Women’s Timber Corps provides inspiration for Rushden author's new book

It comes out on February 8

A Rushden author who has had four books published since 2020 is set to see a fifth go on sale next month.

M W Arnold, known to his friends and family as Mick, wrote the Broken Wings series, set around the Air Transport Auxiliary service during the Second World War.

‘The Lumberjills’, which is released on February 8, is set around a branch of the Women’s Land Army that worked in Britain’s forests during the Second World War.

Mick said: “In this, the first in a new series, I hope to introduce the reader to a group of women whose work was so vital to our war effort, yet still, if not forgotten, relatively unknown. These women faced death, maiming and injury, every working day, and I shall not shirk from making this danger a part of their stories.

“Having said this, and these are a big part of historical sagas, there are love stories to be told and having served in the Royal Air Force for 16 years, I’ll also be taking the opportunity to show how members of this, as well as the other two services, integrated into civilian life.

“The RAF takes centre stage in this first book. However, love can never run smoothly in wartime, can it? More than most civilian workers, the Lumberjills moved around a lot, often having lived in dozens of billets during the war, so we’ll also be seeing how relationships were affected by this.”

The book is based around the character Berry Chambers and her co-workers, who have joined the Women’s Timber Corps, known as the Lumberjills, to do their bit for Britain. On their first day felling trees, they rescue an RAF pilot and become entangled in the loveless marriage of their new landlords.

Danger is never far away, be it an ill-timed axe swing or the occasional activity of the Luftwaffe overhead. Add a psychotic farm cat, a couple of young runaway evacuees, a spate of malicious packages and the jealousy of the Land Girls next door, and life for Berry and her friends is never boring.

Mick’s books are available to purchase on Amazon.