The Highland Girls at War
Just when you think every possible aspect of UK life in WWII has been described in fiction, Helen Yendall introduces us to the Women’s Timber Corps, a little-known offshoot of the Women’s Land Army (Land Girls). The lumberjills, as they were called, worked in forestry, felling trees and cutting the wood into the sizes required.
The Highland girls of the title are a disparate group who are sent to work in the Scottish Highlands. They include Lady Persephone (Seffy), the spoilt daughter of an English earl; sturdy Grace, the crofter’s daughter; Irene, seeking distraction while her husband is at sea; and teenage Hazel, who lost her husband in an air raid. As the women settle into their primitive camp, they learn that a detachment of the Canadian Forestry Corps is based only a couple of miles away. (Unlikely as this may seem, in a note the author confirms the presence of the Canadians alongside the lumberjills.) The stage is set.
Against this background of hard physical work, abysmal living conditions and intriguing Canadians, we follow the adventures of the women, and see how their experiences change them. With so many protagonists, character development is outlined rather than detailed, and the endings of some of the story arcs ring more of ‘for now’ than ‘ever after’, suggesting that this may be the first of a series. Many readers will want to find out what happens next.
