Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Dear Mrs. Bird
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Pearce, Amanda-Jane
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.ajpearce.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2018015864
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2018015864
HEADING: Pearce, A. J. (Amanda-Jane)
000 00700cz a2200169n 450
001 10703338
005 20180425073213.0
008 180321n| azannaabn |a aaa
010 __ |a n 2018015864
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca11258502
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d DLC |d HU
053 _0 |a PR6116.E1675
100 1_ |a Pearce, A. J. |q (Amanda-Jane)
378 __ |q Amanda-Jane
400 1_ |a Pearce, Amanda-Jane
670 __ |a Dear Mrs. Bird, 2018: |b ECIP t.p. (A J Pearce) data view (debut novel; the author grew up in Hampshire England studied at the Univ. of Sussex and Northwestern Univ.; she resides in the south of England)
670 __ |a email from publisher, (Scribner), 2018-03-23: |b (A J Pearce; full name: Amanda-Jane Pearce)
PERSONAL
Born in Hampshire, England.
EDUCATION:University of Sussex, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AWARDS:Observer’s New Faces Of Fiction Debut Novelists, 2018; UK’s Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, Breakthrough Author; 2018.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
A.J. Pearce is a British writer. Born in Hampshire, England, Pearce took an interest in English and history at a young age. This interest led her to pursue a degree in American Studies from the University of Sussex in Brighton. She spent her junior year of college at Northwestern University in Illinois. Pearce began writing in 2005. In 2012 she discovered a 1939 copy of a weekly women’s magazine and was inspired to explore this era in her writing. Dear Mrs. Bird, set in wartime London, is Pearce’s first book.
Dear Mrs. Bird was named a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller and Pearce has been named one of the Observer’s New Faces Of Fiction Debut Novelists. The book tells the story of Emmeline Lake, a twenty-two-year-old young woman with aspirations to help her country’s war efforts through a career in journalism. Presently, she volunteers as a telephone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Service and writes her boyfriend everyday to keep his spirits high as he fights in the war against Hitler. When she finds an ad for a job writing for the London Evening Chronicle, she thinks she has found her big break. Unfortunately, the subject matter she is assigned to manage is not quite as hard-hitting as she would have hoped.
Working for Mrs. Henrietta Bird, the love columnist for Woman’s Friend, Emmeline is tasked with the superficial job of writing up Henrietta’s responses to those seeking love advice. Worse yet, Henrietta refuses to address anything that ventures away from normal and polite and tosses letters that contain anything unpleasant. Emmeline hates the fact that some of the women’s heartfelt letters go unanswered, so she takes it upon herself to secretly write and send her own responses, forging Henrietta’s signature. Emmaline’s personal life becomes complicated when she gets into an argument with her best friend’s fiance and then later, when she receives a telegraph from her boyfriend, informing her that he is leaving her for a nurse. Emmaline refuses to let these setbacks destroy her spirit and determination, and throws herself into what she comes to see is important, meaningful writing work.
Carla Jean Whitley in BookPage described the book as “a charming story full of as much pluck and grit as its protagonist,” while a contributor to Publishers Weekly noted the book’s “wonderfully droll tone, a reminder of the exuberance of youth even under dire circumstances.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described it as “a readable, well-intentioned, very English tribute to the women of the homefront.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
BookPage, July, 2018, Carla Jean Whitley, review of Dear Mrs. Bird, p. 17.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2018, review of Dear Mrs. Bird.
Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2018, review of Dear Mrs. Bird, p. 66.
AJ was born in Hampshire, UK. Her favourite subjects at school were English and History, which now (finally!) seems to be making some sense.
She attended the University of Sussex where she majored in American History, spending her Junior Year at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.
She began writing as a hobby in 2005. In 2012 she came across a 1939 copy of a weekly women’s magazine and the idea of a writing a novel set in wartime London was born.
In early 2016 AJ finished Dear Mrs Bird and signed with literary agent Jo Unwin.
A week after the novel was submitted, following a seven-publisher auction in the UK, Dear Mrs Bird was acquired by Picador, and in the USA by Scribner after a similarly competitive auction. Translation rights have been sold in a further twelve countries and the novel has been optioned for development for television.
Two weeks after it was published, Dear Mrs Bird became a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller.
In 2018, AJ was chosen as one of The Observer’s New Faces Of Fiction Debut Novelists. She has recently been shortlisted in the Breakthrough Author category in the UK's Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.
AJ is currently writing her second novel.
Print Marked Items
DEAR MRS. BIRD
Carla Jean Whitley
BookPage.
