The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

By: Helen Simonson

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Helen Simonson

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or – horror – a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother – a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle – who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

©2024 Helen Simonson. First Published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in. (P)2024 Penguin Random House LLC

Critic reviews

'The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club captures the ambitions, frustrations and inevitable tragedies of women and men emerging from the Great War. Written with great humour and compassion, it is an absolute delight.' (Pip Williams, bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words)

'The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is an absolute joy of a book. Warm, and romantic, it also has so much to say about the lives of women in the years following WWI. This is historical fiction of the highest order – pleasurable and smart.' (Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful)

'Beautifully written and brimming with charm, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is both a fizzy escape and a moving portrait of a nation on the cusp of change.' (Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train)

'Whether racing on two wheels, soaring through the skies, or nursing the deepest of wounds, I was rooting for these resilient characters from the start.' (Carol Rifka Brunt, bestselling author of Tell the Wolves I’m Home)