Helen Simonson's books always make me feel like I'm curled up in front of the TV with Masterpiece Theater on and a cup of tea or glass of wine in hand.

I didn't love Hazelbourne as much as Summer Before the War, but it was still utterly charming! A few elements towards the end of the story surprised me and didn't feel like they fit with the overall narrative. The ending felt a bit like a bumpy plane crash to me (very on-theme!). I wish there were about 20 more pages to wrap up more thoroughly and more time to sit with the characters post-story.

3.5

Thank you to @netgalley and @RandomHouse for this ARC. Constance is living at a hotel in Hazelbourne as a cargiver to Mrs. Fog when she runs into a trouser wearing, motorcycle riding Poppy. Poppy and her group of ladies dispatched messages during WW2. Now that the war is over, they have been displaced and it is considered unladylike to ride a motorcycle or get their hands dirty. Poppy's brother Harris has returned from war, less a limb. All he wants to do is fly and is considered an invalid. Poppy buys an old plane last minute at auction and Harris' healing has started. Harris then opens Constance's eyes to what is possible in the world. #TheHazelbourneLadiesMotorcycleandFlyingClub #HelenSimonson #May2024 #RandomHouse

Another five star book from Helen Simonson. She has once again crafted an engaging story of English life in the early 20th Century. This time, it’s right after WWI and women have once again been relegated to the sidelines and deprived of the jobs they held during the war.
The story is told from three perspectives, each showing how different groups have been impacted by the return of peace. The first PoV is Constance Haverhill, a woman without prospects. She managed a farm during the war but was released as soon as peace was declared. She’s on a few week visit to the seaside resort of Hazelbourne with Mrs. Fog before she will need to start the search for a job. There, she meets Poppy, a free spirited woman of means who runs a motorcycle club for women. The second POV is that of Harris, Poppy’s brother. A pilot during the war, he lost his leg. Now, England wants to move on and no one wants the reminder of the damage the war wrought. The third POV is that of Klaus, a German born, naturalized English citizen. He was interned on the Isle of Man during the war and has now managed to get a job as a waiter. But his accent means he has to keep a low profile.
Simonson has done a great job of capturing the strict social mores that are just beginning to be loosened as the country enters the 1920s. Quite a few young women are fighting being forced back into the restraints placed on them before the war. She also weaves in enough facts to give a real sense of time and place. For example, the War Practices Act mandated which professions had to be allocated to only men.
I loved that while everyone is glad the war is over, some miss the excitement. Simonson finds the perfect balance between the dark and the light - the depression and worries against the joy of the ride and the friendships. “Constance was moved to see the pain, joy and anguish chase each other across his eyes.” All the characters are fully fleshed out and I came to care for all of the main characters. On the other hand, she has crafted some perfectly wretched villains.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Set it rural post WWI England, Constance has recently lost her father and thus her home. Her brother and his wife have taken over the farm , which Constance had ably managed during the war years. Temporarily she’s agreed to be a “companion” to Mrs. Fog, who had scheduled a summer at a resort hotel. There Constance met Poppy Wirrell, daughter of a moneyed woman who owned a nearby manor that was being leased out as a convalescent home. Her brother Harris lost a leg when his military plane crashed and he was depressed with his future. Poppy owned some motorcycles that were used by local women as a taxi service. The story has a lot of twists and turns and there’s a multitude of weddings.

During the Great War, Constance managed the accounts and staff at a large estate in Surrey, but when the war ended and soldiers began returning home, she found herself brutally shifted into a position caring for Mrs. Fog, the elderly mother of the estate's mistress, as she recovered from influenza. It's in the capacity of this continued convalescence that Constance finds herself at a grand hotel in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, and, oddly enough, making friends with a group of women who turned their wartime motorcycle delivery skills into a quirky taxi service. But with more and more men coming back from the front, it's harder and harder for the women to maintain their jobs — or find new ones, as Constance learns as she prepares to leave Mrs. Fog.

