Being an Air Raid Warden is not a particularly glamorous way to spend the war, patrolling the streets at night and nagging people about the blackout, especially in a remote English village that hasn’t thought twice about an air raid since the start of our war against Nazi Germany.

Other girls may have more exciting war-time jobs: driving high ranking officers in and out of the Admiralty in London, or training to be a Special Ops Executive, but I love the quiet hours of my patrol. It gives me a chance to dream up interesting characters and plot lines for the novel I have always wanted to write.

But quiet nights are a thing of the past since the American Air Force flew into the new airfield that was built for them on my grandfather’s farmland. Apart from the unbelievable noise their bomber and fighter planes make when they take off every evening, the gender balance in our village has tipped four to one, and Little Buffenden’s High Street is thronged with young men in uniform!

Not everyone in the village is particularly keen on what the newspapers call the Friendly Invasion, especially the older generation led by our opinionated village postmistress, but my girlfriends are the happiest they have been in three years. I don’t think one of them have spent a single night at home, darning socks, since the Yanks arrived. You have to understand how irresistible a flyboy, who sounds like an American movie star, can be to a girl who has only ever been as far as our county town of Wickam. And no one will deny that the Yanks are incredibly generous: they share their ‘candy’ bars and chewing gum with the village school children and call anyone over thirty ma’am, and offer to carry their shopping bags.

Our war years will leave an indelible mark on our lives. There are boys we grew up with who we will never see again, and we worry endlessly about Little Buffenden’s fathers, sons and brothers fighting in parts of the world we had never heard of before the war. But worrying about our men isn’t the only thing that drags us down. Long days of working in the local munitions factory until you can hardly feel your feet is a drab life when you are only eighteen. Not to mention stretching clothing coupons until everything you wear looks tatty and threadbare—I won’t go into the hardships of food, coal and petrol rationing, but, as I said, life has been pretty grim. So, you can imagine that most of us were ecstatic when those huge American bombers touched down for the first time on the edge of the village. Who wouldn’t want to date an American when he takes you out every night dancing and teaches you how to jitterbug?

Of course, there are a few old grumps who think that the way our girls carry on every night is nothing sort of shocking. Where will it end? they ask, as they queue up for their ration of gristly mutton at the village butchers. When the war is over and these boys buzz off home to America leaving half our girls in the family way, what will happen then?

It just goes to show what the power of collective thought can bring about. Because something horrible has happened, something so awful that I honestly don’t think our village will ever be the same again. And just like that, the gratitude and excitement we felt that the Yanks were here to help us win the war has gone. Nearly everyone had stepped back with tight mouths and folded arms, and I realize that one of the worst things about life in a remote English village is how narrow-minded and judgmental people can be—especially when they are planning murder.

You can read more about Poppy in Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, the first book in the NEW “Woman of WWII” historical cozy mystery series, released November 5, 2019.

Charming and feisty Poppy Redfern stumbles into murder in this exciting new World War II historical mystery series from critically acclaimed author Tessa Arlen. . .

Summer 1942. The world has been at war for three long and desperate years. In the remote English village of Little Buffenden, Poppy Redfern’s family house and farmland has been requisitioned by the War Office as a new airfield for the American Air Force. As the village’s Air Raid Warden, Poppy spends her nights patrolling the village as she tries to ease her neighbors’ fears about the “Friendly Invasion” and what it means to their quiet way of life.

When two young, popular women who were dating American servicemen are found strangled, Poppy quickly realizes that her little town has been divided by murder. The mistrust and suspicion of their new American partners in war threatens to tear Little Buffenden apart. Poppy decides to start her own investigation with the help of a charismatic American pilot and she soon unearths some chilling secrets and long-held grudges. Poppy will have no choice but to lay a trap for a killer so perilously close to home, she might very well become the next victim. . .

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About the author
Tessa Arlen is the author of Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, the first volume in A Woman of WWII mystery series, and the Edwardian Lady Montfort mystery series. Her pleasures in life are simple: cooking and enjoying good food with family and friends, long walks with short-legged dogs and planning her next garden project.

To learn more about Tessa, visit her website at tessaarlen.com.

All comments are welcomed.