I fell in love with historical fiction as a child through Jackie French’s works (Somewhere Around the Corner being a my favourite). So I was absolutely thrilled to pick this WWII saga and was quickly immersed in the hardship, intrigue, and reliance.

I love the way French blends fact and fiction in her writing, to speculate what could have been. Her characters in Whispering War are stoic and endearing and French does a wonderful job of exploring the depth of their unique characters, perspectives and experiences. At the same time she paints a picture of the broader context, giving the strong sense that these stories are only a few of an infinite number, driving home the senseless loss and brutality of the war.

I loved the mix of recipes and jokes which were a light relief amongst the heavier chapters, and made for an intriguing window into the period.

Thank you Harlequin Australia for an advance reader copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

Jackie French knows how to tell a story that has fabulous characters, and this one is no different, this story is set around World War 2 set mainly in England we get to meet Lady Deanna Calverton just before the war starts, she is caring for her dying grandfather The Duke in crumbling Calverton Castle, he knows that he will not be here for her and sets a few things in place to make sure she comes through the war and the first thing is the job she is going to do, spend her days digging on her farm and weekends spending time in lavish drawing rooms listening to the talk and gathering information to past on to people who need to know, come along for a story that had me turning the pages.

Lady Dee is well liked in the village and does all she can to help them all and that even means taking on three sisters, evacuees from the city who turn out to be orphans and they are keeping tight on their background but Lady Dee soon loves them like she would her own children and then with and aerodrome next door for training pilots she soon meets Australian Flight Lieutenant Sam Murray and soon she has lost her heart to him but he also has secrets and keeps himself at arm’s length, then when he is injured he is sent back to Australia yes they write letters but Dee wants more will she get it?

This story is fascinating with fact run through the story on the royalty of Britain, people impersonating Dukes and hidden caves that will hold secrets forever, the eagles that fly high in the skies and the animals that roam the land and Dusty the dog, but it is a story of survival the strength and courage that World War Two bought out in people and with Dee her never give up attitude about what she wants in life and her new daughters Magda, Rose and the Amazing Anna you will love them all I am sure and their trip to Australia to find Sam the man they all love even if she now knows his secret she will never let that stop her.

I also love the recipes that are at the start of every chapter, this is a story that I would highly recommend, I could barely put it down once I started it, a must read.

My thanks to Harlequin AU and Netgalley for my digital copy to read and review.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Australia, and the author for the chance to read this book.

This was an enjoyable historical novel set in WW2. It is set in England and covers many aspects of the effect of war on the people, animals, and the land.
Lady Deanna is a strong character who is trying her best to support those around her and keep herself safe. I enjoyed the cast of supporting characters and their quirks. It was an interesting storyline full of drama, heartache, resilience, and love.

I was introduced to Jackie French’s adult stories when I read the marvelous Becoming Mrs Mulberry back in 2023. I loved that book and was thrilled when Harper Collins Australia gave me an ARC of The Whisperer’s War. This is another wonderful historical story from an author who has an exceptionally keen eye for detail, setting, and characterisation. Lady Deanna Claverton is the central character in this story and, while she is the granddaughter of a duke, she has no expectation of inheriting anything very much on his death. She’s been his carer through the last years of his life and has watched Claverton Castle slowly crumbling around them so when she discovers she’s inherited neighbouring Eagle’s Rest and its surrounding woodland and coast, she is thrilled. It is at Eagle’s Rest during World War Two that this story largely takes place, with Lady Diana working clandestinely for British intelligence passing on fascist and other information she picks up at weekend house parties. Early in the story, Dee finds herself taking in three orphaned sisters, who’ve arrived in her village with no identification and nowhere else to go. It’s not long before they worm their way into her heart. Added to this make-shift family group is Flight Lieutenant Sam Murray, who is stationed at neighbouring Claverton Castle and becomes a regular visitor after asking if he can fish in Eagle’s Rest’s stream.
Discrimination is a very strong theme throughout this book and I loved the way that author Jackie French handled the prejudice in England against Jews and in Australia against people of Aboriginal origin. While discrimination is central to this story, it is not the story. Instead, we are given a heartwarming tale of family and community, kitchens filled with the delicious smells of pies, turnovers, and fresh scones cooking, love, and laughter against the backdrop of war. It is not just Deanna, Sam, and the three girls who drive this story, although each is beautifully drawn and engaging in their own right. The secondary characters are also compelling in their roles. There are warm and wonderful moments that temper the horrors of war taking place in the background and throughout it all is the thread of romance and love. This is a complex book but it is utterly engaging and a story that I will definitely want to read again.

