Book Review
Mar. 21st, 2026 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
by Helen Simonson
This quiet, lovely novel takes place during the summer of 1919. Constance Haverhill is spending the summer in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, acting as a companion to Mrs. Fog, who is the mother of Lady Mercer, a friend of Constance's late mother. Constance meets Poppy Wirrall, daughter of a local baronet and head of a motorcycling club for women and runs a women's motorcycle taxi service. Constance and Poppy become friends, and Constance is drawn into her circle, and to her brother Harris, a wounded war veteran. Constance, Poppy, and the other members of the club must contend with a return to peacetime that also threatens their new freedoms and prospects.
I really enjoyed this novel. It's mainly driven by the characters and their relationships rather than by a big, sweeping plot. Constance is such a wonderfully sympathetic character. I really related to her desire for independence and with the way she chafed against being considered useful and instead wanted to be considered attractive and desirable. All the other characters are interesting and well-drawn. I especially liked Mrs. Fog, who makes her own bid for the life she really wants, and Tilly, a librarian turned mechanic. The way Simonson explores how women negotiated the way the war shook up the hierarchies of class and gender is very deft yet pointed. Her points about how the toffs treat the working classes were sharp.
by Helen Simonson
This quiet, lovely novel takes place during the summer of 1919. Constance Haverhill is spending the summer in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, acting as a companion to Mrs. Fog, who is the mother of Lady Mercer, a friend of Constance's late mother. Constance meets Poppy Wirrall, daughter of a local baronet and head of a motorcycling club for women and runs a women's motorcycle taxi service. Constance and Poppy become friends, and Constance is drawn into her circle, and to her brother Harris, a wounded war veteran. Constance, Poppy, and the other members of the club must contend with a return to peacetime that also threatens their new freedoms and prospects.
I really enjoyed this novel. It's mainly driven by the characters and their relationships rather than by a big, sweeping plot. Constance is such a wonderfully sympathetic character. I really related to her desire for independence and with the way she chafed against being considered useful and instead wanted to be considered attractive and desirable. All the other characters are interesting and well-drawn. I especially liked Mrs. Fog, who makes her own bid for the life she really wants, and Tilly, a librarian turned mechanic. The way Simonson explores how women negotiated the way the war shook up the hierarchies of class and gender is very deft yet pointed. Her points about how the toffs treat the working classes were sharp.
