The Bobby Girls (The Bobby Girls #1) by Johanna Bell
Genre: Historical fiction
Read: 21st February 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 26th December 2019)
★★★★ 4 stars
Waiting with baited breath to immerse myself into THE BOBBY GIRLS, I was not disappointed. Although it is a fictional story, it is also steeped in plenty of history through the suffragette movement of how women came to enter the police force in 1914 as Women Police Volunteers (WPV). As volunteers they were not paid nor had they any powers of arrest but they did have specific roles in which they were to assist women in attempting to prevent acts of immorality. In other words, to help control their "loose" behaviour. In addition, women were more likely to respond to women rather than men.
In a highly male dominated profession, the women came up against a lot of resistance to the idea by men who thought they would merely be creating extra work for them, rather than alleviating it. And while not every woman was a suffragette, many believed that they could play a more active role in society rather than their only value being for cooking, cleaning and producing offspring.
It's London 1914 and many men are away fighting the Great War while a call has gone out for female volunteers to join the newly formed WPV. Amongst the many applicants, four women from different backgrounds join the ranks of volunteers and go through weeks of study and training in preparation for the tasks they will be undertaking. Of the four - Sarah, Maggie, Annie and Irene - only the latter three go on to complete their training as it is revealed that Sarah is far too short sighted for the job. Devastated, she returns to the one she was passionate about - a writer at "The Vote", a suffragette newspaper campaigning for the rights of women.
Maggie, Annie and Irene become fast friends as most of the other women are far older than they are. Then when, at the end of their training, they discover they are all placed at Bethnal Green Police Station in the East End, they are ecstatic. However, upon their arrival, just about every officer makes them feel unwelcome, making snide comments about their abilities and with no provision made for them they are forced to change in the toilet cubicles, in case a male officer should enter. Only one police officer, PC Frank Bird, welcomes their arrival and is responsible for showing them where they will be focusing their attentions and easing their role into the community.
But it seems no one is happy about their presence, neither the male officers - who see them as just creating extra work for them when they call on them to get them out of whatever scrapes they may find themselves in - or the community - who laugh at the very thought of "women policemen"! But with Frank's help and the support of each other, they soon fall into their roles within the community when the locals see they really are there to help them. Their daily patrols see them gaining the trust and advice from prominent locals such as Sally from the launderette, Bob the landlord of the local pub The Lamb and the elderly Arthur. Recording their daily activities in a diary in their breaks and at the end of the day soon provides evidence of their worth and the invaluable work they carry out every day.
When the Chief Constable gets wind of their activities through the daily diaries, he congratulates them on their work and begins them on night patrols. The three women are a little naive in what to expect of their night patrols believing them to be no different from their daytime ones. But they soon discover after dark a whole other world comes alive and their work intensifies but equally rewarding.
But trouble is brewing when a face from Maggie's past recognises her on patrol and realises he could capitalise on her duplicity by blackmailing her. Maggie soon finds herself in way over her head and without confiding in her two friends, lives to regret her decision.
Each women have secrets. Maggie comes from a privileged background in Kensington but has a traumatic home life with a controlling father who instills fear and compliance from his wife and children by beating them. Not only that, her beloved brother and best friend, Eddie has signed up to fight for his country, much to the chagrin and outrage from their father. But Maggie has an even bigger secret. She has lied about her age to join the WPV, and at 18 would have needed her parent's consent...which her father would never have given. And so she sneaks out daily on the pretense that she has taken up a volunteer position at an orphanage, which would be more acceptable to her father. Annie is incredibly shy and timid but gains her confidence through her work with WPV; her only fear is the fate of her beloved fiance Richard who, when he returns on leave, is a shadow of his former self. Irene comes from an impoverished background, working another job to pay the rent on a pokey little room with barely enough to eat. She finds their presence in the East End a little too close to home and lives in fear she will be recognised.
The depiction of the roles in the early 20th century is an authentic picture of the distinctions between the classes as well as those of men and women. The poverty, the injustice, the social aspects and the attitudes the first women police officers faced has been well researched as we follow Maggie, Annie and Irene in their journey as WPVs. Although the story followed is predominantly Maggie, the other two provided good background though I do hope future stories in the series will feature the other two respectively, as they featured so little in this one.
A delightful story with some lighthearted moments, a bit of tension and a little heartbreak, THE BOBBY GIRLS is a smashing debut and promises to be the beginning of a warm historical saga.
I love how the author ended the book with some photos of the real Bobby Girls, giving a real authenticity to the story and the era. I look forward to reading "The Bobby Girls' Secrets" in May, "Christmas with the Bobby Girls" in November and "The Bobby Girls' War" in May 2021.
A highly entertaining and easy read, THE BOBBY GIRLS is perfect for those who enjoy wartime historical fiction.
I would like to thank #JohannaBell, #NetGalley and #HodderAndStoughton for an ARC of #TheBobbyGirls in exchange for an honest review.
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