This is an interesting, and generally lighthearted, look at the way women's lives changed after WWI, albeit in a very small slice of Britain. While I'm sure there will be gobs of fans of this book for that very reason, it wasn't really my cup of tea and there were a few elements of the last few chapters that felt out of sync with the rest of the book. Still, I'd recommend it for fans of historical fiction featuring women with moxie.

My first thought upon seeing the title "The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club" (by Hazel Simonson) was that this would be a fun read. My impression was so wrong because this was so much more than just a 'fun' read. Following the Great War, women were struggling to find their new place. They had found so much purpose during the war in working jobs typically for men only. Now, the women were being relegated back to the home. However, many were war widows and needed the income for survival. The motorcycle club had been borne during the war to make deliveries and wanted to continue to give the women income opportunities. The returning veterans also needed to find their places as well since so many had sustained injuries or suffered PTSD. How could everyone navigate the new society. So many social issues addressed in this book and handled in a diplomatic, sensitive manner. A copy was provided for my review, but all opinions are my own.

What an amazing book! The role of women in England during and after the war is explored. Women did men’s jobs and now must return to womanly duties. Men are struggling from physical and emotional scars. The classes are distinctly divided into wealthy and commoner. Klaus, the English/German is an often silent reminder of the war. Constance is sensible, daring, and compassionate. Poppy and Mrs. Wirral are strong, modern thinkers. The motorcycle women are independent girls finding their place. There are so many interesting characters which creates a rich story! While the story focuses primarily on Constance, Harris, Jock, Sam, and Tom all add different perspectives. Mrs. Fog and Simon’s love has endured and is wonderful to experience. How will Rachel survive a continent away?

A rich historical novel, with excelellent description and detail. It has a bit of a slow burn to it at the beginning, but once I got into it, the characters were layered, deep, and interesting, and the time period ( just after WWI ) really drew me in. The nuances to the story and the lives of the characters was extremely well done. I am so appreciative to have been given the chance to read this book.

World War I is over and Constance Haverhill’s war time work as a farm manager has ended. She and other women are now being pushed back into more traditional roles. She will have to find a new way to make her living but in the meantime she has a position for the summer. She is acting as companion to an elderly family friend who is convalescing at Hazelbourne-on-Sea. While there Constance rescues an unconventional socialite, Poppy, from potential scandal. This gains her entry to Poppy’s social circle and to the Ladies Motorcycle Club. The story highlights the adjustments women and society had to make following the war. There is a lot of material for discussion, especially about class.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eGalley of this title.

Such an enjoyable historical fiction read! The only critique I have is the unusually high number of times the word hubris was used 😂

This started off and kind of remained slow, and had a little too much description for my liking. But it is filled with great characters and a glimpse into what life was like for women after WW I. They had freedom during the war, but was that just temporary?

3.5 Stars

This story begins after WW1, as the men who survived are returning home, and those who didn’t are mourned by their families and those who loved them. But this is less a story about the war, it is about how the war reshaped the lives of the women left behind, who had little choice but to make their way by finding jobs.

Constance is the main character in this story, a young woman whose parents have died, and so she turns to an important woman in the village, and is able to serve as a companion to the family’s grandmother while she seeks a position that will allow her enough funds to live on.

When Poppy enters the picture, she becomes friends with Constance, and introduces her to the women in her motorcycle taxi service which started out as more of a hobby, but also a necessary way to both do something important to her and help other women who are in need of jobs.

When the men returned, they expected the women to return to their former lives, dependent upon the men, but the women have become quite content in their freedom to make their own decisions, which is fine with some of the men, and one in particular, but doesn’t sit well with the majority of men.

There is an essence of charm sprinkled throughout this story, while also sharing some of the darker side of war. The lives lost, the heartbreak are touched on, while also inserting somewhat disturbing views of husbands who rule the roost.

I loved the beginning - when the motorcycle taxi service begins, and the women begin to recognize the freedom they have acquired as the war continued, and beyond that, the way that embracing their freedom gave them a stronger belief that they were, indeed, equal.


