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Title details for The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson - Available

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

A Novel

by Helen Simonson
ebook
2 of 3 copies available
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2 of 3 copies available
A young woman's life is forever changed in the summer after World War I when she befriends a group of independent, motorcycle-riding women in a seaside town on the English coast—a captivating novel from the bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
"You may find you've fallen head over heels for Ms. Simonson's funny, barbed, delightfully winsome storytelling" —The New York Times

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped to run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or (horror) a governess, she's sent as a lady's companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance finds herself swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies' motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy's recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked. 
With sharp humor, biting wit, and a warm heart, Simonson captures the mood of a generation facing the seismic changes brought on by war. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is a timeless comedy of manners, refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 7, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780385693783

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780385693783
      • File size: 1891 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 18, 2024
      Simonson (The Summer Before the War) delivers a thoughtful and witty tale of British men and women adjusting to a new normal after WWI. Spunky and observant Constance Haverhill worked as an estate manager during the war. Now, she’s reduced to serving temporarily as a lady’s companion for Mrs. Fog, who is recuperating from influenza in a hotel in the seaside resort town of Hazelbourne. Here, Constance meets free-spirited spendthrift Poppy Wirrall and her attractive and morose brother, Harris, who lost his leg while flying a plane in the war. Constance, timid at first, gets involved with Poppy’s effort to provide local woman with jobs as motorcycle drivers for sidecar-riding passengers. Constance even tries her hand at flying Harris’s Sopworth Camel biplane, which Poppy bought to jolt him out of his rut. While Constance’s bumpy romantic adventures with Harris form the spine of the book, Simonson neatly interweaves multiple plotlines involving the chauvinistic and condescending local gentry, the travails of a German waiter scorned because of his nationality, and the bad behavior of visiting Americans. Readers are in for a treat. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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