Jackie French has done it again with an outstanding her story, ‘The Whisperer's War’. This book is a blend of fact and fiction with Jackie having researched some incredible and unbelievable facts especially related to the English Royals during WWII. Lady Deanna, or Dee, is an English aristocrat and she makes for an outstanding female lead. The tale revolves around aristocrats, Royalty, orphaned children, soldiers, spies and village living during Germany’s attempt to invade England. Jackie has undertaken extensive research with the inclusion of many actual events that have been documented at the time.

‘… even those only vaguely fascist before the war to whisper that England should forge an alliance now, before Hitler finally crossed the Channel. How long before those murmurs became demands?’

Each chapter begins with a recipe of the time or WWII jokes that provide a different insight into the social and cultural attitudes of the day. This book really has it all with themes ranging from race and religion, to politics and prejudices; from clandestine plots and secret agent activities, to love and romance, all in perfect synchronicity. It highlights the daily life of the English dealing with wartime rationing, the shortage of luxuries and the fear of bombings. From the English countryside, to the streets of war torn London. Incredibly the reader then finds themselves in outback Australia with a whole other set of discriminating circumstances. The Whisperer’s War is highly entertaining historical fiction that I found very hard to put down.

‘There was no eternal safety, not for humans or for eagles, even now that her family was free of the world of whispers.‘






This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Jackie French, The Whisperer's War, Harlequin Australia, HQ (Fiction, Non Fiction, YA) & MIRA, March 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The Whisperer’s War begins with revelations that, while startling, are demonstrated to be a possible scenario as the supporting material at the end of the book suggests. What is even more important is the underlying philosophy that gives the claims gravitas. Jackie French is writing about more than World War 2 as it was experienced in Britian, and in less detail, in Australia. She bravely puts class, race, the environment, the causes of war and the secrets that are endemic, with cruelty a predominant feature as the foundation to that secrecy, at the forefront of her novel. At the same time, she introduces engaging characters, a storyline that goes beyond the allied victory, and a pleasing, but with complexities intact, resolution.

Lady Deanna of Claverton Castle is a spy, providing information about fascist sympathisers for British intelligence. She is also an inveterate farmer of potatoes, enmeshed in digging manure and doing her best to avoid becoming a recipient of child evacuees. When she cannot evade the three homeless, voiceless sisters who emerge as leftovers after the careful planning and housing of all the other children, Deanna takes them home. Thus, she begins a life coming to terms with the mystery of the girls’ identities and past, the secrecy that she must continue to assume, the mystery around an Australian pilot, Sam, whom they befriend, and the return of her cousin and his clandestine activities.

Alongside the endeavours of war, the eagles sail above Claverton castle, the undulating landscape provides pleasure, and Deanna reflects upon her dream that describes another landscape, one to which she is drawn as she is to Sam. The war scenes of Coventry and London, and those the girls experience are horribly realistic, the alternatives to war as a response making sympathetic reading. However, the realities of fascists’ peace plans are also openly questioned. Like their responses to experiences after the war ends, Deanna and the girls provide so much to consider. French cleverly does not allow these thoughts overtake her story.

Once again, Jackie French has combined a strong story line, engaging characters and absorbing ideas to create a work that intrigues and inspires, while being a great read.

This is an absorbing historical novel, which again showcases French’s deep understanding of both people and modern history. I loved it.

Deanna Claverton faces the same challenges as many British aristocrats: she has a lot of expectations placed on her, but not a lot of either money or personal freedom. The coming of World War II places her in a difficult position. She faces the same shortages and fears as others, but is somehow expected to set a good example for everyone.

Meanwhile, she’s quietly working as a spy, helping the government to keep an eye on Nazi and fascist sympathisers in the upper classes. As the war progresses, she finds herself with other problems: three orphaned girls who’ve landed on her doorstep, an Australian pilot she finds attractive but who unaccountably keeps his distance, ominous warnings from her employers in the Ministry, and the new Duke of Claverton, deemed missing in action.

French provides a vivid picture of Britain in wartime, from the very particular perspective of a woman who can’t fight directly, but who finds many ways to contribute to the war effort nevertheless. French highlights both the strengths – and occasional weaknesses – of those who were holding the home front. I really enjoyed the subtle but detailed picture of some of those challenges.

Deanna is a strong character. Perhaps she’s a little more advanced in her thoughts about social equality than most aristocrats actually were in the 1940s, but it feels right for her. She illustrates the growing independence of many women, and the multiple challenges she finds herself juggling also seem realistic. (Although most people would only have had to handle one or two, not quite the panoply of problems she faces.)