Pub Date: 07 May 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group-Random House, The Dial Press

Constance Haverhill's future is dismally uncertain. During the Great War, she managed the estate office for the Mercer family. Lady Mercer and Constance's mother were childhood chums, but because of their social class differences, Constance's mother was relegated to part-time governess and invitee to the "less distinguished" dinner parties. With the war over now, Constance is just one of thousands of women who are being told to vacate their jobs to make way for the returning soldiers. Constance's beloved mother was a victim of the influenza epidemic, and the young woman is not welcome at her brother's farm, where he and his wife are grieving the flu-related loss of their baby.

A temporary reprieve is found when Constance is asked to be caretaker for Lady Mercer's mother, who is planning a summer-long seaside holiday. At the Hazelborne-on-Sea's Meredith Hotel, Constance meets Poppy Wirrall, an ebullient iconoclast whose cadre of female motorcycle riders provided messenger services during the war, and are now planning to continue working as taxi drivers. Constance is drawn into Poppy's circle of friends and family, including her brother Harris, a former fighter pilot who lost his leg in a fiery plane crash.

The plot takes most of the novel's first half to get off the ground (sorry not sorry), but once it is truly launched it soars. Simonson (author of the bestselling Major Pettigrew's Last Stand) weaves in numerous themes on her way to an explosive climax: the post-war reversal of women's equality gains; the reestablishment of class distinctions that were weakened in the trenches; the hypocrisy of honoring the men who died in battle while hiding away the seriously wounded; the toxic, lingering anti-German sentiment; and the unyielding racism towards Black and Indian people.

The redoubtable Constance is a bit Mary Sue-ish, always on the side of Justice and Fairness (her name can't be a coincidence), but it's rewarding to watch her come out of her shell and find a place in the this New Normal. Predictably, she is a key to Harris' emergence from depression and isolation, but his recovery journey is predicated on more than just the love of a Good Woman. Poppy is a fascinating character, torn between forging a new path and acknowledging the still limited choices available for women. And it's impossible to not love the elderly Mrs. Fog, who proves that there's no age limit on a HEA ending.

There is a bit of humor in the story, primarily in the townspeople's increasingly futile attempts to get rid of a German U boat that washed up on their shore. But the events of the final chapters have a sobering effect. Constance has found her place and her man, but there's already a hint that the extreme xenophobia seen in Hazelbourne's otherwise delightful residents will contribute to a short-lived peace.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.

I really like reading about women in the post-World War One era (the Maisie Dobbs books start here!) and this didn't disappoint. The world and characters that Constance falls into make for a really compelling read and I was transported to the English seaside.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to review an ARC of this novel.

Helen Simonson’s earlier novels, especially the wonderful Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, are the best kind of historical fiction, written with warmth and wisdom and characters who are imperfectly human and therefore very real. Her latest, set during the difficult transition between the Great War and the Jazz Age, centres on Constance Haverhill. Except for the group of young women she is suddenly swept into, Constance is fairly representative of any respectable lower-middle class woman of her times. In her early twenties, intelligent and resourceful, the loss of family and position in the wake of war and the flu epidemic leave her confronting an unsettled world with little to offer someone like her. In Britain as elsewhere, society is still reeling from the losses, and everything is in disarray. For some, especially women, workers, and veterans, further sacrifice and struggle are in order.

During the war, women like Catherine stepped into traditional male work, only to be « let go » for the sake of returned men. She had flourished as the manager of Lady Mercer’s estate, taking care of her widowed mother, and living in her own allotted cottage. In the trying summer of 1919, her mother and baby niece have died of the flu, and all that disappears. The best her former employer can offer is a temporary position as a lady’s companion to an elderly friend recovering from the flu at a seaside resort.

Hazelbourne-on-Sea is a popular summer destination, and the Meredith Hotel, despite its somewhat shabby appearance and the effects of food rationing on its menu, still attracts the upper classes and professionals. The hotel itself is symbolic of the struggle between traditional prewar social comportment and the emerging modern behavior, especially among the young—women in particular. Unmarried women under 30 (the age of majority) cannot be served unaccompanied in the Grand Dining Room—they can take meals in their rooms or in the garden. They must be chaperoned at all public events. Yet the more privileged among them—the wealthy and titled—sneak in flasks, drink “disguised ” alcohol, wear the new revealing fashions, and dance uninhibited to racy ragtime music. The Grand Dining Room waiter, Klaus Zeiger, has fallen from prewar glory because of his German origins. His sad story is also part of the larger narrative.

