World War I

The Eights

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The Eights by Joanna Miller

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel set at Oxford University in 1920 and 1921. The Eights are four women entering St. Hugh’s College at Oxford. They are in the first group of women to matriculate at Oxford. Before 1920, women could study at Oxford but weren’t awarded degrees. World War I has been over for almost two years and women over 30 now get to vote in Great Britain.

Eight is the group’s corridor number. Beatrice is very tall, and her mother is a famous suffragist. Beautiful Dora is still mourning her brother and fiancé and struggles a bit with math. Otto (Ottoline) is brilliant at math, wealthy, the youngest of four sisters and doesn’t get on with her mother at all. Otto smokes, drinks, and likes to bend the rules. Marianne is devoted to her father, a rector, and goes home every other weekend to help out with his church work. She needs to do well on her exams to get a scholarship in English, and hopes to become a teacher.

The male Oxford students are not a very welcoming bunch. They tease and play pranks, though some are charmed by Dora and Otto. The reader is immersed into college life along with the Eights, and Oxford is lovingly described along with the many rules the women must follow and the mediocre food. There are a few flashbacks to their lives during the war. This memorable first novel makes me want to reread Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, set at Oxford a decade later, or Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. More, please!

Brenda

The Bookbinder

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The Bookbinder by Pip Williams

Peggy Jones, 21, and her twin sister Maude fold and gather sections of books at the Oxford University Press before and during World War I. They live on a narrowboat moored on a canal, with friends on a nearby boat.

Peggy is occasionally scolded for reading the pages as she folds them, and enjoys bringing home sections of books that weren’t good enough to bind.

Maude loves to fold paper, and makes paper stars at home. She doesn’t talk much, mostly echoing phrases she hears other people say. Lotte, a Belgian refugee, starts working at the binder. She finds Maude’s company soothing, so that Peggy can volunteer, along with posh Gwen, to read to injured soldiers, including Bastian, a gravely injured Belgian.

Suffragette Tilda, their late mother’s close friend, volunteers as a nurse’s aide and is sent to a hospital near the front. Her letters to Maude and Peggy, sent through an acquaintance to avoid the censors, keep them informed about life on the front. The war and the influenza epidemic certainly do not make for cheerful reading, but the characters, setting and plot really drew me into the story.

This book made me want to visit Oxford again, or at least reread Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Peggy seems real—her dreams, struggles, good and bad choices, and her daily life. Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble is a good readalike. This was a remarkable read, and will be published later in July.

The White Lady

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The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

This historical novel set in Belgium, France, and England, is not part of the author’s celebrated Maisie Dobbs mystery series. Featuring Elinor White, or Linni DeWitt, this is a story set in three different time periods, all narrated by Elinor. In 1947, Elinor is living in a cottage in Shacklehurst, and has a flat in London. When her neighbors Rose & Jim Mackie and especially their young daughter Susie are threatened by members of a London gang, Elinor draws on her connections from work with the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during World War II, which sent her to Belgium with Steve Warren, now a Detective Chief Inspector. As a girl, Linni and her older sister Cecily, along with their English mother Charlotte, worked with the Resistance in Belgium during World War I, then later escaped to London to live with her grandmother. The Belgium setting during the two world wars made for a very interesting though very dark setting. There are a number of dramatic plot twists and turns, with a few too many coincidences. Elinor is a fascinating character, and this is a compelling read. Readalikes include books by Cara Black and Laurie King, along with The Bookbinder by Pip Williams.