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A lovely look at life in Britain after World War II, Bloomsbury Girls gives us a glimpse at the time between the end of the war and the social upheavals that led to the women’s right movements of later decades. It’s a good story, but not one that engaged me deeply in the various plights of our heroines, though I was glad that they – the heroines – finally do win the day.
The three women who work at the male-operated Bloomsbury Books must govern their behavior as laid out by the “51 rules” management has laid out. All three of them loathe these strictures and want to break free to do their own thing. Their bosses are sexist weasels who want the women silent, or gone.
Grace Perkins is a mother of two boys who’s working to take care of her family financially. Her husband Gordon has severe PTSD from the war and although he cannot work, his hurt pride means he’s angry and resentful that Grace has taken a job. She has ambitions of owning her own bookshop and is trying to balance her own wants with those of her family.
Evie Stone is fresh from Cambridge University, and though she’s brilliant and the first woman ever to receive a sheepskin from the college, she was passed up for a research position, which was given to a less talented male rival. Blessed with exemplary research skills, she finds herself bouncing between high society parties and her life at the Bloomsbury where she’s drawn to the art world – and to the handsome Ash.
Vivien Lowry hails from the upper class, but her plans to become a society wife have been ruined by the death of her fiancé in battle. Now she has to reinvent herself as an entirely different person. She has style, grace and panache enough to do it. Now if only Alec McDonough, who heads the Bloomsbury fiction department, would get out of her way…
Together, Evie, Vivien and Grace will develop a friendship and a warm camaraderie while trying to keep their dreams afloat – and dare to dream that someday they could all take over the Bloomsbury from their sexist overlords and run it in peace and harmony.
Bloomsbury Girls is not overly distinguished in the writing department and doesn’t offer any particularly memorable characters or interesting asides, but it’s a well-researched and decently entertaining diversion for the afternoon. There’s nothing terrible about it, but it won’t stick with you after you close its covers.
I liked Vivien the best of the three women; she’s lively and witty. Grace evolves from put-upon woman to fighter and Evie is the baby of the group, a developing neophyte who figures out who she is, and her journey is fun to follow along with. Jenner makes good use of both her postwar setting and various historical cameos, from Sir Laurence Olivier and Peggy Guggenheim to literary figures like Sonia Blair-Orwell and Daphne Du Maurier. Also perfectly portrayed is the era’s nightmarish sexism, and the institutional garbage our heroines have to deal with to make anything resembling progress in their careers.
And yet the novel lacks that essential spark that makes for engaging historical fiction. Bloomsbury Girls might supply an afternoon’s entertainment, but reading it didn’t leave me thrilled.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Women's Fiction
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 12/05/22
Publication Date: 05/2022
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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To Lisa: As you asked me, here is a direct answer, yes, I have and my periods were usually accompanied by a migraine. I sought medical treatment which is out there – up to but not necessarily including a hysterectomy which my sister finally chose in desperation. What I didn’t do was call in sick which was my personal choice. I found it better, for me, to carry on and keep busy. What others choose to do is entirely up to them.
To nah: I didn’t think your comments added much to the discussion.
To Caz: Your crude and juvenile comment about the DM didn’t add anything to the discussion either other than to vent your disgust. Can one infer this is how you view anyone who reads a newspaper that you disapprove of including those who visit and comment at AAR? After considering this for a few days, I have to question whether AAR continues to abide by its own commenting guidelines. In a private email in February to you and Dabney, following a blog that Dabney subsequently took down and apologised for, I questioned you about a really vulgar comment you made about the UK Prime Minister to which you never responded.
I feel that the emergence of what are pretty nasty comments here when making a thoughtful remark or honest attempt to spark debate is not something I can support. Sadly, after 23 years of visiting AAR, I feel that it’s starting to turn into the type of social media I avoid where people are shut down without argued reason. I am cancelling my monthly financial contribution to AAR, with greatest of regret, because I no longer feel it’s a comfortable, companionable site that upholds its own really great guidelines and is sliding into some pretty unappealing discourse. This is sad to me as I have always admired the way you and Dabney have run AAR but enough is enough.
Elaine,
I apologize. I didn’t see Lisa’s comment and I agree it’s not what I hope for at AAR where we strive to keep the comments about what people think about ideas rather than each other.
I do feel like it’s OK to say you don’t like a paper. I’m not a big fan of Fox News here in the US and would be comfortable saying so. I wouldn’t however trash another reader for watching Fox News. The way I read Caz’s comment is more a diss on The Daily Mail than on its readers but I can see how it might not have felt that way to you and I’m sorry.
Nah’s comments strike me as critical of the paper not you, but, again, I can see how it didn’t feel that way to you.
Your contributions have meant the world to me, personally, and to AAR as has your interaction with the site. I am devastated to hear that you are leaving and hope you will reconsider. AAR needs readers who believe differing things in order to be a place we can learn from one another.
I hope that all who comment here will take a moment to think about what they’re trying to do. I continue to believe it is possible to have a site where people who don’t agree with each other discuss issues small and large. But that will only work if we give each other all the benefit of the doubt. Someone who disagrees with you does so for reasons that are not inherently better or worse than your reasons for thinking what you do. And believing that others should be scorned for their beliefs is a sure fire path to a world where we can’t begin to heal our divisions.
Again, Elaine, I am so sorry you feel this way. I hope you will change your mind. You make AAR a better place and we will miss you if you leave.
In today’s Daily Mail I read an opinion piece by Jan Moir about moves afoot to give working women in the UK the right to “period leave” along with “menopause awareness” being pushed in the workplace and, of course, the extremely generous maternity leave provisions women already enjoy here in the UK and much of Europe. I am afraid today’s younger working women would find this book like reading about a dystopian parallel universe. The danger now, I feel, is that the “rights” pudding may be becoming over-egged and one day in the future women, by virtue of some of their demands today, may find things turning backwards. This certainly happened after both world wars; women had taken men’s jobs to sustain the war effort but were summarily dismissed to allow returning soldiers to have work and society accepted it. Here is a link to the article.
JAN MOIR: Giving women ‘period leave’ makes us look the weaker sex | Daily Mail Online
Tell me, have you ever experienced a period that gives you cramps that are so violent, you vomit and/or pass out?
Very good comment in the Daily Mail.
If women have bad cramps and so on that’s a medical condition. For that there are medical certificates.
>Very good comment in the Daily Mail.
Oh my.
Indeed. I wouldn’t even wipe my arse with the DM.
They call it the “Daily Fail” for a reason.
Monthly absences whether accompanied by a doctors cert or not, are going to look really good on an employee’s record. Prospective employers will be falling over themselves to give that person a job. (Not).
So women soldier on, often in pain, because there’s no other choice. We should be glad there’s finally some acknowledgement of the crap we have to put up with each month.