Wartime with the Tram Girls (The Potteries Girls #2) by Lynn Johnson
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, WW1
Read: 3rd March 2021
Published: 3rd March 2021
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
July 1914: Britain is in turmoil as WW1 begins to change the world. While the young men disappear off to foreign battlefields, the women left at home throw themselves into jobs meant for the boys.
Hiding her privileged background and her suffragette past, Constance Copeland signs up to be a Clippie - collecting money and giving out tickets - on the trams, despite her parents’ disapproval.
Constance, now known as Connie, soon finds there is more to life than the wealth she was born into and she soon makes fast friends with lively fellow Clippies, Betty and Jean, as well as growing closer to the charming, gentle Inspector Robert Caldwell.
But Connie is haunted by another secret; and if it comes out, it could destroy her new life.
After war ends and the men return to take back their roles, will Connie find that she can return to her previous existence? Or has she been changed forever by seeing a new world through the tram windows?
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BlogTour for Lynn Johnson's compelling WARTIME WITH THE TRAM GIRLS.
Although this is book 2 in the Potteries Girls series, you can actually read it as a standalone. The first book "The Girl from the Workhouse" is Ginnie's story whereas WARTIME WITH THE TRAM GIRLS is Connie's story. Whilst we meet Constance in the first book, she is on the fringes of the story just as Ginnie is in this one. I enjoyed both books and yet they are both different.
The story begins in June 1913 on Constance Copeland's birthday. Her parents are taking her to the Epsom Derby and so the family make the journey from Staffordshire for the occasion. What should have been a perfect opportunity to find Constance a husband turned into a nightmare when suffragette Emily Davison leaps onto the track in the path of the King's horse and is knocked down. The incident was a protest against the suffrage of women and undertaken exactly where the cameras were, catching it all on film, and as a result Emily Davison died a few days later in hospital.
However, Constance has been unable to get the image of what happened out of her head. In the coming days, she decides to become a member of the WSPU (Women's Social and Political Union). Constance's path as a suffragette lead her to London on one occasion which ended rather badly and was to become the bane of her existence whilst under her father's roof. Brought up as a lady from a middle class family, he wanted her to marry a gentleman of means not gallivant around with a bunch of militant women fighting for something that will never happen. But Constance believes that women should be given the same rights as men. She has no intention of becoming a subservient and quiet wife. When a year later she meets Matthew Roundswell, as she hands out political pamphlets, Constance believes she has met the love of her life. After a whirlwind romance the couple set a date and her father is thrilled that she is finally settling down. But as Constance knows, things don't always go as planned. The secret she carries has the power to impact her life dramatically, and she is left humiliated and heartbroken.
Then in 1914, war is declared and the world as everyone knows it, changes. Men, and even boys, sign up believing they would see the world whilst instead they disappear off to foreign battlefields, some never to return home. The women are left to keep the home fires burning and throw themselves into the jobs that men have vacated to go off to war. Despite her own recent heartache, Constance yearns to do something meaningful and for herself whilst helping the war effort. So hiding her privileged background and her suffragette past, she signs up to become a "clippie" - a lady conductor issuing tickets on the trams, despite her parent's disapproval. Her father declares it is no job for a lady of her background and that she should be finding herself a husband, as if that was her sole purpose in life.
Constance, now known as Connie (to hide her class background), is excited about her new job earning equal pay for equal work and becomes fast friends with Jean and Betty. The friendship and camaraderie between the women develops in their own subplots with both feminist and romantic threads at the same time. Despite her work as a clippie, Connie maintains her close friendship with Ginnie Jones and her own service girl Alice Tucker, whom her mother, as a Workhouse Friend, took out of the workhouse and gave her a job. Together the women share their loves, their lives and when financial ruin threatens, Connie soon learns just how much she has taken for granted with her privileged lifestyle.
When she began work as a clippie, as well as making friendships, Connie also met and traded swords with Inspector Robert Caldwell. He was her superior and when her past threatened her new job, it was he she had to answer to. Whenever she came into contact with the Inspector, she found him unsmiling, cold and aloof. She didn't care for him at all. But Betty and Jean saw something she didn't and teased her mercilessly about him. But it wasn't until she saw him at a social dance with Matthew's cousin, Louisa, that the penny began to drop and she was both mortified and loathed to be anywhere near him.
As the war finally ends, so too does the women's work as clippies. They knew when they started that their jobs would only last for as long as the men were away at war. As soon as they returned, the women would systematically lose their positions and return to lower paid work or, in Connie's case, return to her previous existence. But can she do that now that she knows what it is like to earn a living?
Then when Connie meets Robert Caldwell outside of the confines of the tram depot, the two begin a tenuous courtship but although Robert knows of her suffragette past in all its glory, there is one more secret that Connie has harboured ever since she first laid eyes on him. After what Louisa had disclosed to Connie about Robert's family (as well as their relationship), can Connie risk confessing her greatest secret to him and risk losing him altogether?
WARTIME WITH THE TRAM GIRLS is quite a journey for Connie, and is more than just working on the trams. It outlines the distinction between the classes as well as the sexes which would have people metaphorically tarred and feathered today. But Connie derives to break out of those confines - of both class and gender. Her best friend is Ginnie, whom she met in the workhouse, and her friendship with their service girl Alice, also from the workhouse, breaks down those barriers too. And then there is getting a job which is unheard of for most women let alone one of her class.
Although this is the second book, you can read it as a standalone, as Connie's story is a separate one from Ginnie's...but together they compliment each other. I enjoyed both stories and reading about each woman's life from their very different perspectives. I certainly hope there is a third book, either Alice's story, or a continuation of Connie's and Ginnie's.
A satisfying read, WARTIME WITH THE TRAM GIRLS is perfect for fans of historical fiction sagas as well as general fiction readers.
I would like to thank #LynnJohnson, #RachelsRandomResources and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #WartimeWithTheTramGirls in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Most of her working life was spent in Local Government in England and Scotland, and ultimately became a Human Resources Manager with a large county council.
She started to write after taking early retirement and moving to the north of Scotland with her husband where she did relief work in the famous Orkney Library and Archives, and voluntary work with Orkney’s Learning Link. Voluntary work with Cats Protection resulted in them sharing their home with six cats.
She joined Stromness Writing Group and, three months after moving to Orkney, wrote a short story which would become the Prologue to The Girl From the Workhouse.
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