The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
A Novel
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected May 7, 2024
-
- $13.99
-
- Pre-Order
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Historical fiction of the highest order . . . an absolute joy of a book, warm and romantic, and with so much to say about the lives of women in the years following World War I.”—Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
A timeless comedy of manners—refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside—about a generation of young women facing the seismic changes brought on by war and dreaming of the boundless possibilities of their future, from the bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were utterly transported by this charming and thoughtful historical romance by the author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. In 1919, Constance Haverhill is at a British seaside resort, reluctantly serving as a paid companion to the ungovernable dowager Mrs. Fog. Constance is ruefully examining her choices now that the fighting men have made it back home from the front when she falls in with Poppy Wirrall, a very modern woman who served as a driver in the war. Poppy has just started up a motorcycle club for local women—and it doesn’t hurt that she also has a handsome but troubled older brother. The characters here are well-rounded and endearing. We especially loved Mrs. Fog, who rekindles a long-ago romance to the absolute horror of her exceedingly proper daughter—and author Helen Simonson brilliantly captures the feel of a nation gingerly stepping into a scary but potentially thrilling new era. Your book club will love this.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Simonson (The Summer Before the War) delivers a thoughtful and witty tale of British men and women adjusting to a new normal after WWI. Spunky and observant Constance Haverhill worked as an estate manager during the war. Now, she's reduced to serving temporarily as a lady's companion for Mrs. Fog, who is recuperating from influenza in a hotel in the seaside resort town of Hazelbourne. Here, Constance meets free-spirited spendthrift Poppy Wirrall and her attractive and morose brother, Harris, who lost his leg while flying a plane in the war. Constance, timid at first, gets involved with Poppy's effort to provide local woman with jobs as motorcycle drivers for sidecar-riding passengers. Constance even tries her hand at flying Harris's Sopworth Camel biplane, which Poppy bought to jolt him out of his rut. While Constance's bumpy romantic adventures with Harris form the spine of the book, Simonson neatly interweaves multiple plotlines involving the chauvinistic and condescending local gentry, the travails of a German waiter scorned because of his nationality, and the bad behavior of visiting Americans. Readers are in for a treat.