Mrs Porter Calling by A J Pearce
Mrs Porter Calling* is the eagerly awaited third instalment of the Emmy Lake chronicles by A J Pearce, following on from Dear Mrs Bird and Yours Cheerfully. I love these books about a young female journalist and her friends, set against the blitzed backdrop of London in the early 1940s.
Emmeline (Emmy) Lake is one of my favourite literary heroines, and it’s a joy to see how far she has grown in this book from her awkward beginnings at the Woman's Friend magazine in Dear Mrs Bird. Although Emmy’s job at a women’s magazine is a far cry from the life of a ‘lady war correspondent,’ which she first envisioned for herself, Emmy has grown as a journalist since becoming editor of the problem page, and she realises how much she can make a difference to ordinary women’s lives, all of whom are struggling with the demands of the home front and the innumerable tragedies, changes and sacrifices that war brings.
Unfortunately, however, change is afoot at the Woman’s Friend, ushering in a new owner: the Honourable Mrs Cressida Porter. Cressida (‘you must call me Egg’) Porter has inherited the magazine following the death of its previous owner, Lord Overton, and proves herself to be completely out-of-touch with the readership of Woman’s Friend. Labelling anything she doesn’t like (which is most of it) as A Bit Mis, Mrs Porter decides she wants ‘less dreariness…far cheerier problems…less ugly babies in the knitting section… [and] more advertisements about lovely places like Harrods, rather than dismal pictures of gravy.’
Installing herself in her newly renovated office, complete with her bad-tempered dog, Winston, Cressida Porter proceeds to dismantle everything about Woman’s Friend that Emmy holds most dear. Gone are the practical recipes to help women cope with restrictive rationing, gone are the carefully thought out answers to the questions asked by women in serious trouble, all to be replaced by glossy photos of aristocratic brides, make-up tutorials and other typical hallmarks of a society magazine.
Soon, Emmy and her team are in despair, as they see their readership dwindle and advertisers cancel: how can they possibly keep Woman’s Friend afloat under their incompetent new owner, and how can they keep serving their loyal readers?
As work becomes increasingly difficult, Emmy turns more to her home-life and friends for support. All of A J Pearce’s books have a strong focus on friendship, and she writes about female friendship particularly well. At the heart of the novels is Emmy’s relationship with her best friend Bunty, and the extended family they create through their colleagues, friends and romantic partners. In Mrs Porter Calling, Emmy and Bunty have been joined in their London flat by their friend Thelma and her three young children. Emmy is grateful for the distraction of the youngsters’ company, but then a shocking tragedy strikes that sends the whole household reeling, and Emmy must call on all her inner resilience and plucky determination to keep going and stay strong for those who need her most.
I so enjoyed returning to the world of Emmy Lake and her friends through the pages of Mrs Porter Calling. I laughed and cried along with the characters (you definitely need a box of tissues beside you when reading this one!), and I didn’t want the story to end. Although sadness does inevitably come into these books, I still find A J Pearce’s novels wonderfully comforting reads, and I appreciate how much her stories celebrate kindness and female solidarity. If you’re a fan of books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, or the novels of Lissa Evans, then I’d recommend giving the Emmy Lake stories a go, starting with the first in the series, Dear Mrs Bird.
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