Other characters are strong and vivid; readers will empathise with their fears and rejoice in the small triumphs and joys many find even in war. You’ll quickly find yourself immersed in their lives and caring deeply about the outcomes.

One of the hallmarks, for me, of French’s historical fiction is the sense of hope. Often very dreadful things happen to her characters, but somehow her books always have a sense of hope at the end. Hope for the characters, the future, and for Australia. This is something I appreciate, and at times it leavens the very real historical horrors she depicts.

But here, I’ll admit, I felt a little cynical about it. Some of the hope comes from Australians’ belief that we’re an egalitarian, non-racist, society. And honestly, I don’t think that’s as true as we’d like to think.

But that is the most minor of quibbles about an otherwise excellent novel. This has it all: an absorbing plot, realistic historical details, strong characters, and prose that will draw you in.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys good stories.

A beautiful story set against the horror of WW2 as experienced by the English in 1940.

Lady Deanna Claverton has been recruited to spy on Nazi sympathizers as she attends dinners and parties with her social set. During the day she puts in hard labour on the home farm. Life becomes even more complicated when she takes in three young refugees who turn out to be more than they seem. Then there is her romance with a young Australian airman who also has secrets.

This turned out to be a fascinating story with some very likeable characters but I also enjoyed reading the many recipes from the war years and the WW2 jokes which had some very British humour to them! The book is set mostly in England but there is a strong Australian element to it as well. A good read and highly recommended.

Lady Deanna Claverton, formerly of Claverton Castle, now resided in Eagle's Rest, a nearby cottage she'd inherited after her grandfather, the Duke, had died. It was 1940 and Dee could often be found digging potatoes, shovelling manure, and watching the eagles soar through the sky, in search of another rabbit to feast on. When a train load of children arrived from London ready to be billetted on properties surrounding the village, and three extra children, sisters, had no billets or record, Dee took them in. She had the room after all. The children were frightened, trusted no one, except Dusty, Dee's old dog who had love to spare.

With a nearby airport housing pilots from other countries, as well as the British, all doing their bit for the war, meeting Australian Flight Lieutenant Sam Murray was a breath of fresh air for Dee and the sisters. Sam requested permission to fish in the nearby river and gradually, more time was spent in the company of this polite, genuine man. Dee's undercover job for "Uncle Jasper" meant not a word could be said, but when a plot - and Germans - arrived on Dee's doorstep, she had no choice but to pretend cooperation. There was danger, both to her and the girls, but also to England...

The Whisperer's War is another magnificent read by prolific Aussie author Jackie French which I absolutely adored. Wonderful characters, with Lady Deanna being the strongest, most courageous of them all; and Dusty. Such a character! He certainly was one in his own right. I always enjoy Jackie French's writing, and this one was no exception. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley & HQ Fiction AU for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Best-selling Australian author Jackie French written another captivating piece of novel.
I really loved and enjoyed reading this book with true facts that are meld into an amazing historical fiction.

Another best from Jackie French.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher Harlequin Australia, HQ for this wonderful ARC.

I seriously think I have just read by 2025 book of the year!

The Whisperer’s War by Jackie French was an absorbing story that hooked me from page one, constantly held my interest to the exclusion of all other unnecessary activities (such as cooking and cleaning) until it finally abandoned me on the very last page exhausted, emotional and devastated that the end had arrived

Compelling characters drove the story, intense descriptions sent the place, and the sense of sadness at how some people are capable of sinking to new lows of evil, at the same time that others rise to the height of kindness and compassion. I knew being set in WWII would mean there would be some unpleasantness. However, Jackie French has masterfully managed to portray the horror of the ongoing war against the subversive and traitorish political movement that could effect Great Britain, against the more peaceful existence in the countryside where life went on.

“…It was easier to mourn the cathedral than imagine the dead: women who spent their final seconds hunting for children still playing in the yard, to herd them into Anderson shelters so carefully dug in beneath the cabbage patches; the elderly, who almost made it down the road to the shelter before death swooped down on them; the deaf, reaching for a cup of tea, unaware of the hell unfolding around them; the hopeless, who sat back in their chairs and simply waited. Death would come from the sky one day. Why not tonight?..”

The MC is Lady Deanna who spends her days shovelling manure watched by her useless watchdog, Dusty, and her evenings attending dinner parties to gather intelligence from the many Nazi sympathisers among Britain's powerful upper classes to find out more about a plot to restore the Duke of Windsor to the throne of England and ensure an alliance with Hitler. Against this background Deanne takes in three evacuated orphan sisters, befriends an Australian pilot Sam Murray from the nearby Aerodrome. Her ‘lady who helps’ Mrs. Thripps along with her husband Arnold becomes part of the informal family as well.

