Canary Girls
Thank you William Morrow for this gifted copy.
I always enjoy reading Jennifer Chiaverini atmospheric and immersive stories!
๐ฆ๐๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐: Early in the Great War, men left Britainโs factories in droves to enlist. Struggling to keep up production, arsenals hired women to build the weapons the military urgently needed. โBe the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun,โ the recruitment posters beckoned.
Thousands of womenโcooks, maids, shopgirls, and housewivesโanswered their nationโs call. These โmunitionettesโ worked grueling shifts often seven days a week, handling TNT and other explosives with little protective gear.
Among them is nineteen-year-old former housemaid April Tipton. Impressed by her friend Marjorieโs descriptions of higher wages, plentiful meals, and comfortable lodgings, she takes a job at Thornshire Arsenal near London, filling shells in the Danger Buildingโdifficult, dangerous, and absolutely essential work.
Joining them is Lucy Dempsey, wife of Daniel Dempsey, Olympic gold medalist and star forward of Tottenham Hotspur. With Daniel away serving in the Footballersโ Battalion, Lucy resolves to do her bit to hasten the end of the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballerโs wife, they invite her to join the arsenal ladiesโ football club, the Thornshire Canaries.
The Canaries soon acquire an unexpected fan in the bossโs wife, Helen Purcell, who is deeply troubled by reports that Danger Building workers suffer from serious, unexplained illnesses. One common symptom, the lurid yellow hue of their skin, earns them the nickname โcanary girls.โ Suspecting a connection between the canary girlsโ maladies and the chemicals they handle, Helen joins the arsenal administration as their staunchest, though often unappreciated, advocate.
The football pitch is the one place where class distinctions and fears for their men fall away. As the war grinds on and tragedy takes its toll, the Canary Girls persist despite the dangers, proud to serve, and rejoice in victory and peace.
๐ฌ ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ฑ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ?
AOTD: A Shadow in Moscow!