I am hugely indebted to the late Joan Ketteman, who shared with me her early memories as a child in the factory where her mother worked. While the women, children, and factory in Yours Cheerfully are all entirely fictional, Joan was the inspiration for the storyline and set me on my way to writing about working mothers during the war. I do hope she would be pleased with how Anne and her friends take on Mr. Terry in this novel.
I would also like to thank Beryl Uren, Olive Newland, and Jean Williams for answering my questions and bringing to life the experiences of girls and young women during the war. Thank you, Beryl, for letting me take over your sitting room! If I have managed to give the young women in this story spirit, it is because of women like you, Olive, Jean, and Joan.
While researching this novel, wartime women’s and news magazines have been invaluable, together with contemporaneous books: Women in War Factories (1943) by Amabel Williams-Ellis, What of the Women: A Study of Women in Wartime (1941) by Elaine Burton, British Women at War (1941) by M. D. Cox, and They Made Invasion Possible (1944) by Peggy Scott are all fascinating if you can track them down. I also treasure a copy of Workshop Sense: A Book Written for Munitions Workers and Other Entrants into Productive Industry (1941) by W. A. J. Chapman. On the opening page it has a hand drawn pencil sketch of what looks like a piece of machinery, and I often wonder who this little book belonged to.
I highly recommend War’s Forgotten Women (2011) by Maureen Shaw and Helen D. Millgate, which opened my eyes to the reality faced by thousands of war widows, and Women Workers in the Second World War: Production and Patriarchy in Conflict (1984) by Penny Summerfield, which was hugely helpful in terms of understanding the hurdles women faced and their battles in tackling them.
Thank you to Edward Flint at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for his generous time and advice about the Royal Artillery, and for discussing Charles Mayhew’s career as if he was a real person. Special thanks to Major General Karl Ford for introducing me, despite my track record in asking him ridiculous questions!
If there are any errors in this book, it goes without saying they are entirely mine.
Thank you to my agent Jo Unwin, who is quite simply wonderful and without whom I would be hopeless. Thank you to Milly Reilly and Donna Greaves for all your support. JULA really is a dream agency.
Thank you to everyone at Picador and Pan Macmillan, especially Jeremy Trevathan and Philip Gwyn Jones, Katie Bowden and all in marketing, Emma Bravo, Katie Tooke, Becky Lloyd, Nicholas Blake, and everyone in the UK sales team. Very special thanks to my editor Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly for her enormous patience and support, and to Camilla Elworthy for being the legend everyone said she was and the best fun on literary road trips even when I do drop sandwich all over the rental car.
Thank you to Francesca Main who gave Emmy, Bunty, Mr. Collins, and me our chance in the first place, and who set this book on its journey and told me it would work!
Thank you to Deborah Schneider of Gelfman Schneider, the coolest, calmest person in stormy weather, and to Nan Graham and everyone at Scribner, especially Ashley Gilliam, Abigail Novak, Jason Chappell, and Jaya Miceli. Very special thanks to my editor Kara Watson for her support, clarity, and tireless championing of Emmy and Bunty from the very start.
Thank you to Jake Smith-Bosanquet, Alexander Cochran, Kate Burton, Matilda Ayris, and everyone at C&W for sending my characters on so many travels around the world. I would also like to thank all my international publishers and, in particular, the incredible translators who wrestle my words into other languages. How you manage with all the 1940s phrases will always amaze me.
The most enormous thank you to all the booksellers, librarians, book bloggers, and reviewers who have cheered on, supported, and spread the word about Emmy and Bunts. I know you all have an absolutely bonkers number of books to support and I can’t thank you enough for everything you do.
Massive thanks and love to my family as ever—and thank goodness for Skype! One day when quarantines end, we will all be together again and then we will talk and laugh until our sides ache.
Thank you to all my friends. As it says at the very start of this book—this one is for you. Special thanks to Katie Fforde, Jo Thomas, and Penny Parkes for being the most supportive writerly friends ever! And to Gail Cheetham, Rachel Fieldwick, Mary Ford, Brin Greenman, Nicki Pettitt, Sue Thearle, and Janice Withey for when the road got a little bumpy for a time.
Finally, my huge thanks to the readers, especially for your kind words through tweets, posts, letters, and emails. I know sequels are always a bit of a risk, so thank you for coming with me on this new adventure. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it.