Poor Girls
By (Author) Clare Whitfield
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book
4th March 2025
7th November 2024
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Narrative theme: Coming of age
Historical fiction
Narrative theme: Social issues
Feminism and feminist theory
First World War fiction
Hardback
416
Width 148mm, Height 229mm
We were never destined to have anything so you know what we did We took it anyway. 1922. 20-year-old Eleanor Mackridge is horrified by the future mapped out for her to serve the upper classes or find a man to marry (preferably kind). She proved useful working in a munitions factory during the war handling explosives but now, society is returning to normal and women are being put back in their place. But Eleanor has never paid attention to what society expects of her. When she crosses paths with a member of the notorious female-led gang the Forty Elephants, she is in awe of these bold women who wear diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin, who take what they want without asking. Now, she sees a new future for herself: she can serve, marry or steal. After all, men will only let you down. Diamonds are forever. In Poor Girls, Clare Whitfield exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London but this isn't a morality tale, it's an adventure for the willingly wicked.
Clare Whitfield was born in 1978 in Morden (at the bottom of the Northern line) in Greater London. After university she worked at a publishing company before going on to hold various positions in buying and marketing. She now lives in Hampshire with her family. Her debut novel, People of Abandoned Character, won the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and is also published by Head of Zeus.