From the author of the international bestseller Dear Mrs. Bird, this charming conclusion to a delightful quartet of novels set in London during World War II is “the best possible antidote for the blahs, the doldrums, all slumps, but also effective against letdowns and general malaise” (Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry).

London, July 1944. Editor Emmy Lake’s career is soaring: Woman’s Friend magazine is a huge success, and the Ministry of Information is delighted with her features on war work and the magazine’s support for maintaining women’s morale. On the personal front, Emmy’s husband Charles has been posted back to the UK, and her good friends Bunty and Harold are engaged. They all know how lucky they are.

But life in Britain is far from easy. After nearly five years of war, the nation is exhausted. No one has escaped loss, deprivation, loneliness, and fear. The “Yours Cheerfully” advice column receives more letters than ever, and even though there are high hopes for the war to finally be over by Christmas, the situation in Europe is brutal. And at home there is a new threat: London has been under attack from a new type of German bomb.

Bunty and Emmy decide to move to Mrs. Tavistock’s large country house in Hampshire for the summer holidays and the whole team comes along to run the magazine from there. But soon their happy reprieve is interrupted by war and Emmy will find herself in her greatest battle yet. Endearing, engaging, and full of heart, Dear Miss Lake is an entrancing novel depicting the saving power of friendship when all seems lost—a refreshing source of comfort for today’s times.

AJ Pearce grew up in Hampshire, England. She studied at the University of Sussex and Northwestern University. A chance discovery of a 1939 women’s magazine became the inspiration for her series The Emmy Lake Chronicles, which includes Dear Mrs. Bird, Yours Cheerfully, and Mrs. Porter Calling. She lives in the south of England.