Book Review – The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

I didn’t warm to this book at first, but as I’ve found in the past, it’s worth persevering sometimes. I had a bit of difficulty with the characters because at the beginning, the author kept jumping from one place to another, one character to another. However, once I’d sorted that out, I realized what she was trying to achieve, i.e. the importance of news reporting during the wartime.

A female American news reporter travels to London and later through Europe and reports back to her American audience as to the full horror of what was going on in Europe during World War II. She carried with her a ‘portable’ talking machine (not actually invented till a few years later)and recorded what people were saying, on trains, in the underground stations etc.

A young American doctor, newly married, hears one of the reports and decides to go to London to share his skills. Before he leaves, he gives a letter to the local postmistress and asks her to give it to his wife, should he not return.

There is a lot of poignancy in this book. In places it is hard to read but overall it is an unusual take on the events which ordinary people get caught up in during the last world war.

I recommend it.