Jackie French, Secret Sparrow, Angus & Robertson, November 2023, 256 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460760468
Burrangong, 1978: young Arjun is rescued from a surging river in flood by a motorbike rider. They ride to higher ground, where the rider is revealed to be Mrs Jean McLain, who was ‘old, far older than Arjun had realised’. They are stranded on an isolated lookout, and as they wait for rescue, Jean recounts her time as a signaller in France during the First World War.
Butterwood, April 1917: Jean works at the local post office. When she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army asks her to become a signaller in France. She is sixteen years old, told to say she is twenty-one.
Rouen, June 1917: Jean is part of a team of women working ten or twelve-hour shifts, receiving and sending messages for the army; messages that could mean life or death to hundreds of soldiers on the front. She’s told the ground rules: ‘No breaks to go to the loo, so don’t have a cuppa before you start, even to help keep you awake. Wet your pants if you have to, but don’t leave your post. If we’re bombed, don’t leave your post till you’re told to. If the Kaiser or Santa Clause or the king walks through the door, don’t leave your post’.
Jean is sent to the trenches at the front and involved in the disastrous Battle of Cambrai. The horror of the trenches is described unflinchingly. You can almost hear the constant sound of gunfire, men screaming and crying and the unavoidable stink of death. French does not mince her words when it comes to the ineptitude of the British Army command, and is particularly scathing of Winston Churchill’s decision to purchase faulty ammunition which resulted in significant loss of life.
It is shocking to learn that the British Government ordered the destruction of women workers’ records; partly to cover up their reliance on ‘woman’s’ work’ but more shockingly, so they didn’t have to pay them a war pension or contribute to their ongoing medical costs.
The book has a cracking pace, and had me on the edge of my seat. The harrowing conditions experienced by ordinary men and women is evocatively described. The senseless loss of life is palpable. Most readers will be incensed by the bungles perpetrated by those in command, bungles that cost so many lives.
There are so many fabulous books written for younger readers about both World Wars, but Secret Sparrow tells a story about the women at the front line – a story not often told.
The intended audience is readers aged 12 years and over, but I found it captivating, so recommend it for adult readers too!
Reviewed by Gaby Meares
Read Trish Buckley’s review here.