Through the unconventional Lady Wirrall, a once famous actress who married a local baronet and is staying at the hotel while her estate is renovated, Catherine enters the younger circle of an elevated social strata. She is befriended the Wirrall offspring and their friends. Their father died in the epidemic. Harris, an RAF officer, returned from the war without a leg only to find that he can’t be hired as a commercial pilot because of concerns about how passengers would react to an amputee. The fearless pants-wearing Poppy drove motorcycles, trucks and ambulances at the front, and wants to continue in that line despite the shock and horror of all respectable people.

Poppy’s fledging business gives the book its title. With other young women who gave their all at the front and on the home front, she wants to start a special taxi service, especially for women, to provide safe and reliable rides in completely enclosed motorcycle sidecars. All taxis will be driven by women.

The disillusioned Constance is drawn out of her obscurity and anxiety, and even succeeds in bringing her frail elderly employer, Mrs Fog, out of her room, by her chance encounter with this unusual family. The intrepid Poppy gets her on board in every sense, and when she buys a disabled airplane for her depressed brother to fix, things really start flying.

Simonson is a skilled and thoughtful writer who can make readers take in both the seriousness of a situation and the wry humour behind it. She manages at once to skewer the upper class twits while making it clear that their adjustments to the new postwar world is also difficult. She is especially good at showing the « lost-ness » of the rising generational. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is an emblem of the best the new age can offer to young women like Catherine—freedom, exhilaration, purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand so I was excited to dig in! The premise sparked my interest right away. Much to my delight, this new novel from Helen Simonson contains her trademark warmth and wit. The characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, particularly the women who are facing many changes after the war, and the returning soldiers who must adjust while still being haunted by its tragedies. Simonson handles class issues with a deft hand. I especially enjoyed how she portrays the characters' inner lives. As you can tell from this review, the novel is certainly character-driven, and I highly recommend it for fans of character-driven fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy; all opinions in this review are 100% my own.

This is a delightful adventure that takes place after WW1. The characters and events are delightfully crafted,
with strong women, who having been working hard and keeping the family owned operations well afloat,
having to adjust to having the men home and not exactly understanding the changes in the women.
This is a life affirming story that warms the heart. I loved the conclusion…
My thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for a download of the book for review purposes.

I LOVE Helen Simonson and I am so happy she is back and she did not disappoint. Thank you for sharing the ARC!

Having read Helen Simonson before, I was excited to get the chance for an ARC of her latest book, and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed the historical setting because I have read a lot about World War II and the role of women but not much about World War I. It was interesting to discover that the pressure on women to leave their independence and jobs behind and retreat to the home was even put into law to force them to give up jobs to the men. The characters are mostly interesting and the setting at a seaside hotel in England is entertaining. Main character Constance is the daughter of a genteel farmer who is forced to make her own way after her parents die. Because she and her mother gave great aid to the nearby "grand dame" of her village, she is allowed to accompany the grandmother of the family to the resort to serve as a companion for a few weeks while she looks for a position after her mother's death. Socialite Poppy has created a motorcycle taxi service as a bit of a hobby and to employ some of the young women being pushed out of jobs. She befriends Constance and draws her into the club. The circumstances didn't seem very realistic to me for the time, but I'm not British so that may be why! There were nice people to enjoy and plenty of snobs and villains to dislike. I suggest you just suspend disbelief and enjoy the story.
Thanks to Netgalley and The Dial Press for an ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Review: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

This was a warm & enjoyable story, taking place after WW1 & the Spanish flu epidemic. The story has strong characters, villains, sadness, and resilience. There isn’t an overarching plot to this book, but there is fun, adventure, real emotions, friendship, romance, with both happy & sad endings. It doesn’t shy away from hard truths & issues of the era, perhaps leaning towards pushing it too much.