The Poppy Girls
The Poppy Girls takes us to Belgium during World War I. The Poppy Girls of the title form part of a quick-response group of volunteers to get casualties from the front line as quickly as possible to the medical centres, whether that be to tents in a nearby field or to main hospitals and back to England if necessary. Our Poppy Girls are two people from very different backgrounds. Both come from Lincolnshire, but Pip Maitland is from a country estate, and Alice Dawson is her maid. Pip’s ambition is to be a doctor like her brother, Robert, but she is constantly thwarted by her parents, who do not see this as a suitable career for a girl. Her job is to marry well and bring up the next generation. When war breaks out, a friend of the family organises a quick response group, and Pip and Alice immediately volunteer. From then on they are in the midst of the battlegrounds.
I very much enjoyed this book. It proved to be a good, credible story with a great deal of detailed history of how the First World War was fought and won. The characterisation includes a very good mix of the class system of the time and how it had changed by 1918, when girls had become used to earning their own money in jobs other than by simply going into service in the larger houses, or becoming nurses or governesses. The plot rolls effortlessly on, with one or two surprises thrown in. I had not met this author before but will certainly look out for her again.
