Osla Kendall is a Canadian socialite, and when WW2 breaks out, she wants to help with the war effort. Her boyfriend Prince Philip of Greece (yes, that Prince Philip) is in the British navy. Though he was born in Greece (on a kitchen table on Corfu as legend would have it), Philip was raised in exile, in Britain. As Osla speaks German, she is recruited to work at Bletchley Park. This is where she meets Mabel ‘Mab’ Churt, a young working-class woman from Shoreditch in London. Mab lives with her mother and her ‘sister’ Lucy (who is in fact her daughter).
Mab and Osla are billeted with the Finch family, where they meet Bethan ’Beth’, the adult daughter of the Finches. Mother Finch likes to meddle in everything and most specifically in Beth’s life. When Mab and Osla go to their book club one evening, they bring Beth along with them. They learn that Beth can solve just about any crossword puzzle in a couple of minutes. Shortly thereafter Beth is also hired as a code breaker at Bletchley Park.
Mab meets and marries the WW1 veteran and well known poet Francis Gray, who dies in the bombing of Coventry because he’s trying to save Lucy’s life.
This causes an estrangement between Mab and Osla because Mab blames Osla for letting go of Lucy’s hand. And when Mab learns that Beth broke the code that said Coventry would be attacked, she cuts Beth out of her life as well.
1947: Britain prepares for the Royal Wedding of the Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten (he’s no longer a prince of Greece now). Osla is now engaged to their former boss Giles Talbot, Mab is married to an Australian Mike Sharpe and has 2 children, and Beth is in a mental asylum… when Osla hears that Beth has been committed to a psychiatric institution, she contacts Mab for the first time in years.
This book is incredible! Loved the link to the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in this book. There’s the glamour of the Royal wedding, Osla being a socialite and the secrecy of the work these women did at Bletchley Park. The intrigue and the espionage!
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 41: A book with a character named Jack or Lucy
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
