The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

​Constance Haverhill, a farmer’s daughter, is worried about her finances and future. It’s 1919 and drastic changes are being made to the lives of the countless women who stepped into the breach and did male jobs on the homefront while the men were off at the war. Constance helped to run the estate of Lady Mercer, an old friend of her late mother’s, but she’s had to give that up and is now forced to be companion to Lady Mercer’s mother, Mrs Fog, who is convalescing at a hotel in Hazelbourne-on-Sea.

​There are compensations, however, when she encounters Poppy Wirrall, a baronet’s daughter who is outspoken and modern and employs only women in her local taxi service using motorcycles and sidecars. Then there is Poppy’s fighter pilot brother, Harris, who has a complicated personal battle in dealing with the loss of his leg. With a mind to finding a way of earning her own living, Constance must negotiate the peculiarities and prejudices of the privileged upper classes. Poppy has ambitions to add flying lessons for women to her business, but there are many obstacles in her way.
 
Full of wit and sassy dialogue that goes at a cracking pace, and accurate portrayals of life and conditions in higher society just after the First World War, this book is a joy to read. The aloofness, intolerance and racism of many of the individuals are a reflection of the attitudes of the time, and the commentary on the status of single women abruptly left to fend for themselves after keeping the country going with few marriage prospects and little financial reward is humorously, even gently, delivered but carries savage understatement. The lot of the men, too, is given thorough and careful exploration: Harris, having to endure the pitying looks as he struggles to find usefulness, and the deep grief of his tortured mechanic, Jock. The sub-plot featuring the German waiter, Klaus, is also moving. All the other secondary characters are also beautifully developed, whether they are the flighty and frivolous, the manipulative, the callous or dismissive. Then there are those who are stalwart and true, like Tilly, the female mechanic forced back into being a librarian. And observing them all from her unique position, Constance demonstrates confidence, sympathy and strength, and she has to be one of the best female characters to appear in recent fiction.
 
Five Stars

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