Steel Girls in the Blitz

Michelle Rawlins

AS war rages and bombs start to fall on Sheffield in the autumn of 1940, the brave women who are helping to keep the wheels turning at the vital Vickers steelwork factory must rally together in the face of danger, heartbreak and unbearable loss.

Inspired by her research into the real-life stories of the women who worked in the factories that lined the River Don during the Second World War, Michelle Rawlins (pictured below) sweeps us back into the trials, triumphs and tragedies of a group of plucky Vickers friends.

Working relentless and exhaustingly long shifts in windowless factories amidst deafening noise and dangerous conditions was a huge culture shock for many of these women who had walked through factory doors for the first time.

Steel Girls in the Blitz is the fifth book in this much-loved series and once again highlights the hardships, strength and resilience of the Vickers workers as they took on risky jobs like driving cranes or toiling in the red-hot conditions of the foundries, and made sacrifices day in and day out.

And as we meet up again with the now familiar group of crane drivers, we discover that the Luftwaffe’s Blitz is about to reach Sheffield. Despite the obvious perils that surround them, Hattie’s fiancé John has told her to get a marriage licence for their wedding at a local church as he is due weekend leave from his mortar-bomb training at Salisbury Plain.

But another war is brewing for Hattie at home...  a battle between her mother and her dad over his drunken episodes. Vinnie spends every penny that Hattie and her mum earn and Hattie is desperate to help her mother in any way she can. With a sea of domestic woes mounting up, she is going to need the help of her Vickers factory friends.

Meanwhile Betty – always the first to help anyone in need – is overjoyed to learn that her fiancé William will be coming home to complete his training as an RAF pilot but when the bombs start to fall, she fears he may be in greater danger than ever.

And young Patty, who has been forced to grow up by witnessing the atrocities of war, has never been prouder of her sweetheart Archie than in his role as an Air Raid Warden. But having seen the true cost of war, is Archie struggling more than Patty could ever imagine? As the bombs rain down on Sheffield, and with heartbreak on the horizon, can the steel girls find shelter in each other and hold on to the hope that they so desperately need?

Brimming with the emotional intensity and ever-present dangers, fears and uncertainties of wartime, this new chapter for the gutsy Steel Girls in the Blitz delivers all the nostalgia, drama, warmth and sense of family, friendship and community that makes Rawlins’ sagas such a reading delight.

Based on the author’s mantra that ‘it’s always the most ordinary people who have the most extraordinary stories,’ this is an impeccably researched and richly evocative series filled with good old Yorkshire humour, the awe-inspiring courage of the Sheffield factory women, and provides a window on to what it was like to live, love and work through the long, hard years of wartime.
(HQ, paperback, £8.99)