Each chapter is started with a WWII joke, or quote from a poem, a WWII recipe or direction from the war office which enhances the time period.

A five-star read that left me unable to read another book for a day or so - almost unheard of for this addicted reader.

The Whisperers War almost felt like two books, with the first half focussed on espionage and the second half on relationships. It was set in rural England and later Australia which gave WW2 perspectives I haven't explored before.

Although it's fiction, it was written on the fringes of truth which led me to some 'post reading research', which I love doing!

Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Lady Deanna has been looking after her sick grandfather the current Duke of Claverton and when he passes away and she moves into nearby Eagles Rest and the castle is being used as a hospital. Dee’s busy growing vegetables, spends her days getting her hands dirty and shovelling manure and at night she attends dinner parties gathering information about German sympathisers hidden amongst the British aristocracy and passes it on to her contact.

Deanne takes in three orphans, Magda, Rosa and Anna, and they refuse to tell her their last name, and she meets Australian pilot Sam Murray and along with Dusty the dog and Mrs. Thripps and her husband Arnold and they form a family and when they needed one the most.

The new Duke of Claverton and Dee’s second cousin Donald returns from being missing in action in France and around the same time she gets caught up in a German plot to restore the Duke of Windsor to the throne of England and establish an alliance with Hitler, Dee goes along with the crazy idea and risks her life for the sake of her country.

I received a copy of The Whisperer's War by Jackie French from NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for an unbiased review. The narrative explores so many things, including how women couldn’t inherit titles, unbeknown to Dee the things her grandfather did to make sure she was looked after and prepared for the war, how hard she worked on the farm and enjoyed taking care of the three girls and people banded together, recycling and remaking her ancestors clothing, her relationship with Sam Murray, why she felt he was keeping something from her?

I really liked how Jackie French weaved the story around things such as duty and expectations, and how Lady Deanna felt about where she lived, the land, animals and links to the golden eagle, the facts about the hardships of the war and sharing recipes from England and Australia throughout the book. A well written historical saga and it includes espionage and double agents, secrets and adventure, Lady Dee wasn't a snob and I loved her character and five stars from me.

Another wonderful read by Jackie French.
Lady Deanna Claverton, grand daughter of the Duke of Claverton is not what you would expect from a Lady. She is so much more!
When her grandfather dies and the new Duke is yet to take over Claverton Castle Lady Dee is gifted Eagle’s Rest, a cottage on the grounds of the estate. Her beloved grandfather has made sure Lady Dee would be looked after. There is even a secret cave and hidden larder within the Cottage.
WWII is looming and although Claverton is a long way from London the tentacles of war stretch to the village when young refugees and orphans are sent to be looked after in the country. Lady Dee takes charge of three orphans who soon become her family.
There is a magnificent cast of characters from Mrs Thripps, the housekeeper; Sam, an Australian lieutenant who works at the nearby airfield and who becomes a part of the Eagles Nest household; Uncle Jasper, who seeks out Lady Dee as a clandestine spy and the former King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson make an appearance.
This is a story in 2 parts - life during the war and how Lady Dee copes with a new family, spies and mysteries and life after the war which becomes a romance story.
Family, loyalty, love, the class system, racism are all dealt with in an engaging well researched book..
Jackie French certainly has a way of weaving history into an unforgettable story.
I loved how each chapter began with a recipe (useful in war time rationing) WWII jokes and anecdotes.

Having read many of Jackie’s children’s books, I only recently discovered that she did ones for grown-ups too and have been eagerly working my way through them. The Whisperer’s War is a different sort of WWII novel. The first half is jam packed with action and spies, the second a more slower romance novel. Complete with Fraser’s trademark engaging characters, beautiful research and setting and interesting stories, I found it hard to put down! I enjoyed the recipes for using up your rations, tips on how to make your shoes last, the beautiful village and estate (complete with secret caves for your rations) and many the many eagles that were dotted throughout the novel.

I admit I was a bit worried when all the excitement seems to wrap up half way through. But the second half whilst a bit slower in pace was definitely still engaging. I enjoyed the way Jackie explored how different classes and races were treated at the time. I liked how she gave a few hints to want was coming and I certainly did pick how it all played out but it’s hard to say much more without giving spoilers. I definitely recommend you take the time to meet Lady Dee and her found family.