-with-it attitude and overall determination to be cheerful among the main characters don’t shy away from the constant threat of death and injury that everyone lives with. There is a particularly poignant plot line about what it was like to be a German Jew who had found refuge in Britain but was now the subject of suspicion by some fellow workers—but I’ll leave the reader to discover how that unfolds. Overall Holmes beautifully captures the spirit and terror of the times; a most enjoyable read.
