Dear Mrs Bird

　　Emmeline 帶著手提包、防毒面具還有一顆準備晚餐要煮的洋蔥坐公車回家。她夢想成為戰地通訊員，或是揭穿政治陰謀的記者，因此當她在《倫敦晚報》發現兼職工作的廣告時，她覺得夢想就要成真了。

　　大錯特錯！原來這份工作只不過是專欄打字員而已。

　　這是 1940 年、不時遭受德國納粹空軍轟炸的倫敦。Emmeline 主要工作內容是為女性雜誌的讀者專欄回覆打字，而 Mrs. Bird 會親自挑選哪些讀者投書值得她的專欄「Henrietta Helps」回覆。

　　Mrs. Bird 對主題設下嚴格限制，她認為任何不愉快的內容都應該直接丟進垃圾桶，而非出現在專欄中。但這麼一來，Emmeline 發現自己忽視了失戀者、悲傷以及與道德有關的問題，而這些絕望的女性無法承受毫無回應一事。戰爭當前，Emmeline 決定悄悄向這些不快樂的女性讀者送出回應……。（文 / 博客來編譯）

　　London, 1940. Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty are trying to stay cheerful despite the Luftwaffe making life thoroughly annoying for everyone. Emmy dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent and when she spots a job advertisement in the newspaper she seizes her chance – but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt of Woman’s Friend magazine.

　　Mrs Bird is very clear: letters containing any form of Unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. Emmy finds herself dismissing problems from lovelorn, grief-stricken and morally conflicted readers in favour of those who fear their ankles are unsightly or have trouble untangling lengths of wool. But soon the thought of desperate women going unanswered becomes too much to bear and Emmy decides the only thing for it is to secretly write back . . .

　　Irresistibly funny and enormously moving, Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce is a love letter to female friendship, Blitz spirit, the kindness of strangers and the art of letter-writing itself.