(July 2018): p17+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
DEAR MRS. BIRD By AJ Pearce Scribner $26, 288 pages ISBN 9781501170065 Audio, eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
Emmeline Lake has big dreams. She's already doing what she can to support the war effort as a volunteer
telephone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Service. She writes frequent letters to keep her boyfriend up to date
and in high spirits while he's fighting Hider and the Nazis. But she wants to do even more: Emmy dreams of
becoming a war correspondent.
She's so busy dreaming, in fact, that she doesn't pay attention during her interview for a job she spotted in
The London Evening Chronicle. Emmy daydreams of seeing her byline under important reports from the
front. Instead, she's hired as a typist for another publication: Woman's Friend. Emmy will spend her days
typing up tough-love advice from Mrs. Henrietta Bird, author of the column "Henrietta Helps."
The problem? Emmy actually wants to help.
Mrs. Bird sends any letters containing "unpleasantness" to the rubbish bin. But as Emmy sorts through the
mail, she sets aside such letters. Those readers deserve a response, she reasons, and it should be more
thoughtful than the harsh advice Mrs. Bird doles out.
So Emmy writes them back. And signs her boss's name.
It seems like a small offense in the context of World War II. London has so much more to worry about. But
as Emmy continues to sort through her boss's mailbag, she finds that she can provide some hope in the midst
of the world's darkest time.
In Dear Mrs. Bird, debut novelist AJ Pearce draws inspiration from women's magazine advice columnists of
the era. The result is a charming story full of as much pluck and grit as its protagonist.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Whitley, Carla Jean. "DEAR MRS. BIRD." BookPage, July 2018, p. 17+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A544601874/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9c4cb490.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A544601874
Dear Mrs. Bird
Publishers Weekly.
265.22 (May 28, 2018): p66+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Dear Mrs. Bird
AJ Pearce. Scribner, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-15011-7006-5
Pearce's clever debut follows a plucky Londoner during the Blitz who dreams about becoming a war
correspondent. When 22-year-old Emmeline Lake sees an ad for a "Junior" from the London Evening
Chronicle'% publisher in 1940, she believes this will be the start of her journalism career. Alas, the job
entails assisting Henrietta Bird, the advice columnist in Women's Friend, a magazine dying off from
fustiness. Henrietta is a literary Violet Crawley who won't answer letters involving any unpleasantness,
which eliminates most everything pertinent. Emmy, however, fails to destroy unsuitable letters as instructed,
instead answering them privately under Mrs. Bird's forged signature. Meanwhile, she and her best friend,
Bunty, demonstrate resolve as bombs rain down night after night and Emmy's fiance informs her, via
overseas telegram, that he is leaving her for a nurse. The novel has a wonderfully droll tone, a reminder of
the exuberance of youth even under dire circumstances. Headlined by its winning lead character, who
always keeps carrying on, Pearce's novel is a delight. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Dear Mrs. Bird." Publishers Weekly, 28 May 2018, p. 66+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541638770/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=eef9f369.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541638770
Pearce, AJ: DEAR MRS. BIRD
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Pearce, AJ DEAR MRS. BIRD Scribner (Adult Fiction) $26.00 7, 3 ISBN: 978-1-5011-7006-5
Keep calm and carry on? That motto could have been written for--or even by--chirpy English World War IIera
journalist-wannabe Emmeline Lake, whose remedy for conflict, both worldwide and domestic, is to do
what she can, as well as she can.
Innocence and perky optimism are tempered by less sunny feelings over the course of British novelist
Pearce's debut, which opens with a relatively upbeat evocation of World War II London as experienced by
22-year-old legal secretary Emmy. Fond of larky contemporary expressions and capital letters--"I gave what
I hoped was a plucky Everything Is Absolutely Tip Top smile"--Emmy yearns to be a Lady War
Correspondent and finds a new job at Woman's Friend magazine. But her duties turn out to include
destroying problem-page letters on unacceptable topics ("Premarital relations, Extramarital relations,
Physical relations," etc.) on behalf of her boss, battle-axe agony aunt Mrs. Henrietta Bird. Warmhearted
Emmy can't bear to leave these needy women's letters unanswered and begins replying to them in secret,
forging Mrs. Bird's signature. Matters turn more serious after Emmy has an argument with her best friend
Bunty's fiance, William, over his risky work as a fireman. Vividly evocative of wartime life, with its
descriptions of bombed streets, frantic fire stations, and the desperate gaiety and fortitude of ordinary souls
enduring nightly terror, Pearce's novel lays a light, charming surface over a graver underbelly. With its focus
on the challenges and expectations placed on those left behind, it also asks: Who is supporting the women in
a world turned upside down by war?
Although the jauntiness and feel-good tone can grate on occasion, especially during the farcical wrap-up,
this is a readable, well-intentioned, very English tribute to the women of the homefront.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Pearce, AJ: DEAR MRS. BIRD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536571179/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e7e5fbcd.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536571179