Dear Mrs Bird

Brit Lit podcast with guest AJ Pearce, the author of Dear Mrs. Bird , a lovely novel about female friendship set in World War II’s London. Emmy is determined to be a Lady War Correspondent, but instead finds herself working for the redoubtable Mrs Bird at the problem page of a Women’s Magazine. AJ spoke to me about how she put herself in the shoes of women who lived during the blitz, the challenges of using real events in her fiction, and her own favourite World War II novels.

Seven publishers were in a bidding war to secure AJ Pearce’s debut novel Dear Mrs Bird. The author comes in to talk about the book in which a young woman dreams of becoming a lady war correspondent during the Blitz but instead is employed as the assistant to a formidable agony aunt at a failing women’s magazine. Interview starts at 18 mins.

Woman’s Own was one of the most popular post-war women’s magazines in Britain. Once the food rationing of the war years ended, the magazine began pedalling a slimming mantra. By the mid-1960s, it had elevated dieting to centre stage of its weekly beauty advice. Many of today’s weight-loss diets bear striking similarities with those of the 50s and 60s.

Writer and audio producer Jessica Weisberg talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about her new book, “Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed.” Starting in 1690s London, Weisberg examines how advice became a cultural force in America, and how professional advice-givers presaged the internet by creating the first platform for people to ask difficult questions anonymously.