This book caught my eye, it looked like my sort of book – historical saga. I know nothing of the author and so decided to take a risk, it was either going to work or not.
I am pleased to say it worked and it worked really well that I had to keep reading, way past my bedtime! (Thank goodness I was on holiday!)
1923 Northampton.
Four girls Ruth, Lydia, Jenny and Grace all work together in a big house in domestic roles.
That is until the day they are dismissed without references.
But that is the day that it all changes for them.
Ruth, has come into some money thanks to a kindly aunt and much to her parents chagrin and a codicil of the inheritance, she takes the money and runs….. to London.
And Lydia, Jenny and Grace all go with her.
What they find is a very different place from the one they left behind, but with determination and a silver Rolls Royce also left to Ruth they decide to make a life for themselves.
Lydia the feisty and outspoken of the four, is only happy when she is driving a car and fiddling under the bonnet. Her mother ran out on her more than fifteen years ago and her father is not interested, who would miss her?
Jenny has style and can make something out of nothing when she is faced with old clothes or material. Wanting to escape a rather odious step father who has other plans for her, Jenny thinks she is safer in London.
Grace is determined to make some money to make sure her grandmother is well looked after. The natural leader, organiser and administrator of the four she uses all these skills to set them up and makes sure she can leave the all behind when she has to return.
Four strong female characters, all with faults come together and focus on all their positive strengths to take one Silver Rolls Royce and provide a service for people in London in a time when women have only just recently obtained the vote and then not all of them and that the First World War has changed many perceptions.
This is a great discovery of a novel, really well written and it was great to watch the four girls discover London for the first time and witness the changes that were going on around them. Of course there is some romance on the horizon and it comes instantly and sometimes as a slow burning love but whatever gets in their way, may it be distance, violence, threats or even fire the Silver Ladies have a strength to carry on.
A very good historical saga which focuses on different aspects of the 1920s and is a novel that doesn’t show women in a pure domestic light.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The Silver Ladies of London is out now.
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